Governor signs series of energy efficiency bills
Friday, October 12, 2007(10-12) 16:29 PDT SACRAMENTO, (AP) -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law Friday bills that will save water and electricity by requiring more efficient lights and toilets.
The Republican governor also announced he had approved a measure by Assemblyman Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, that creates a 10-year, $250 million subsidy program to help consumers buy solar water heaters.
The program would be financed by a surcharge on natural gas in an attempt to install 200,000 solar water heaters in California by 2017.
Schwarzenegger said the bills would help keep California at the "forefront of energy and water efficiency."
The lighting bill, also by Huffman, requires the state Energy Commission to adopt regulations that will cut electricity use from lighting by 50 percent in 10 years. It also will phase out lead in incandescent lights and limit mercury in fluorescent lights.
"This is pushing the big lighting companies to really come up with new technology that they think is right around the corner," said Joshua Townsend, a spokesman for Huffman.
The toilet bill, by Assemblyman John Laird, D-Santa Cruz, will phase in requirements by 2014 that will limit all new toilets to 1.3 gallons per flush instead of 1.6 gallons and require that new urinals use no more than a half gallon instead of the current limit of one gallon per flush.
Laird said conserving water is the "quickest, cheapest way to manage our water supply and address the impact of population growth and global warming."
When the bill was approved by the Assembly, opponents suggested the tougher efficiency requirements would only result in more clogged toilets and more flushing.
But Laird said manufacturers believe they can produce lower-flowing toilets that are "more efficient both in water use and water power."
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Having been foolish enough to jump on the solar hot water bandwagon back in '84 when the first solar subsidy was offered, I find this idea tragic. Solar collectors can only last about 3 years in soft water areas, before the dissolution of the metal tubes results in leakage. In hard water areas, the calcium tuberculation often blocks them within about five years.
Isn't insanity fun?
So then we'll have to flush 4 times instead of 3 to do the job 1 used to do...otherwise, it'll mess up a home/septic system right quick.
Hey Arsenator, we ain't all on City sewer -
Glad I got outta that state a quarter century ago - lived there 10 years - that was 9 1/2 years too long.
These Stalinists truly must think they are God like. I wonder if someone in government did a study of how often the 1.6gal toilets are flushed more than once (in a use cycle)? I made it a point to ask many of my friends and family and almost all say they "flush more than once." (sorry about the subject matter be commented upon. These incessant intervention in the marketplace (our freedom to choose) is an assault on our Liberty.