The Orange County Register reports that the California Energy Commission may ban big-screen televisions in California because they are not energy-efficient enough. Click here to read the story.
Well, you can pry my big-screen television from my cold dead hands. Actually, I don't have a big-screen TV but I'm lusting after one. Given the range of political philosophies of our bloggers, I thought this topic would get you going on this fine morning.
Here's what's going on, according to the Register story. There's a proposal that would prevent "California retailers from selling all but the most energy-efficient televisions. Critics say the news standards could take 25 percent of televisions off the market -- most of them 40 inches or larger."
The Energy Commision says that's baloney. "Affordable big screen TVs will still be available under the new standards, spokesman Adam Gottlieb said. In fact, he said the regulations will save you money. The commission calculates that if you buy televisions meeting the proposed standards it'll cut your annual energy use by -- drum roll, please -- $18 to $30."
Jim you know they want to control every aspect of our lives so go for it and but one. What are they going to do send a television measuring squad out door to door. Its worth the extra cost to be able to see the tv.
comment numero uno: Who needs a 40 inch or larger TV set in a quasi standard size California living room? No room to sit back from the screen. But cars are getting to a size that one needs a shoe horn to get into it. And we have been created to have dominion over everything? No God said that. Man said that.
I advocate the 1960's axiom "KILL YOUR TELEVISION".
The big-screen models are just larger targets!
How do I clean the ink off my big-screen after I'm done with the crossword puzzle?
All of this is completely out of hand. Are big screens also tied to global warming, cigarettes, alcohol, gas, plastic bags, and the demotion of Pluto?
The game of seeking revenue soarces for governments is nuts.
Will the governor and all his cohorts stay out of my house. LEt me go into their house and see what they have. They need to quit getting petty about little things and get to work to fix our state. Perhaps we need to vote them out and bring in fresh blood with fresh ideas, REAL ideas.
I agree Stephen, apparently all I must do to achieve that, is wait until june 12th and it will commit suicide on it's own...good riddance,
nothing has contributed more towards dumbing down this nation than TV.
I wish it were that simple! I'm afraid the market-driven race-to-the-bottom content of most television will only continue until the population degenerates into a billion delta minuses who actually care about the Brit on "American Idol".
"This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang, but a whimper..."
Anthropogenic global warming is the hoax of the ages. A handful of hucksters are leading a nation of lemmings right off a cliff. Don't like the current economic situation? Just wait until the witless, worthless wonders in charge of this country make you start paying to "fix" AGW. You're really going to like the economy then.
You know we've reached the tipping point into insanity when the government is thinking of controlling carbon dioxide - that stuff every air-breathing being on the planet exhales. Need I remind these morons that carbon dioxide is necessary for plant growth!
Meanwhile, other morons are advocating for limiting population growth - to less than replacement levels. Who's going to pay for big government then?
Everyone out there who actually believes that the simple act of breathing is destroying the planet should set an example by taking a deep breath - and holding it!!
That does not suprise me, considering that our government has said the "smelt" fish is more important than they lives of americans. California does not have enough water to give the West side farmers any water. Thus there goes jobs, food and higher prices. But don't worry, the fish will always get the water it needs. As I mentioned in an article to the Bee, we in America have our "Sacred Cow" as does India and other countries. They starve yet they have thousands of cows. We starve our cirizens, but the fish get thier water. Tragic.
Roxanna,
I respectfully request you take a step toward the reality-based community. Look at:http://www.climatechange.ca.gov/background/images/trends_co2_emissions.gif
Take a look at the data.
Hey Steve, don't tell me to "take a step toward the reality-based community". I have read data and articles far and wide. More and more scientists - not lay people like Al Gore - are coming to the conclusion that the hype and hysteria over global warming is nonsense. According to the latest polls, even normal people like you and me are coming to that conclusion.
If you want to believe that big-screen TVs and the everyday act of breathing are destroying the planet, then go right ahead.
By the way, I'm certainly not going to believe anything put out by ca.gov. The only reason the politicians are pushing for AGW is because they don't yet have complete control over our lives.
We starve our cirizens, but the fish get their water. Tragic.
Yes we have some strange proponents. The Fish? California has gigantic forest fires almost every single year. Hundreds of thousands of acres burnt and destroyed. What happens to that pollution? How many of the lower species are lost? What is the extent of the geologic and ecologic dameage? Hmmm,my bad. I forgot, forest fires are a natural occurance. Anything caused or lost there, doesn't count.
I suggest that folks take a good hard look at the issues that are important to environmentalists, even the so called moderate ones.
They all vote alike. When they get in office or are commissioned by the Governor it is like purchasing a vehicle, you settle for "the package."
Their package (with its own clean and peaceful world specifications) usually contains a mixed list of things to eliminate. Hunting in Parks is listed with Big TVs, ATVs, SUVs, Fireplaces, Lead bans, AM talkshow radio, Irrigation Water, Dams, Leadership over Auditorship...and the list goes on and on.
