Waste Not, Want Not--Not!

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A Pacific Northwest National Laboratory study shows how the Federal Government, the largest energy user with 500,000 buildings, could spend $5.2 billion to reduce its energy consumption 20% and recoup the investment in little more than five years. The Energy Department's Lawrence Berkeley lab developed a fluorescent table lamp that matches the output of a 150-W bulb using a quarter of the energy. When Ari Fleisher was asked last week whether the President would be asking citizens to change their lifestyle given that we consume more energy per capita than any other people on the planet, he said, "That's a big no."

Hanging over all is the specter of Jimmy Carter in his sweater lowering the thermostat to 68[degrees]. There were worse fashion statements in the '70s than that Mister Rogers-inspired cardigan, but what ridicule the man took for urging citizens to layer their outerwear! While we remember the Saturday Night Live version of Carter's efforts, polls at the time showed that people responded well. Lots of other problems contributed to the Carter malaise and his subsequent re-election loss. But the image persists of that presidential appeal not being presidential. Just ask Dick Cheney next winter. Real men don't turn down the thermostat.