Utilities
Teaser head: Dark Skies Ahead
Teaser blurb: Keeping customers in the dark can be a good public relations move?
Of Sea Turtles and Glare Bombs
Responding to public demand for night-sky protection for the sake of sea turtles and stargazers is paying off for some electric utilities.
Pullquote: "We call dusk-to-dawn security lights 'insecurity lights." -- Bob Gent, spokesman, International Dark-Sky Association
In an increasingly-competitive marketplace, most electric utilities are counting success by the amount of light they're spreading. Other utilities, however, are getting community goodwill and positive publicity by the light they're not shining.
Not shining into the night sky, that is. Because of pressure from groups such as the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA), many states have passed laws forbidding light fixtures that contribute to what critics call "light pollution," the shining of artificial light unnecessarily into the sky at night. Energy conservation is one incentive, safety (when the sudden appearance of a bright light on the curve of a road in a remote area can temporarily blind a driver, for instance) is another. But the most compelling reason is purely aesthetic: the way that light can "wash out" stars in the evening sky for both astronomers and casual stargazers.
According to Bob Gent, spokesman for IDA, hundreds of individual communities across the country have also passed anti-glare ordinances and many new construction projects, such as the Canyon Forest Village near the Grand Canyon, require outdoor light fixtures that restrict light to downward.
Even government agencies, such as the US Geological Survey's Western Ecological Research Center, have gotten in on the act. They provide research support to the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Arizona, which monitors night sky pollution; but no national government entity provides any sort of subsidy for consumer action against night sky pollution, according to USGS's outreach coordinator, Gloria Maedes.
Some utility companies have taken the initiative, however. In 1997, Cincinnati-based Cinergy Corp. sent a brochure to all customers warning them, "Be aware, think about glare." The idea was to alert customers to the way that their use of light could annoy neighbors through what IDA calls "light trespass."
"We call dusk-to-dawn security lights 'insecurity lights,'" quips Gent, who says that the company was responding to numerous customer complaints about "glare bombs."
For several years, Florida Power & Light has conducted a very public (and well-received) campaign to raise awareness of how bright artificial lights can affect sea turtles, which are an endangered species. Such lights distract the nesting mothers and disorient them and their young, making them vulnerable to predators. When they mistake street lights for moonlight, the turtles also can become confused. FPL has developed several lines of shielded lighting that help solve this serious problem, according to Gent.
South Carolina Electric & Gas Company, a subsidiary of SCANA Corporation, began about ten years ago to develop a specialized light shade they call the SCANA Skycap, a design now mass produced by Hubbell Lighting of Christiansburg, Va. SCANA's installation of the shields in their service area, according to Laura Blake-Orr, spokesman for SCE&G, has been a real public relations boon.
"Community reaction has been very positive," says Blake-Orr. "Our local offices work very closely with town administrators and sea turtle volunteers." She says that a large company like SCANA can offer such fixtures on what she calls "a goodwill basis" in the course of regular maintenance; while towns that are undergoing "major lighting upgrades" pay for the Skycaps to be installed en masse.
But smaller utilities who have tried to accommodate vocal opponents of night sky light pollution may have not fared as well. Take the example of tiny Jemez Mountain Electric, a cooperative that serves mainly rural customers in northwest New Mexico. Responding to a local ordinance against night sky pollution that was enacted in 1998 and then later to a statewide ban that took effect in January 2000, the utility began to offer late last year free installation of hoods for outdoor lights.
"We call them cobra lights because they they look like that," says Rafael De La Torre, the co-op's director of engineering and operations. "They shine the light downward, as opposed to 360 degrees and up into the sky."
All the member-owned utility asked was that customers pay for the fixtures, about $40 apiece; and Torres expresses surprise that after all the local lobbying and political pressure to fight night sky pollution, people aren't following through. Only four customers have purchased the shields, even with the offer of free installation.
"I wish more people would call us," says De La Torre. "But I think it's just a matter of time-- as more lights are put up out there, the word will get around."
URLs
Hubbell Lighting <
No Web site for Jemez Mountains Electric
International Dark-Sky Association <
SCANA Corporation <
Cinergy Corp.<
Florida Power & Light <