AP is reporting today that so many Illinoisans turned off their lights for Saturday night's Earth Hour that Com Ed's demand in the Chicago area went down by 7% and throughout the rest of the state by 1%. We forgot about it at our house, not that it mattered to us anyway. But Earth Hour certainly mattered to our new governor:
Gov. Pat Quinn flipped a 4-foot-tall light switch in Chicago Saturday to kick off the 60-minute annual event sponsored by the World Wildlife Fund. Hundreds of communities throughout the state participated in the international campaign to highlight the need for conservation.
And ComEd has obviously bought into the PC line:
The 2008 Earth Hour cut the Chicago area's electrical use by roughly 7 percent, said Rachel Gerds, a spokeswoman for Commonwealth Edison Co. Adjusted for weather, ComEd customers saved more than 800 megawatt hours, the equivalent of 150 acres of trees, Gerds said.
So, did you participate? Do you believe ComEd's report or, like the skeptics among us, do you think ComEd lied about the impact of this year's Earth Hour?
