Good job to Brad Molnar on the Billings Brownout

PSC Commissioner Brad Molnar organized a Billings Brownout last Thursday night. Things were very romantic down at Walker's Grill, with nothing but candlelight.

Homes and businesses around the city voluntarily participated in the brownout by turning off non-essentials and otherwise taking steps to reduce energy use.

Molnar, true to his "show me" self took the extra step of establishing a baseline energy usage level against which to compare usage during that hour:

Thursday evening's Billings brownout reduced energy usage by about 6.6 percent, according to NorthWestern Energy.

Billings electric customers who turned off unnecessary lights for an hour saved about 3.9 megawatts of power, which NorthWestern Energy estimated kept 1.2 tons of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere.

This demonstrated the effect that voluntary conservation measures can have -- congratulations to Brad for work he put into organizing this. It's nice to see a Republican taking the lead on an effort like this.

Predictably, there were many entertaining things to read in the comments section of the Billings Gazette when this event took place. Like this one:

I turned on every appliance and light on my place. I wanted to waste as much energy as possible in that hour. I always conserve and I am as green as a frog so when Brad Molnar called for this silly demonstration... a mere token to make it look like something that doesn't add up....this is like Hannible Lecther leading a right to life parade......hey Brad what about the thousand years of coal you talked about. I think I'll go turn on an electric heater and set it outside!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now that's the kind of bipartisan spirit we're looking for!