The green lobby never tires of telling us how much we are wasting in electricity and then advocating higher taxes to compensate. Every penny I’ve managed to save in the past ten years has been snatched back tenfold in environmental taxes, so I wonder why I bother.
It’s good that I have managed to retain a satisfyingly wide-fit, size 14 “carbon footprint”. Blackpool Illuminations have nothing on the flashing standby lights in my office. Call it cussedness, if you will.
Yet I was shocked today to read the results of a study by the Energy Saving Trust published in The Telegraph. This purports to prove that every last one of us is wasting £86 ($135) a year by leaving our gadgets on standby. Government researchers must own a lot of gadgets not on standby.
Even worse, we are committing the mortal sin of watching six hours of television a day. Previously, they thought it was only an acceptable five. These are all averages and suppositions, mind you. I suppose what I save on watching television I can spend on leaving my gadgets on standby.
I wonder how much of my tax money goes on supporting the windbags at the Energy Saving Trust?