Legislators and regulators in California don’t trust residents to live their lives responsibly. Ironically, these are the same legislators and regulators staring at a more than $40 billion budget deficit. State spending in California, now $145 billion, has increased by 40 percent in just the last five years, dropping its credit rating to the lowest in the nation. Talk about irresponsibility!
California bureaucrats, greenies and nannyists are now targeting big-screen TVs as the latest culprit in their campaign against the delusion of man-made global warming. The California Energy Commission has proposed regulations that would prohibit the sale of big-screen TVs that don’t meet the more stringent energy standards on its the drawing board. While the commission denies that it’s actually “banning” big-screen TVs, that will be the practical effect of this policy. With manufacturers already voluntarily adopting the existing, heightened, federal government’s Energy Star standards, there isn’t much room for improvement. So, screens in excess of 40 inches, especially plasma screens, simply won’t be able to meet the new California standard.
And that’s just fine with California’s anti-materialist treehuggers, not content with simplifying their own lives but determined to impose regulations to simplify yours, as well. Listen to one such zealot, Jaymi Heimbuch, writing from San Francisco (where else?) on (what else?): “State regulators are starting to draft the first set of rules that would give energy sucking LCDs and Plasmas the boot from California retail stores. The regulations are expected to pass in mid-2009. The new rules would go a long way in helping consumers make energy efficient choices — they’d be the only choices available.” This is what’s known as a Hobson’s choice; that is, no choice at all. Having established the principle that bureaucrats can dictate the size of your TV set, you can expect their next move to limit your viewing choices to PBS and the National Geographic channel.
If California goes ahead with this plan, they’ll get a lesson in the law of unintended consequences in the real world. There’ll be an instantaneous gray and black market for non-complying big-screen TVs. Consumers will buy them on the Internet from places where they’re not illegal or they’ll cross borders to bring them in from neighboring states.
The Energy Commission defends the crackdown on big-screen TVs as a way to relieve strain on the power grid. That was the same justification offered for an earlier proposal, quickly withdrawn in the face of a public outcry, which would have allowed power companies to use “smart meter” technology to reach into your home and remotely turn up the thermostat on your air conditioner if they judge that you’re too comfortable on a hot day. A better alternative is to allow more power plants, especially nuclear, which emit no greenhouse gases. Fuhgeddaboutid! That’s not on the public policy menu in the enviro-crazy state. Ironically, with so many people cutting back on their entertainment expenses during this recession, staying home and watching a movie on your big-screen TV uses less energy than driving to a theater.
I’m reminded of the two-way video screens in George Orwell’s “1984,” through which Big Brother lectured you and observed you in the non-privacy of your austere, low-environmental-impact apartment. Given the mentality of the people who want to control your life to the point of dictating what kind of TV you can own, you’d think they’d like the idea of a bigger screen to better monitor your every move.
E-mail Mike Rosen at mikerosen@850koa.com.
