In order to reduce our household's carbon and nuclear footprint, we've changed nearly all our light bulbs to efficient ones and put electronic devices on power strips, which we turn off when not in use to avoid "phantom load." But one single change cut our electricity use almost in half: replacing our old refrigerator with an energy efficient model. Our September bill was $99, our October bill $54. Extrapolating those savings to Vermont, if an average households pay $900 per year for electricity, and all of Vermont's 250,000 households replaced their old refrigerators with "energy star" models, reducing their electric bills by 45 percent, as we did (saving $405/year), Vermont ratepayers could together save over $101 million per year. And that's just one hypothetical appliance replacement. Much more can be done to reduce energy (and water) use and improve comfort with efficient appliances and fixtures.

These savings dwarf the savings Vermont's commissioner of public service claimed when touting ENVY's "cheap" kilowatts: $20 million a year. Commissioner O'Brien never mentions the cost of cleanup or long-term secure storage of radioactive waste in Vernon, the cost of a potential Chernobyl, or the thermal impact on the Connecticut River of millions of gallons of very hot, tritiated cooling water. The refrigerator pays for itself in just over two years, provides reduced energy bills over its lifetime, and reduces carbon far more effectively than running an old refrigerator using nuclear-generated power. The refrigerator won't leave behind a pile of radioactive waste that needs protection for 250,000 years when it is finally recycled. The cheapest kilowatt, and the cleanest, is the one not used. Efficiency improvements and development of renewable energy sources can be the soft and affordable energy path for Vermont. Vermont ratepayers would save real green money, provide real green energy and real green jobs, as compared with Gov. Douglas's phony "affordable green brand" and O'Brien's "cheap" atomic kilowatts. Yankee ingenuity, not dependence on a multinational corporation protected by a police state, is the way to provide energy independence for future generations of Vermonters. I think it's a no-brainer.