The ship of state hasn't sunk yet, but it surely is listing heavily. Our new president is banking on our largest domestic industry, "energy," to bail us out. Interestingly, we hear from all levels of government about plans to reduce energy waste and emissions, in an effort to slow down the inexorable increase in global warming. The truth is that success toward meeting those goals has proven uneven. Part of the problem is that each of these goals is targeted to end long after the present lawmakers leave office, so implementation is left for the "next guy." Our new president is taking drastic action to accelerate the process, but it's hard to change old habits. To quote Isaac Newton's law on inertia, a "body at rest tends to stay at rest." The popular press has finally discovered the field of "energy efficiency." In the lighting industry we've been living with it all our professional lives. At first, the government wants to fund "shovel-ready" projects in energy conservation and infrastructure improvement. The lighting industry was born "shovel ready." You feel like a survivor in a lifeboat shouting to the rescuers, "over here."
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