Re: Fluorescent Bulbs Are Known to Zap Domestic Tranquillity; Energy-Savers a Turnoff for Wives

["Robert Green" <ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx>]

"Robert L Bass" <no-sales-spam@bassburglaralarms> wrote in message

> > There's one very important fact to remember
> > because it's at the foundation of the problem:
> > No amount of CFL bulb use by anyone will
> > scrub one atom of mercury from power plant
> > emissions.
>
> The problem with that statement is it misses
> the point.  By reducing power demand you reduce
> pollution.

No, it's an absolutely accurate statement.  There's a big gap between
"hoping to" and "really reducing" demand.  As we've seen in gasoline
consumption, even rising prices don't seem to affect demand the way
economists so neatly predict they should.  The entire focus of our efforts
should be at controlling airborne mercury at the stack, not adding even more
of it to landfills in a "hopeful" effort to reduce demand and thereby
mercury entering the air.

You're proposing a short-sighted solution that 1) doesn't directly address
the core pollution problem, 2) depends on the demand reduction staying
permanent and 3) actually *adds* more of one of the very pollutants you're
trying to control back to the environment.  Three strikes and you're out!

I still like the EPA's weasel words: "Presents an opportunity" to reduce
demand.  We know, historically, that is not likely to happen.  And in the
meantime, the CFL Band-Aid makes the problem seem somehow under control and
undermines the only credible solution.

Clean it at the smokestacks, not via hope, hype, trickling up, trickling
down or "presented opportunities."  The longer band-aids delay the hard
medicine of emission control, the worse the air quality.  In fact, keeping
demand at bay might even prevent the need for new plants - but ironically
those would be new plants that are cleaner and that have to face tough new
plant construction rules.  CFL's might keep those old, dirty grandfathered
plants running far longer than they would have otherwise.  None of these
problems are as simple as they seem once you start carefully examining the
inputs, outputs and interactions of all the pieces.

To complicate things more, many of those old, dirty plants are only brought
on line to handle peak loads, like incredibly hot summer days.  You can be
pretty sure, from the common sense side of the equation, that it's millions
of 20A air conditioners and not tungsten light bulbs causing those peak
loads.

--
Bobby G.