This Is What Lightbulbs Look Like

Why this pic?



It's easy.

This is 240 60 watt light bulbs. Soon, these will become contraband. When the "public" becomes aware of the contraband nature of lightbulbs, the price of these lightbulbs will go up.

You will not be able to purchase them, because the Congress of the United States of America has determined that in order to save the world, these bulbs will kill polar bears, raise the level of the oceans by thirty feet, and lend themselves toward the destruction of all that is important in a neo-post-apocalyptic world.

I figure I have about twenty years worth of light bulbs here. When you are struggling to read at night, I'll have warm and cozy lighting and a year's worth of books. Thankfully, I have UPS back-ups at each of my outlets, so even when the power is "blacked-out" I'll be able to read. And, I have several pairs of glasses, so even if I step on a pair, I'll still be able to read.

Maybe, neo-post-apocalyptic is the wrong word choice. Mebbe the right word choice is going Mormon on technology. I don't know. I never thought that Congress would be able to use the Constitution to outlaw the production of the miracle of light and electricity. When I was a kid, the fact that there were still large areas of the U.S. that didn't have electricity seemed an idea that couldn't be right. Until Kathy Cobb came back from time in Appalachia, and told us first-hand, that that was not only true, but seen, first-hand.

Appalachia is an odd thought. Fifty years ago, we were being asked to relieve the Appalachians from their backwardness. Now we're being told that becoming Appalachia in a fifty-year redux, is the goal of society. Talk about wheels within wheels. Oh, and Man Made Global Warming? It's now Man Made Global Cooling. Which does have a shorter cycle than electrifying Appalachia.

I know that there's a chance that the ban on incandescents will be repealed. But the Senate won't come under Republican control--if House Republicans can remain consistent with Tea Party priors--until 2012. During the next two years, if not repealed, the price of incandescents will be going through the roof. Even if the ban on incandescents is repealed, by the time the repeal is removed, the cost, through increasing inflation, still makes this a smart investment.

If you have a chance to lay-up some everyday provisions, why not do so? This isn't a bunker mentality, or, survivalist mentality. It's a common sense thought, what do you want, that has an unlimited shelf-life, that will increase in cost more quickly than your income? There are a lot of things that come to mind: clothing, such as socks and t-shirts; laundry detergent; sheets and linens; aluminum foil, plastic wrap and kitchen utensils. If you don't have a back-up coffee maker? Time to put one away.

The next project I have, and I have several right now, is pricing out an LNG generator. It is not the type of aquisition that I would have thought of a year or two ago. But, in Oregon, we do things differently. Right now, the State of Oregon is pressuring one of our two largest utilities to close an electrical generating plant by 2012. This plant produces 25 percent of Portland's electricity. Mebbe 20 percent of the state's total energy. This isn't new. I've posted before about the decision to close Trojan.

Keeping the cost of energy low is viewed by many--a majority?--of Oregonians as an evil.

The cost of such an idea will become apparent at a certain point. Just as the cost of California's ridiculous adherence to carbon trading will become apparent, at some point. The problem will be, finding one's self in a death spiral is a different experience that avoiding a death spiral. When one is in a death spiral the only outcomes are either death, or luck.

Anticipating behaviour that can produce a death spiral, and backing away from that behaviour, well that's different.

I only hope that Oregonians can appreciate the difference. And truly, do things differently here.