They are counting on you to dislike at least one of the above ideas so they can rid the free world of all of them. It is one big envorironmental package to them.
I hope this sums up for anyone reading why it is that the Obama election campaign used the slogan "change", it eliminated the need for bulky hypocritical explanations. He has certainly handed us a big opaque package marked "Change", hasn't he.
Kudos to Stephen Lewis to respectfully appealing to a fellow blogger because if the past is any indication, it is not going to be received with respect. Roxanna's post seems to zero in on breathing and carbon dioxide. I don't think that scientists are telling us that breathing is going to destroy the world. And I am not so sure that government wants to control carbon dioxide per se. But not just breathing produces CO2 , and any oxidation that produces CO2, when incomplete will produce CO carbon monoxide which is highly toxic to living things. My High School and druggist school chemistry instructions have been many years ago. Bu I know enough to know that global warming is not a hoax. The degradation of our natural environment is a reality. And so are the climate changes which produce catastrophic results, not known in my many years here on earth. California, so far, seems to be spared the worst. In my birthplace where the daffodils, the violets and hyacinth should be in full bloom, there is snow. All winter long in my childhood was snow and ice, but recently the cherries had started blooming in December. Which of course means no cherries that year. And that is just one example. And never were there winds as destructive as they are recently all over Europe. The degradation of our environment is real, and so are the catastrophic results of climatic changes. I understand that in the near future Mount Kilimanjaro will not have any snow. That large TV screens cause pollution I did not know.
The big screen TVs that need to be banned are the ones along our highways and freeways. What with cellphones, shaving, radio, GPS, picking noses, and eating fast foodburgers, drivers do NOT need yet another distraction as they glide along a mile a minute.
Who decided that man determines the weather? Doesn't the Creator of the universe have that job? I think He is demonstrating His disgust with our behavior. He gave us a blueprint to follow, but we get further and further away from it each day.
The west-side "farmers" get water on wet years,
not as much in dry years and none in time of draught, it has been that way ever since they got the taxpayers to build the infrastructure that enables them.
I actually have a living room that accomodates a big screen tv without losing any space. I have a 42 inch which is quite sufficient. To each his own on what they like or want. The Govt just needs to stay out of our homes. I don't think my tv is contributing to global warming.
My big screen TV has already been shrunk by the digital conversion. Digital aspect ratios have effectively reduced my 46" screen to 36-40" pictures most of the time surrounded by black borders. What a rip-off!
Going back to the beginning, I have the best way of settling this terrible thing that could happen to all those who are losing their eyesight over watching all that TV. Let the TV stations get rid of most of their programs. People might even turn off their TV's once in a while. How many programs does Dish have? A million more than I ever want to watch! Oh my goodness! The refrigerators would stay full and no energy would fall out because of snacks during the commercials! Husbands and wives might even say HI to each other and the small children would learn how to talk, real talk like hello, how are you instead of "bang, bang you're dead" And, just think! Even the costs might go down when the Dish networks don't have to pay for so many programs to show. There might be a problem though. Does anybody still know how to grow food and cook meals that actually use some of the energy the TV's used to use up?
Banning large screen T.V. in California is
a great step to reduce energy consumption.
So many of our populaton have also become T.V.
addicts and reducing large T.V.'s just might
curtail too many couch potatoes vegging in front
of the tube. We need to re-invent other options other then spending so much of our time in front
of our T.V.'s Large screen televisions take up
too much energy and space. Also too many T.V.
monitors clutter our waste dumps thus negatively
impacting our environment. Who needs them.
THree cheers for the California Energy Commission
for regulating the Big Screen T.V. Industry.
This is the biggest bunch of bovine excrement to come down from Sacramento yet. We don't have a big screen yet - but, if we want to buy one, it is our right - yes, our RIGHT - as American consumers to do so. These people - and those that side with them - do not live in the real world; they want to do penance for whatever they think humankind has done to make the planet Mars warmer and they want to drag the rest of us into that silliness. If they don't want these things, they don't have to buy them - but leave the rest of us alone before such a backlash is provoked that ALL of their plans - even the few sensible ones - are swept away by an outraged public.
I see that somehow big screen TVs and the energy they use brought up God, breathing, fish, water, global warming, cigarettes, alcohol, gas, plastic bags, the demotion of Pluto and even AM talkshow[sic] radio.
How about - Hurry up with standardizing renewable energy, tax breaks for those who install solar or wind energy on their homes, incentives for new solar and wind companies to start up with new jobs, and stay out of our living rooms, our garages, our kitchens and our bedrooms. Those choices are ours. And I still hate that you make me wear a helmet on a motorcycle. That's my wife's and my daughters' job, not the government's.
