Two Great Tastes That Taste Great Together

What am I yammering on about these days? How globwarming greens stick their officious noses into every room in your house--mandating out your light bulbs, your toilet, and even your air freshener.

What else has my normally placid brow furrowing? Orwellian surveillance technology being pushed out there that does far more than eavesdropping on terrorists to undermine our civilized expectations of privacy--and indeed, our dignity.

Well, the state of California just got their peanut butter in my chocolate with a lovely new proposed regulation that combines nanny-state domestic tyranny with Orwellian control mechanisms:

Every new home and every change to existing homes’ central heating and air conditioning systems will required to be fitted with a PCT beginning next year following the issuance of the revision. Each PCT will be fitted with a “non-removable ” FM receiver that will allow the power authorities to increase your air conditioning temperature setpoint or decrease your heater temperature setpoint to any value they chose. During “price events” those changes are limited to +/- four degrees F and you would be able to manually override the changes. During “emergency events” the new setpoints can be whatever the power authority desires and you would not be able to alter them.

Of course, the possibility of someone hacking the FM transmitter and setting everybody's house in a particular town to ninety-nine degrees in August--or in January--is not discussed.