As California Edison workers head to the unemployment lines en-masse, citizens are gradually getting accustomed to life without electricity. Part of the National Power Policy of the outgoing Clinton administration, the implementation of de-electrification has finally reached the public awareness on the west coast.The policy, meant to foster a more serene "home based" style of living throughout the country was the brainchild of Omar Freedman, the Oregon wildlife enthusiast well known for inventing the "packing peanut" as a means to save trees from destruction and reduce the amount of
newsprint in landfills. "I am so glad to see my lifetime work finally reaching fulfillment" says Freedman. "When America fully returns to the agrarian lifestyle we will truly be free of the technological ties that bind us".
Freedman is credited with coming up with the idea of precipitating the energy crisis by having the Federal
Communications Commission require all broadcast television stations to install a second, high power, digital transmitter. These new "DTV" transmitters each consume as much electricity per hour as the state of Rhode Island consumes in an average winter week.By having TV stations add the DTV transmitters you not only put a tremendous stress on the power generating systems, but you bankrupt the TV stations via their utility bills. "Television and electricity is responsible for our societal decay" retorts Freedman. "Bankrupting the TV media is necessary to restore the functional family" .
Workers have already started dismantling the power grid in preparation for the start of electric utility foreclosure auctions next month.
Demand is high for power generating and transmission equipment in South America, where power hungry consumers have not yet realized the "Zen" of being free of electricity. | 
