Happy “Turn Out the Lights Day”

Environments are sometimes their own worst enemies. Today’s celebration of “Earth Hour” during which major cities across the country turn off the lights for an hour is one of those examples. Thankfully, Mayor Marty hasn’t signed Albuquerque up for this ridiculous stunt, but if the concept catches on, I bet he’ll be first in line.
So, why does turning out the lights hurt, not help the enviros? Simply put, there are many people who generally support “helping the environment.” But what most hard-core environmentalists fail to realize is that for most people the environment is just not their highest priority. In this recent poll the environment is the top priority of only 4 percent of the US population far behind health care, Iraq, and gas prices.
The really dumb blunder of the enviros is that they seem to prefer radical steps like simply turning out the lights (will crime rise in darkened cities?) over more mundane efforts like pricing energy in such a way as to account for peak demand and shift demand to non-peak hours. Anyway, like NBC’s wacky experiment with turning out the lights during its Sunday Night Football broadcast last year, people are going to react negatively to such extreme measures as turning out the lights.
In the battle between regular people and their governments over control of energy, the greens may be our best allies.