Both are supposed to save energy. My experience, having installed the hazardous waste-laden CFLs in my home, is that they fail much more quickly than the incandescent bulbs that the greenies in our government have banned. Instead of simply tossing a burned out bulb in the trash—something that was a relatively rare occurrence—I now must transport a burned-out CFL to a suitable disposal site.
I have two burned out bulbs that I've left in place to say nothing of the three others that I've replaced and taken to a suitable resting place. Some outfit is making plenty of money and the people are getting hung out to pay.
Such seems to be the green world.
Just wait until we get to Gov. Jerry's 30-plus percent renewal power—no matter what the price. What will that do to what tiny energy-intensive manufacturing base this state has?
And, of course, given the challenges with water in this state, more water utilities are embracing reverse osmosis treatments or considering desalinization plants to deal with salty sea water or brackish Delta waters to expand reliable water supplies.
All require the energy-intensive treatments to clean the water and the costs of the electricity will simply be passed along to ratepayers as a necessary cost of doing business.
If the state had a rational energy policy that included an economic analysis —instead of dreaming that humans can change weather—it would help California regain its economic edge. The innovation growing out of Silicon Valley is awesome—if you have the skills and/or money to play. If you don't, good luck.
Now help me understand the rationale for the ever-earlier daylight savings time. Once upon a time, it was mid-April. Now it's mid-March.
Just about the time that there was daylight appearing at 06:30, the policy czars advance it an hour so it's really dark when it's time to get up. It feels much more comfortable to simply roll over.
So what is driving this other than over-the-top green philosophy? When we wrote about this more than 25 years ago, it was corporations that benefit from daylight after work—BBQ and briquette manufacturers, outdoor furniture, etc.—that were the big backers.
Given the normal temps in mid-March (how did you enjoy the Saturday winds from the north?), the chances of outdoor cooking or dining—with traditional charcoal barbeques—are whistling in the mid-March winds. There's a reason that my normal spring sports attire included a down ski parka when I was covering a track meet.
This year, January and February, have been an exception. I've enjoyed some patio time relaxing looking at the brown (not the normal green hills) in balmy conditions.
The highlight was a couple of weeks ago when I joined guys from my church to golf in shorts and shirt-sleeves in Santa Cruz on March 9. The weather since has returned to whatever passes for normal.
