CA: Now from the Commissar of Energy... (Tom McClintock on Orwellian thermostats)

Citizens for the California Republic ^ | 01-15-2008 | Tom McClintock

[calcowgirl]

I admit that I didn’t believe the first reports that the California Energy Commission is seriously considering a law to require homeowners to install a thermostat that can be adjusted by government bureaucrats. It seemed like “black helicopter” hysterics to suggest our government has become so intrusive that it would seek to monitor and control minute decisions like what temperature we set for our own homes.

But seeing is believing. The proposed regulations can be found beginning on page 63 at this link [PDF FILE].

The rationale for this brave new world is that government can promote energy conservation and avert blackouts by electronically entering our homes and adjusting our thermostats for us. But wasn’t that the purpose of Orwell’s vision of Big Brother: to “help” individuals lead “better” and more “secure” lives?

And why stop there? Shouldn’t government promote additional conservation by requiring microchips that will disable our major appliances when it suits officials? Shouldn’t it adjust the water flow and temperature of those miscreants who take showers that are too long or too warm? Shouldn’t it disable bank cards after too many junk food purchases to reduce obesity? And imagine all the lung cancer it could prevent by sniffing for smoke in our homes, or all the crime it could prevent by peeking through cameras in our living rooms. All are well within the reach of current technology – and, judging from the Energy Commission’s agenda, well within the appetite of California’s leftist officials.

In response to initial public outrage, a spokesperson for the Energy Commission assured a reporter that the proposal would probably be modified to allow homeowners to manually override the government thermostat setting. Then why mandate the device at all? Why not allow homeowners to decide for themselves whether their thermostats contain a government microchip and whether they wish to invite officials to control it? The answer should be obvious: the bureaucrats are trying to accomplish in two steps what politically they can’t do in one.

If there is any doubt that this has little to do with electricity and much to do with raw power of quite a different kind, consider this: according to the Energy Commission’s own figures, Californians already rank dead last among the 50 states in our per capita consumption of electricity. Indeed, the average Californian uses about half the electricity as the average American, and less than consumers in Luxembourg, Guam, the Cayman Islands and Aruba. How many more kilowatts do they expect to squeeze from California consumers?

The great and tragic irony is that a generation ago, electricity in California was clean, cheap and abundant. It was an era of hydro-electric dams and nuclear power plants that today are generating electricity for between ½-cent and 3-cents per kilowatt hour, and there was serious discussion about doing away with home electricity meters completely. After all, at 3-cents per kilowatt hour, the average household electricity bill should come to about $18 per month.

But then the California Energy Commission was created in 1974 and it began systematically obstructing the construction of new power plants. And having imposed an artificial electricity shortage by its own overbearing regulations, it now seeks to ration what’s left by setting your thermostat for you.

What can Californians do about it? The Commission will consider these regulations on January 30th. All five members of the energy commission are gubernatorial appointees, and four of the five were appointed by Arnold Schwarzenegger. They need to be flooded with protests and placed on notice that this is one vote that they can’t cast in obscurity. And the governor needs to know that voters will hold him accountable for the decisions made by his own appointees.

Click here to visit our CFCR Action Center to direct your protests both to the governor and his appointees.

We will watch the vote and report to you HOW the governor’s appointees voted.

[KingNo155]

put a bag of ice over the thermostat

[bill1952]

That the one. I used them a bit in my hunting cabin.
Very nice item.

There are millions of homes heated by propane; most of them converted from oil for one reason or another.

[JamesP81]

In Eastern California we have a 14,000 foot mountain range (the Sierra, highest mountains in U.S. outside Alaska) blocking ocean breezes, so it gets darn hot here - 105 is normal in July and in nearby Death Valley it hits well over 120 degrees each July.

Granted, it gets very hot inland, but I was under the impression that the majority of the population was on the coast where the temps were more moderate. Might explain the lower average electricity usage.

[SoldierDad]

That’s too funny.