Patricia Guy; thank you for the info about the shrinking digital TV picture. I shall make a mega printout for my hubby when he looks too longingly at those huge boxes.
V Diane Corbin; I know how to grow cucumbers that are bitter. The peaches, apricots, oranges grow themselves. I know how to work the juicer, and I am an excellent cook who has no desire to start looking at TV pictures with big black frames around them. Old dogs can learn new tricks. No mega TV in my house. I also have two analog TVs with beautiful reception. I dread May 12; to come around. They say that digital TV pictures frequently fall apart into their pixels.
Oh, why the hell not. They already strip the rights of liberty from us in all other areas--we have no automatic right to carry a weapon to defend ourselves, we spend billions every year for illegal immigrants, and our income taxes fund a state full of politically-correct ideas and programs for each of them.
Great. Ban TV sales. Watch more jobs go away. That's just the practical side of it; forget the freedoms that God has given us. Who cares if I choose to watch big screen TV, but dry my clothes outside to save dollars? Nobody. The righteous folks have decided what sinful things I must avoid.
I say take the TV's and shove them up their asses, sideways, with no lubricant. I DON'T own one because I can't afford one. But if I want one, I'll simply go to a neighboring state and buy one, anyway.
The self-righteous pigs in government need to be given concrete overshoes and trip to the ocean. It would, after all, decrease our carbon "footprint"!
The revolution will not be televised.
Guy Fawkes, where are you when we need you!!?
I agree Scot... but wear your helmet. The first advertising slogan I learned when I was a kid:
If you have a ten dollar head buy a ten dollar helmet if it's worth any more buy a Bell. Scot your head is worth more than ten dollars or I wouldn't have wasted my time with you. I think your wife and kids would agree.
Both LCDs and plasma presently consume considerable power. Plasma is worse and technologically lagging in potential to rectify this. LCD's, however, will soon incorporate LED backlight technology that will drop a 50 in. LCD from 220-280W down to less than 80W. The only thing stopping it is the additional cost and the time to ramp up volume production. Government mandates for reduced power will drive the trasition faster, with a 25-30% price adder initially.
Aren't all these PC's we are using to comment on this tyranny sucking up juice too? Ban life...that will solve all these issues.
Lets just get rid of them so you and your ilk can watch the suicide rate of the unemployed you will create climb. Maybe there is a web site with a real time graph line you can watch that will move upward each time a death is entered into the data base while the landfill line trends downward.
The CEC wants to get rid of big screen TVs at the same time the National Teleprompter has been replaced by one. I'm so confused.
I'd like to know if the idiots with this idea own big screen tv's. Here's another bright idea for the CEC to implement--since they consume so much energy, let's shut down schools (at least the A/C, anyway). How about this--unplug the governor's electric pencil sharpener; a collateral benefit is that his girlie-arms will tone up as he twists that handle. Isn't my computer screen an LCD display?
This is not about televisions. This is about the CEC stepping over the line. From the government website the following is a list of the CEC responsibilities. It takes a good imagination to believe the CEC has the right to do ban big screen TVs. The creators of our government did not intend this blatant power over our personal lives. If the CEC was following their job description, they wouldn't be reaching for straws such as this idea. Here's the list:
Forecasting future energy needs and keeping historical energy data.
Licensing thermal power plants 50 megawatts or larger.
Promoting energy efficiency by setting the state's appliance and building efficiency standards and working with local government to enforce those standards.
Supporting public interest energy research that advances energy science and technology through research, development, and demonstration programs.
Supporting renewable energy by providing market support to existing, new, and emerging renewable technologies; providing incentives for small wind and fuel cell electricity systems; and providing incentives for solar electricity systems in new home construction.
Implementing the state's Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program.
Planning for and directing state response to energy emergencies.
Next up we have CARB pushing for the banning of black paint on cars in California. It all seems like bad satire.....if only it were.
Every time someone stays home watching TV for entertainment rather than hitting the road they pollute less because they aren't out driving around. They aren't paying a restaurant $30 bucks for $5 bucks worth of food they could learn to cook themselves. They aren't paying a bar $50 for $10 worth of drinks. So it's better to drive to the theatre to pay $12 for tickets and $20 for a couple of candy bars and some popcorn rather than stay home and do it for less? What's the problem?
Staying home will benefit the average American Citizen because the average business that pretends to provide a 'service' by selling us what we should be doing ourselves won't be around.
Most cultures around the world are composed of people involved in their particular music, art, activities, etc. at almost no cost to the citizens. We are so absent of any positive cultural values besides buying more stuff and watching movies that entertain our desire for power, goods, and revenge without providing any positive cultural values that we may as well just stay home and use less of our resources. That way we can have more meaningless stuff later.
Goofy: And what will all the workers from those average businesses that won't be around be doing for a living?
"David the not so goofy lefty"...You make good points...but what do I do with all these gift cards that people give me for being such a nice person.