Killing conservation

It was a hot day in Baltimore Friday.
It was a lot hotter for people who signed up for an energy conservation program.
People who signed up for the Peak Rewards program had their air conditioning cut off for most of Friday afternoon.
The program offers cash incentives in exchange for letting the power company - BG&E - control your air conditioning when needed.
BG&E said the program worked. People who cooked in their houses beg to differ.
The program probably did work as planned, but not as people who signed up expected. They expected to save money, not cook inside their house.
That's the problem with this program and it's friends - mass transit and Obamacare. You give up control of your life - and hope the big program gives you goodies.
But in case of emergency - a first-ever shutout in BG&E's program history - and what's promised is not worth dealing with the emergency aftermath.
Mass transit works - until the bus breaks down and you're stranded.
Obamacare might work - until the money runs out.
BG&E gave energy conservation a bad name Friday, by running its program by its rules.
People would like to save energy and money - but not have their houses reach 90 degrees or suffer through heat when they are 37-weeks pregnant.