Most of the electricity in Washington State—and much of the West coast—comes from power dams (see songs written for the Bonneville Power Administration's power projects in the Thirties by Woody Guthrie). Both Oregon and California buy a lot of electrical power from Washington State.

A couple of decades ago, the Department of Energy commissioned a number of agencies such as the Bonneville Power Administration to find new, less expensive, less polluting sources of electrical energy. After spending vast quantities on money on studies and research, which they redid several times because they didn't like the results they were getting—they had their little hearts set on building a whole bunch of nuclear power plants—were finally dragged, kicking and screaming, to an inescapable conclusion:    the most economical and environmentally friendly new source of energy was—conservation. More efficient use of the electrical energy that was already being produced.

The result of this reluctantly accepted revelation was a widespread program providing subsidies to local public utility districts to promote, and pay for, residential weatherization for any homeowner who wanted to sign up for the program. I became aware of this program when I applied for a job as a technical writer with a company that had a contract with the Bonneville Power Administration. My job was to take large stacks of reports from field inspectors and consolidate them into concise reports for the Bonneville Power Administration. If the newly insulated houses in a given PUD were weatherized up to the BPA's specifications, the BPA would then cut them a check. If not, they had to redo the job until they did. It was a very interesting job! I got a good up-close look at things such as the myriad ways of conserving energy and the search for newer, cheaper ways of utilizing electrical energy that was already being produced.

At the same time, Washington State initiated a similar program for residences that were oil-heated. I worked on that program as well, not as a tech writer, but answering questions about the program on the "Oil Help" program's 800 number and signing people up for the program. There, too, it was found that the cheapest, most environmentally friendly way was through conservation and more efficient use.

The folks that were the most unhappy with the Washington State Oil Help program were the companies that sold home heating oil.

How strange is that!??

We can do one helluva lot better than we're doing.

Don Firth