July 12, 2009
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Fight for the “Right to Dry!”
What if legislators learned dryers use 10 to 15% of domestic energy in the United States!
What if they found out that this reduction could be obtained right away, at a negligible cost? What if they discovered that the savings would be obtained by using less power from coal-burning plants and dams, relying instead on energy from the sun? And what if they saw that the primary impediments to such a conversion were fussy provisions in the rules for residential subdivisions?An unbeatable coalition of legislators would form. Crusaders against global warming and boosters of alternative energy would make common cause with advocates of consumers’ economic interests and defenders of property rights. Greens, blues and reds would join to support a House Bill and would then scramble to take credit for its approval.
Apparently clotheslines are associated in some people’s minds with urban tenements and rural poverty. Such people don’t want to walk — or more likely, drive — through their neighborhood and see someone’s shirts and towels flapping in the breeze. Actually, the shirts and towels probably aren’t the problem — it’s the idea of underwear in plain view that induces waves of dread and fear of falling property values.
Opponents might change their minds if they knew that the U.S. Department of Energy reported that they could cut their electric bills by an average of 5.8 percent by spending a few dollars on a length of cord and a bag of clothespins.Even if the weather permits outdoor clothes drying only half the time, the savings would be noticeable. About 17 percent of clothes dryers run on natural gas. These appliances are more efficient, but a clothesline still costs less.
Should we have to fight for the “Right to dry”? There is even a petition to get clothes lines up at the White House.
