electricity

I've always been just a hair skeptical about all those admonitions to consumers to save the world -- you know, the "Live simply, that others may simply live"-type instructions. They felt a little too much like guilt-tripping to me, with perhaps not enough corresponding actual environmental good being done. It seems like a way for consumers who are feeling guilty about something -- say, those SUVs they drive -- to assuage their guilt by doing something that doesn't really hurt, like turning off the lights when leaving a room. And of course, we've seen how this mindset can backfire:

The National Security Agency is looking to build a massive $2 billion computer center at the Camp Williams military reservation in Utah, but critics worry it will drain energy needed by current power users, the Salt Lake Tribune's Matthew D. LaPlante reports. The NSA has already maxed out a power grid in Baltimore, and Utah officials are trying to figure out how they would accommodate such a power-hungry customer. The new facility would itself consume the equivalent of the electricity needed to power all the homes in Salt Lake City.