Like Lemmings to the Sea an editorial by J. Michael Mooney ELECTRICAL POWER GENERATION IS DRAINING OUR RESOURCES AND POLLUTING OUR PLANET. Gas and oil-fired generating plants are drinking up the materials we need as chemical building blocks, for transportation, and for heating our homes & offices. Fuels which will be depleted by the turn of the century, less than 11 years away. Coal-fired plants are belching enormous amounts of pollutants into the earth's respiratory system - our atmosphere. Nuclear powered plants pose the threat of meltdown, and are producing radioactive waste by the ton, waste which we cannot dispose of - or live with. All are operated and regulated by organizations which pass along 100% of the costs for their blunders and waste to those whom they vow to serve. It is we who absorb all of the costs and PCBs, bathe in and drink the acid rains, tiptoe around the poorly stored radioactive wastes, live in anticipation of the next Chernobyl, and continue to purchase the product. WE PAY DEARLY FOR THE PRODUCTION - THEN WASTE 67% OF IT. We squander electrical power on resistive loads which convert it into heat. Loads like incandescent lighting, when fluorescent lighting is eighty (80) percent more efficient. Loads like space and water heating, baking and clothes drying - all tasks which gases can do 50+ percent more efficiently. We squander power by purchasing appliances on the basis of cheap initial cost, and without regard to operating costs. We give little, or no, thought to conservation - ignoring the devastating drain on our natural and financial resources. THE AVERAGE U.S. HOME CONSUMES OVER 16-1/2 KWH OF ELECTRICAL POWER EACH DAY! If we were to "turn on" to fluorescent lighting, pick and choose our appliances, use gas where gas is most efficient, and make just a modest effort to conserve, we could live in total comfort - consuming only 5-1/2 KWH per day. TODAY'S "OFF THE SHELF" PV HARDWARE WILL CONVERT THE SUNLIGHT FALLING UPON A 12 X 16 FOOT AREA OF ANY U.S. ROOFTOP INTO A SILENT, RELIABLE, NON POLLUTING, STAND-ALONE, 5-1/2 KWH PER DAY ELECTRICAL SYSTEM WITH 5 DAYS AUTONOMY. The use of efficient and appropriate appliances, coupled with solar energy, offers immediate relief to our electrical power problems and their associated environmental nightmares.