Opus 2012-13, Tax Dollars at Work: The Cost of Saving Energy

This week I returned to school from the Christmas/New Year break.  It is amazing how easy it is to get back into the swing of things.  I had one big surprise though.  I came into my room, tried to boot up my computer and nothing happened.  I tried the other computer with the same results.  I started looking and found that every electrical plug in my room had been pulled.  Our district energy police had struck.

We have a man on our district who is employed full time to help us save money on utilities.  The goal is to save $1,000,000.  He is paid a full time salary, has an office and works with a consulting firm to give him advice.  I shudder to think how much that is going to cost.

We have a fairly large school district.  At one point we had over 1,000 teachers but with declining enrollment I don’t know the numbers now.  How long did it take this man to drive around to every school on the district, go into every room, search diligently and unplug everything that was connected to the grid?  Remember that I had to get down on my hands and knees to reattach things.  He had unplugged things that had the chords buried behind boxes, tables and file cabinets.  He had been very thorough. 

In addition we have the Yellow Signs.  This was done in another expedition.  It was probably found in a previous chapter of the Energy Police Manual for Harassments of Once-Free Citizens.  He had gone to every room and taped a little yellow sign below the light switches.  It reminded people to turn off the lights when they left the room and repeated the admonition to turn off all appliances and unplug them if left for extended time.

Add to all this the fees spent on The Consultant.  Yes, Americans, it takes an expert to tell us how to save money on energy.  Our district has contracted with an organization to act as our Expert Helpers in this noble attempt to save the planet and money.   We have already had one of these noble, self sacrificing individuals attend one of our faculty meetings.  He did nothing but stand, smile and wave but I am sure we also covered hotel expenses, meals and a rental car.  What a way to save money.  And you can bet your best pair of sox that this is all being paid for with grants from the Federal Government.

When my wife goes shopping I have a question when she returns, “How much money did you save me this time?”  I never ask how much she spent, just how much I saved.  It is much easier to feel good about my bank balance that way.

I hope this makes you feel better.  That is a lie.  I hope this increases your anger.  Vote differently.  It is time to vote the suckers out.  But walk to the polls please, we need to save energy.

homo unius libri