Is The Ability To Reality Check Figures A Dead Art?
From the Thin Green Line, an environmental blog I often criticize for it incredible credulity in accepting bizarre figures, comes this whopper:
Is Ganja green? TGL has covered the issue before, but a new study undertaken by a Lawrence Livermore scientist gives us some real numbers (H/T New York Times Green)....
In California, indoor cultivation is responsible for a whopping 8 percent of household electricity usage. But, California grows only about a fifth of the nation's bong hits and much of what we grow goes to out-of-state consumers....
The study, written by Evan Mills on his own (non-government-funded) time, makes the case for legalizing and regulating grow operations, suggesting that if marijuana didn't have to be grown in secret and indoors, efficiency could be improved by as much as 75 percent.
Readers of this blog will know that I am all for marijuana legalization. But how can anyone accept this figure. Eight percent? Really? This would be larger than the total residential electricity use of Vermont and New Hampshire combined, solely for pot growing in California. I am calling BS.
