During the Eighties I worked as a technical writer for a firm under contract to the Bonneville Power Administration. The firm I worked for conducted inspections of houses that had been weatherized under a BPA energy conservation program. My job was to take a tall stack of inspector's reports on individual residences and boil it down to a six page report. If all was in order, BPA would cut a check to pay for the weatherization.

This whole thing came about when the Department of Energy commissioned the BPA and similar organization around the country to find new and inexpensive sources of electrical energy. After much scientific input, agonizing surveys, analysis, meetings, cussing and discussing, and more analysis, the BPA was dragged, kicking and screaming, to an inescapable conclusion:   the least expensive source of new energy was to eliminate waste. That dreaded word:   conservation.

Once they started funding their residential weatherization program and some savings figures came in, the Washington State government started an "Oil Help" program, similarly funding weatherization of residences that heated with oil. I worked on that program, too.

At least around here, the idea caught on. Seattle City Light is now supplying its customers with low wattage bulbs. We use them and they're fine. Just as bright and they last a lot longer than regular incandescent bulbs.

Conservation won't solve all the problems, but it will certainly help, and it's just an intelligent thing to do. Trade your SUV in on a hybrid car. Take the bus. Better still, get a bicycle. Go turn something off.

Don Firth