URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/02/11/MN191120.DTL 

Rob Morse
Chronicle Columnist
E-mail:  rmorse@sfchronicle.com 

Is it because nobody has hot tubs anymore? Is it because statistics lie? Or is it because housing in California is so expensive that people live eight to an apartment, sharing one refrigerator and two lamps?

Maybe we're not as bad at conserving as public officials such as Sen. Dianne Feinstein say.

"Of course, we know how to conserve," former San Francisco Supervisor Angela Alioto says. "We're
Californians."

Some of us still have bricks in our toilet tanks from the drought 25 years ago, only turn on our TVs to watch cooking shows on PBS and even remember then-Gov. Jerry Brown's "era of limits" speech two decades ago. Now Brown's former aide, Gray Davis, has his own era of limits. Some would spell that "error."

Then comes the second electric shock: The only state lower than us in per-capita electricity use is Rhode Island, which also ranks below California in total energy use per capita, along with New York, where everyone's in big buildings, and Hawaii, where everyone's on the beach.

Rhode Island happens to be my native state, a cold industrial state that's thickly populated. So what's the story there?

Is everybody in Rhode Island just using their electricity to heat their quahog chowder and watch "Providence"? How come they seem to be beating California in the conservation department?

"It's news to Rhode Island," said Matteo Guglielmetti, a program manager for the Rhode Island Energy Office. Guglielmetti said fuel oil and natural gas prices in southern New England have doubled in the past month, and they were already high.

You can complain about your bills, but try paying $800 or more per month for fuel oil in the winter.

Of course, high prices give people a great reason to conserve. Then Guglielmetti ran through some of Rhode Island's conservation programs.

"We offer a variety of plans for low-income households in which their energy bills can be greatly reduced," he said. "We have state and federal funds available to insulate their homes and replace old boilers and inefficient appliances."

Sometimes we like to think California is a progressive state that looks out for its poor, but it isn't, especially compared to a state such as Rhode Island, with its tradition of liberalism that goes back to 1636.

Back there, the lights are on and somebody's home. Debby Drew of Narragansett Electric, one of Rhode Island's utilities, said the company recently distributed 15,000 electricity-conserving light bulbs to low-income customers.

PG&E has assistance programs for low-income customers, too, such as a 15 percent discount in power prices announced last week. OK, so it isn't quite as good as the 25 percent discount given to PG&E employees. Maybe we should get jobs there.

And compared to most American electricity hogs, except Rhode Islanders, Californians are pretty good at conserving power.

"I was just in Washington where I met my counterpart from California," said Guglielmetti of the Rhode Island Energy Office. "I told him California has the ultimate conservation program. You can't even turn the lights on if you want to." 

It is not apparent that these Mexican States in the California Grids are included in the California energy consumption statistics from the Department of Energy, but they certainly should be excluded for a fair comparison of U.S States.

1. "Mexico's Baja California Hoping for Federal Subsidy for Natural Gas".

2. "Export of Natural Gas from California to Mexico".

3. "Export of Electric Power from California to Mexico".

4. "Mexico's Energy Crunch".

5. "Japanese Companies with Factories in the Tijauna Area".