Let's Make Washington D.C. Give Up Their Air Conditioning

Five years ago today I stood outside the gates of the White House waiting for a tour that unfortunately never happened (that story is here).  The remnants of a Gulf hurricane had blown north into D.C. and the humidity and heat were off the charts.  Even at 7 o'clock in the morning it was absolutely brutal.  When we found out our tour was canceled we headed over to the White House Visitor's Center across the street and was greeted with blessed air conditioning.  When the door opened and I was hit with that cold blast all I wanted to do was stand there and bask in the hurricane of cool heaven pouring from the building.

Today in the Washington Post Stan Cox tries to make the case that the country needs to stop using air conditioning to save the planet from global warming.  While he didn't convince me in the least that America needs to do without, he did make a good case for ending air conditioning in D.C.:

Washington didn't grind to a sweaty halt last week under triple-digit temperatures. People didn't even slow down. Instead, the three-day, 100-plus-degree, record-shattering heat wave prompted Washingtonians to crank up their favorite humidity-reducing, electricity-bill-busting, fluorocarbon-filled appliance: the air conditioner.

This isn't smart. In a country that's among the world's highest greenhouse-gas emitters, air conditioning is one of the worst power-guzzlers. The energy required to air-condition American homes and retail spaces has doubled since the early 1990s. Turning buildings into refrigerators burns fossil fuels, which emits greenhouse gases, which raises global temperatures, which creates a need for -- you guessed it -- more air-conditioning.

A.C.'s obvious public-health benefits during severe heat waves do not justify its lavish use in everyday life for months on end. Less than half a century ago, America thrived with only the spottiest use of air conditioning. It could again. While central air will always be needed in facilities such as hospitals, archives and cooling centers for those who are vulnerable to heat, what would an otherwise A.C.-free Washington look like?

At work

In a world without air conditioning, a warmer, more flexible, more relaxed workplace helps make summer a time to slow down again. Three-digit temperatures prompt siestas. Code-orange days mean offices are closed. Shorter summer business hours and month-long closings -- common in pre-air-conditioned America -- return.

Business suits are out, for both sexes. And with the right to open a window, office employees no longer have to carry sweaters or space heaters to work in the summer. After a long absence, ceiling fans, window fans and desk fans (and, for that matter, paperweights) take back the American office.

Best of all, Washington's biggest business -- government -- is transformed. In 1978, 50 years after air conditioning was installed in Congress, New York Times columnist Russell Baker noted that, pre-A.C., Congress was forced to adjourn to avoid Washington's torturous summers, and "the nation enjoyed a respite from the promulgation of more laws, the depredations of lobbyists, the hatching of new schemes for Federal expansion and, of course, the cost of maintaining a government running at full blast."

Post-A.C., Congress again adjourns for the summer, giving "tea partiers" the smaller government they seek. During unseasonably warm spring and fall days, hearings are held under canopies on the Capitol lawn. What better way to foster open government and prompt politicians to focus on climate change?

Of course, the writer ignores the fact that just about every office-type building built in the last 50 years was built with air conditioning in mind and doesn't have any windows that can be opened. That certainly would complicate his plan.

However, the idea of a Congress restricted to cooler months would be a blessed relief for America.  And while we're at it, let's take away their heat too so they can't meet during the coldest part of the winter and pass stupid things like Obamacare on Christmas Eve like they did last year.