Californian government intrudes into your home

Thanks to the Liberty Papers, I was alerted to this really disturbing, completely idiotic and alarmingly menacing intrusion into people's homes in California

Basically, ever heating and cooling system in every home needs to be remote controlled, so that the government can over-ride the home owner and take over the system "in the event of emergencies".

How much this sickens me ! Where are your property rights! Its your home, you should be able to do with it as you please. If anybody else has a right to charge you a fee, or rates, or taxes, or tell you how you must use your property, then you are losing your rights of ownership over the asset, and government is intruding and asserting control over it. This is really the same sentiment that drives Venezuelan thug Hugo Chavez to take over the nations banking and oil industries, and Zimbabwean despot Robert Mugabe to take over farming and agriculture.

Now California plans to control your energy consumption, probably to turn off air conditioning in the event of power shortages, or to tell people not to set their thermostats too low.

Read the details below, even those not acquainted with classical liberal ideas, the concept of property rights, the appreciation of liberty as an end in itself, will find this deeply disturbing.

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c) Thermostats. All unitary heating and/or cooling systems including heat pumps that are not controlled by a central energy management control system (EMCS) shall have a Programmable Communicating Thermostat (PCT) that is certified by the manufacturer to the Energy Commission to meet the requirements of Subsections 112(c)(1) and 112(c)(2) below:

1. Setback Capabilities. All PCTs shall have a clock mechanism that allows the building occupant to program the temperature set points for at least four periods within 24 hours. Thermostats for heat pumps shall meet the requirements of Section 112(b).

2. Communicating Capabilities. All PCTs shall be distributed with a non-removable Radio Data System (RDS) communications device that is compatible with the default statewide DR communications system, which can be used by utilities to send price and emergency signals. PCTs shall be capable of receiving and responding to the signals indicating price and emergency events as follows.

A. Price Events. The PCT shall be shipped with default price-event offsets of +4°F for cooling and -4°F for heating enabled; however, customers shall be able to change the offsets and thermostat settings at any time during price events. Upon receiving a price-event signal, the PCT shall adjust the thermostat setpoint by the number of degrees indicated in the offset for the duration specified in the signal of the price event. The PCT shall also be equipped with the capability to allow customers to define setpoints for heating and cooling in response to price signals as an alternative to temperature-offsetting response, as described in Reference Joint Appendix JA5.

B. Emergency Events. Upon receiving an emergency signal, the PCT shall respond to commands contained in the emergency signal, including changing the setpoint by any number of degrees or to a specific temperature setpoint. The PCT shall not allow customer changes to thermostat settings during emergency events.