Show 1 jj 1 1 1 1 if It Seems To Me Meny ny H IJ n. Roberts 11 Save energy COPYRIGHT 1977 Contemporary Features Syndicate Inc In his famous poem Ode To The West Wind Percy Bysshe Shelley concluded with an optimistic question If It Winter comes can Spring be far behind I f have reassured myself many times during the past three months by repeating Shelleys Shelley's s 's question Now I am ready to go on record with the positive assurance that we will reach the vernal equinox sometime around March 21 and spring will in fact be here as scheduled With those crazy winds aloft pumping arctic air all into the South and East Coast I cant can't guarantee how balmy and spring like the latter part of the month will be but as Shelley said no season is forever In time we will have our warm days Then we can breathe a sigh of relief that the worst winter of our lives has ended and be thankful we survived it as well as we did Nature will dispose of winter for us We can count on it Unfortunately nature will not solve the energy crisis for us We have to take care of that problem ourselves and that makes its solution very un un- un- un certain So far about the only solution the government has come up with is to request that people cut back on their use of energy especially natural gas Im I'm all allin allin allin in favor of conserving fuel all kinds I think it is shameful the way we waste energy and materials in this country and I 1 believe most of us discovered that our homes were actually more comfortable and we felt better with our thermostats set at 65 degrees in the daytime and 55 degrees at night I do not believe however that a bit of token loken conservation during an emergency Is going to solve our problem I think c one e. e of the first things we can do and we should start now Is to insulate every home and every building public and private in this nation that requires energy to heat It or cool It If It there is one benefit tobe tobe to tobe be gained from our chilling experiences this winter it is the knowledge that most of the structures in the country are poorly built and we waste an enormous amount of energy heating and cooling them t I In addition to insulating our structures we must have them checked by competent engineers those who arent aren't selling anything ng for ways to prevent loss of heat and cooling through poorly constructed doors windows air vents and anH chimneys or flues I understand that public buildings especially are great wasters of energy because the ventilating systems and open entrances pour the heated or cooled air all out of the buildings almost as fast as they are heated or cooled We should also reconsider the idea of a four-day four work week If there are laws or union contracts contracts contracts con con- tracts that forbid workers from remaining on the job 10 hours a aday aday aday day lets let's change them The argument that workers remaining at home use up as much energy as they would on the job seems suspect Perhaps bachelors sitting in front of a TV set all day might but workers with families would not For those operations that must remain open every day the four-day four week should provide more jobs and help reduce unemployment Finally there should be no longer any doubt what the one number-one problem in this nation is We must make an all- all out effort to develop alternative sources of energy If we will make the same sort of effort to solve our energy problems as we did to put men on th the moon I believe we can do it- it If lf we n can then we can say the Winter of 77 was not only the worst winter in this century but also the best |