In response to this coming promise of darkness, Western Standard reader Richard Guenther sent this submission about Earth Hour:
Earth Hour
Not long ago Prime Minister Harper was in Estevan, Saskatchewan touring the Boundary Dam Power Plant. This is the facility that will be the recipient of Federal funding to refurbish a 100 MW unit to sequester carbon dioxide. The cost of doing this will be 1.4 billion dollars. The finished unit will be reduced in useable output to 60 MW. Presumably the other 40 MW will be used to extract the carbon dioxide.
This raises some troubling questions. We still need all 100 MW, not just the 60 MW that will be left. If this formula holds in the construction of new power plants and all the information I have says it will, this means for every 100 units of electricity we need in the future, we will need to build 166 units of production. This means an increase of capital costs of 66%. It will also mean that our fuel consumption (and by extrapolation, our operating and maintenance costs) will increase by 66% too.
These huge increases in electricity costs will have a very negative impact on our standard of living. These elevated costs will mean less wealth for your retirement, your healthcare, your children’s education, your vacation. It means you will have to drive a smaller, less safe car in the future or no car at all. It means less research for newer and better drugs in the future. It will reduce the ability of those at the bottom end of our society to afford even the basics. Less money will be available for charitable organizations including environmental causes. Less money will be available for highways. Less money for airports. Even less for big screen TVs.
At the same time the environmentalists want us to shut off our lights for one hour tomorrow night (March 29th) to demonstrate our dedication to saving the planet. All to placate the fears of people who have nightmares over cow flatulence and hot air. Remember, CO2 is not much more than plant food.
I think their idea of shutting off the lights is very indicative of their thinking. This irrational thinking with its huge costs will put us into a dark age, both literally and figuratively.
I refuse to be a part of it. Rather than subscribing to the “we must all live in caves” theory, I prefer to celebrate our modernity. I want to live in the 21st century, not the 9th. So tomorrow night at 8pm I will turn on all my lights, computers and TVs to show my solidarity with the future of mankind, not to the prophets of doom and naysayers amongst us.
via Western Standard: The Shotgun Blog
I'm gonna go out and turn on every light I have access to!
And has anyone thought through what may happen when everyone turns their lights back on at 2100? Can you say blackout?
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