Wind the time machine back a few years and recall that the big push was for consumers to buy more energy efficient appliances and fixtures with the benefit that they will save tens and hundreds of dollars on their utility bills. This savings would offset the higher costs of these new, efficient purchases. The savings would offset the need for custom disposal of CFLs by approved means. The savings would be the consumers’. Enter the democrat Congress (remember, “most honest, ethical and open Congress ever”) and the Energy & Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA). He has amended the bailout bill with a provision for “revenue decoupling.” What does that mean? It means that, if approved, any utility company can increase a consumer’s energy costs when their energy usage declines to maintain revenue levels. So all that savings that the consumers are looking forward to after purchasing the more expensive CFLs and that higher SEER air conditioner will be going right back into their utility bills. And in the end, the consumer will have just paid more for an appliance, light bulb, fixture. Bottom line.

Want to take this one step further? Many of these energy efficient items cost more to make and use more energy to make (hence the higher costs). So now, we, as a country, are investing in more energy usage and costs when the goal is (to some) to reduce usage or (to others) be smart about energy usage.

A short tangent along these lines – if we only had a little patience, the LED (Light Emitting Diode) will likely show up as a household lighting option (pictured left). There have been some technical hurdles to overcome which many have been recently. The benefit? Better energy usage, no mercury and reasonable costs for lighting. But much like a dusting of snow or sleet in the DC area and you have panic in the streets and this urgency, akin to the rush to stock up on milk, toilet paper and bread, promulgated by the media to buy CFLs when better options aren’t that far off.

When will the American public wake up and see the ridiculousness of this Congress and take them to task for their gross idiocy?

GorT

GorT is an eight-foot-tall robot from the 51ˢᵗ Century who routinely time-travels to steal expensive technology from the future and return it to the past for retroinvention. The profits from this pay all the Gormogons’ bills, including subsidizing this website. Some of the products he has introduced from the future include oven mitts, the Guinness widget, Oxy-Clean, and Dr. Pepper. Due to his immense cybernetic brain, GorT is able to produce a post in 0.023 seconds and research it in even less time. Only ’Puter spends less time on research. GorT speaks entirely in zeros and ones, but occasionally throws in a ڭ to annoy the Volgi. He is a massive proponent of science, technology, and energy development, and enjoys nothing more than taking the Czar’s more interesting scientific theories, going into the past, publishing them as his own, and then returning to take credit for them. He is the only Gormogon who is capable of doing math. Possessed of incredible strength, he understands the awesome responsibility that follows and only uses it to hurt people.