“I shall make electricity so cheap that only the rich can afford to burn candles.”
We are taking away a choice that continues to let people waste their own money.
US Energy Secretary, Mao Tse-Chu, is adamant about wrecking your life on your behalf. “We have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe,” said Chu, in 2008. We Americans have always been better off when they couldn’t afford the commute from home to work. Emperor Chu’s latest work on your behalf involves his defense on the totally stupid ban on incandescent lighting.
Perhaps one of the most phenomenally iniquitous bills from the Pelosi-Reid era of Congress was regrettably signed by a Republican President. The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 and its lamentable sister-bill in the Senate Renewable Fuels, Consumer Protection, and Energy Efficiency Act of 2007. This bill forced an ethanol production quota and ordered the phasing out of incandescent bulbs producing 310-2600 lumens by 2014.
The propaganda that informs The Wise and Benevolent Commissar Chu’s statement comes from an advocacy tract published by The Alliance to Save Energy. This organization predictably represents manufacturers of the new Chu-bulbs we will all be assimilated into burning by 2014. This is all well and good, but when in the heck did bureaucratic Caesars like Stephen Chu ever get the power to tell us how to save our own money?
This is particularly grating when they tell us they have tax us $2Tr more in order to reach a new debt ceiling deal. But that’s not good enough. We’ve got Gropenfuhrer Chu saving our money for us, while President Obama tells Europe to relax because we stand ready to bailout Greece!
And yet our nation actually voted for this. Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Barack Obama all won elections to hold their positions of power. Secretary Stephen Chu condescendingly explained that he wanted people who lived in Lampasas, TX and commuted to work on Fort Hood to pay European prices for gasoline. He laid that out as a national priority and then was confirmed as a cabinet level position by the US Senate.
It reminds of an old Devo song.
freedom of choice, is what you got
freedom from choice, is what you want
Let’s assume Chu has a point. I really could save money by using the Green Obama-Industrial Complex’s new made-in-China Mercury Bulbs. Is this Stephen Chu’s job to force this down my throat? Republican Congressman, Joe Barton says “No way!” Even Republican supporters of the 2007 Tragedy of The Commons Energy Act have changed their minds on the issue. Fred Upton explains below.
“It was never my goal for Washington to decide what type of light bulbs Americans should use,” Upton said in a statement to The Hill. “The public response on this issue is a clear signal that markets – not governments – should be driving technological advancements. I will join my colleagues to vote yes on a bill to protect consumer choice and guard against federal overreach.”
This is a lesson that Stephen Chu has closed his ears and chosen deliberately not to hear. He walks around believing the sardonic Devo lyric that “Freedom from choice is what you want.” If the dork-miesters with the flower-pot heads were accurate, Secretary Chu will plague this nation the way locusts plagued Egypt for another four years. His continued service as Secretary of Energy is yet another symptom that current president may not quite be the brightest fluorescent bulb in the fixture.
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