Don't waste the energy that I am trying to save

One of many frustrations that environmentalists endure is that of seeing so much energy wasted in our society while we are making conscious efforts to save it.

While it is a bit of a non sequitur to tie the electricity I manage to save by making active energy use choices to the waste of energy by any one particular user, it is annoying at best to make those choices and to see a case of unnecessary energy use and to know that it is wasting more energy than I am saving.

I heard that the new Memorial Bridge being built in Portsmouth New Hampshire and Maine will be illuminated by LED lights as kind of a show piece, a local focal point.  Probably something that will show up in tourist brochures.  The announcement spoke of energy efficient LEDs.  Now anyone who has followed my blog knows that I am a promoter of LED lights.  But, I promote LEDs as a replacement for other less efficient bulbs, NOT as excuses to light the world unnecessarily.

I found this article with photos on the subject:

http://portsmouth-nh.patch.com/articles/psnh-donates-40k-to-memorial-bridge-lighting-project

I hope that they use LED street lights, if they feel the need (I do not share the opinion that the bridge needs lights at all) to illuminate the road surface, but to put decorative lights on the bridge and to use the excuse that the lights are energy efficient masks the reality that energy is being wasted.  I am sure that the lighting of this bridge will not be "dark sky compliant" which is another reason to oppose such lighting of the bridge.

I remember reading an article somewhere that spoke of the moral hazard of energy efficiency technology.  It spoke of the risk that the low relative cost of energy efficient technologies would lead to wasteful use of those technologies.  Sadly I see this as an example of that process.

So whether it is lighting a bridge unneccesarily, or any other wasteful use of energy, please, don't waste the energy that I am trying to save.