Standing By

I read a while back about rumblings within the EU that in future all new electronic products would be banned from coming with 'stanby' modes. The idea being that millions of billions of electrical widgets are lost each year throughout Europe's households for no reason whatsoever.

Some may see this as gross micro management by a inefficient and barely legitimate Brussels. And of course they'd be correct. But I still think the pros outweigh the cons in this one. Europe needs to become the world leader when it comes to energy efficiency and the use of renewables. The near empty North sea oil aside, Europe has barely any energy resources of its own and it puts the continent in a dangerous place. We shouldn't need to rely on the sacrifice of American teenagers in the Middle East, and Putin's goodwill in Russia for our oil and gas supplies.

If the ruling could go hand in hand with the insistence that all new electrical equipment met the highest energy standards and the outlawing of old fashioned light bulbs, which I think are both on their way then we could be onto a good thing.

There is no magic bullet to solve Europe's energy problems. And bar the invention, and widescale adoption of nuclear fusion it will have to be numerous little steps that take us closer to energy independence. This is one of those steps. The electrical companies have seen this coming for years now, so the EU shouldn't hesistate to enact it as soon as possible.