California cities asked to switch off lights (yesterday)

[jpak]

http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSN2033474220071020

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Los Angeles, San Francisco and Santa Barbara residents are being urged to switch off their lights for one hour on Saturday in the first such organized bid in the United States to promote energy saving.

Much of the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, and Los Angeles International Airport will go dark between 8:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m., apart from essential safety lighting. Lights in city buildings will be switched off and millions of residents in the three cities are being asked to follow suit.

The Lights Out campaign in California follows similar initiatives in Sydney, Australia; London, England; and Paris, France earlier this year. California organizers said they planned a nationwide U.S. event in March 2009.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power said that if all of its 1.4 million customers turned off their lights for an hour, enough energy could be saved to power 2,500 homes for an entire year.

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[opihimoimoi]

1. Not enough...a start...yes...but not enough....more savings by not driving unnecessarily everywhere

Soon, as the oil level diminishes, we will adjust ...either harshley...or comfortably.....

[razzleberry]

6. electricity does not come from oil

at least not in the US
.........................

this gesture would be more
meaningful in the third world

where electricity is scarce

[gateley]

2. I heard that on the news this morning. That's amazing. It will be interesting

to see the results.

I always keep my lights off if I'm not in a room, so I hope I'm helping a little.

[lligrd]

3. I Don't Think Most Of Us Even Knew About It

So I wouldn't expect great results, at least in the LA area.

[silverweb]

4. A nice gesture.

On the other hand, why don't they just switch all "nonessential" safety lighting to OFF all the time -- or at least switch them all to LED bulbs?

[Kolesar]

5. We blacked out our cities for the submarine threat in 1942-I think the climate threat rates up there

...on the index of peril.