Forced to do Our Part

Today, President Obama will begin the full court press to sell his new plan to convert the American economy from one built upon affordable energy production to one that will be shackled by higher costs and the whims of Mother Nature.  Of course, he won't be promoting his new environmental restrictions like that.  Instead, it will be about "saving the planet from certain doom"--in a hope that fear will overcome logic in the debate over how we should heat our homes and power our factories.

In a nutshell, President Obama wants to move us away from the vast reserves of coal and natural gas that we enjoy here in the US to build an entirely new infrastructure based upon wind and solar energy.  He will do that by placing much tougher restrictions on each individual state as to how much carbon dioxide they can release into the atmosphere.  The hope is to make coal and natural gas-fired power plants artificially more expensive to operate than a wind farm or solar arrays.

The theoretical economists who advise President Obama believe that utilities forced to develop the more-expensive renewable forms of power will simply eat the losses when it comes to this process--and not pass the cost along to consumers.  In fact, they predict the average family will save $85 dollars on energy costs--despite all of the additional expenses!  Just like the Affordable Care Act saved Americans money on health care--which continues to increase at a rate higher than inflation.  It's amazing the White House isn't going to call today's announcement the Affordable Energy Act.

As a necessity, increased electricity and gas rates will hit the poor and those on fixed incomes the hardest.  A scenario that will actually play out across the planet as the Climate Change Alarmists seek to stifle economic and industrial development across the Third World (and the First World) as well.  Maybe the President also has plans for Federal energy subsidies to low income utility customers--funded by the rest of us.

Just in case the dozens of lawsuits that will be filed by individual states trying to block these new standards all fail, it might be time to begin practicing some lifestyle changes to prevent a sharp increase in your energy bills. 

First off, live like a farmer.  Go to bed when it is dark, get up when it is light.  It's amazing how much energy you can save by never turning on a light. 

Plug in your appliances only when you need them.  Do you really need your stove, microwave and coffee pot all to tell you what time it is all the time?  And during the winter, keep all of your refrigerated and frozen items in the garage.  Only run your refrigerator when it is hot.

Don't buy an electric car.  I would recommend this even if your energy bills weren't going up.

Plug in your electronic devices only when you need them.  Keep your cell phone battery in the red all the time.  Plug it in just when you need to make a call.  You've got voicemail and your texts will pop up when you power up again, so it's not like your going to miss anything important.  Move your favorite chair or the bed (or the toilet) as close to the outlet as you can so you can read your Kindle or your tablet while it is plugged in--using only the power you need for those few minutes of use.

Put on a sweater.  President Jimmy Carter suggested this back in the 70's and it will be true again in our future.  Hypothermia doesn't occur until your body temperature reaches 95-degrees--so you can afford to keep things chilly in the house.  Besides, how many people are already wearing shorts when we hit our first 50-degree day in the spring?  Obviously, that is a warm enough temperature for us.

Yes, all of these energy-saving tips are inconvenient and represent a step back in our evolution as a society.  But hey, we all have to do our part to "save the planet".