FreeLists / az-observing / [AZ-Observing] Re: [Fwd: Re: Re: Astronomy an unhealthy activity? NO! Light Pollution is Unhealthy!!]

[Tom Polakis <tpolakis@xxxxxxx>]

Howard C. Anderson wrote:
> I understand the President wants us all to save energy.  I wonder how 
> much energy
> is used in lighting our streets so bright that I cannot tell whether my 
> headlights are on?
> 
> How much does it cost?  Does anyone know where they keep the light bill 
> for Phoenix,
> Tempe, Scottsdale, Mesa, etc.? 


The 2005-06 budget for the City of Tempe is here:

http://www.tempe.gov/budget/FY%2005-06/06_Line%20Item.pdf


On Page 16 of 418(!) are the electric bill numbers.  They show $4.2M, and $900K 
of that is for street lighting.  The entire City of Tempe budget is $288M.

So lighting represents roughly 20% of the city's electric bill, and 0.3% of the 
total budget.  You can see why it's a tough sell to pitch a wholesale change in 
streetlighting using an argument based on budget alone. 

A long time back, Tim Hunter gave a talk about the IDA to EVAC.  When I asked 
him about the percentage of energy consumption due to lighting, the figure he 
gave was 10%.

Tom

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