Two Basic Camps – Now in Red or Blue

A couple of weeks ago, I posted about two basic camps: “There are those who are more of the “egalitarian” and “communitarian” mindset, and those who are more of the”hierarchical” and “individualistic” mindset.”

Now comes a recent news article contending that green messages can work in both red (Democrat) and blue (Republican) states.  Convenient packaging; by two.

First example to prove the point involves solar panels.  (Payin’ attention, Catherine?) Liberals (Democrats) like solar panels because they save energy, and the environment.  Conservatives (Republicans) like solar panels because they save $$ on the energy bill. Tax incentives have a lot to do with it, as anyone who’s adopted solar knows.

Same’s true for geothermal. An acquaintance loves to tell me that of the approx. $27K he spent to install geothermal wells at his home, he’s getting nearly $24K back in federal, state and local taxes. (That too good a deal. But, he hates Obamacare. No irony there.  Heh, heh.)

Science journalist Chris Mooney notes researchers have found several of what he calls “nudge” points. For one: “We are biased toward the status quo and against making changes to routines.  We often follow our peers and the crowd.” That’s a point made in the earlier “Two Basic Camps” post.

Under a subheading of the article, Behavioral light bulbs, Mooney tells a Rush Limbaugh story as an example of what green interests shouldn’t be doing.

“In a March 2009 broadcast, conservative radio show host Rush Limbaugh told a story that (like many of his) would make a liberal’s jaw drop. He had been watching ‘Larry King Live’ the night before, he said, where he heard Alanis Morissette and Edward Norton tell people to turn their lights off for  an hour as part of an ‘Earth Hour’ event.

“So Limbaugh did the opposite. ‘I wanted to make sure I could use as much damn power as I could,’ he said. ‘I turned on every light in the house! I turned on every light in the back yard…I mean, I had my house lit up like a Christmas tree last night.’ [Is this an example of why some voters and other outsiders call for adult behavior in Washington, DC?]

“The message, for Limbaugh,…made him want…to thumb his nose at environmentalists.”

Later on in the piece, Mooney quotes an official of Opower (a publicly held company that offers cloud-based software to the utility industry and new means by which utility company officials relate to their customers): “We’re excited to share one way in which liberals and conservatives are more similar than they might think: They both save significant amounts of electricity when presented with personalized analysis of their energy consumption.”

BGE offers something similar. Remembering back to our Annapolis house, it used to fume me that our energy consumption was a noticeable percentage higher than our neighbors. I had the thermostat dialed way back during the hours most were away from the house, and after 9:30pm ’til about 6. But, then I had to redress the cathedral ceiling that allowed us a more dramatic “stage” for our art, thus spiking our interest level in buying the place back in the mid-’90s. It was completely inefficient as to insulative quality, even after installing new low-e glass fixed windows in place of single-pane awning windows in the clerestory above the second floor landing/hallway.

In Sundry Department–  Now that Shrove Tuesday is a faint memory, whattcha doin’/not doin’ about Lent? Carbon fasting? Writing a special-sized check to the Fuel Fund of Maryland? Forswearing chocolate? Leaving the car in the garage in favor of a long walk to the library and back? Messaging love to everyone you know?

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This is my 100th blog since the first, a little over 25 months ago.

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