From 4 to 5 p.m. on Thursday, June 21, Penn State will again test the University Park campus' capability to reduce its electricity load when called upon during national or regional power emergencies. Last year's test reduced the power load by 20,000 kilowatts -- 1.5 times the electricity demand of all the homes in Bellefonte -- but the high temperature was 10 degrees lower. Thursday's heat may mean this "test" is a real event. University Park occupants are asked to limit all unnecessary electrical consumption under individual control.

University rates for electricity have doubled in the past year and Penn State now pays $24 million per year to power University Park. The University is asking all students and employees to help conserve resources over Thanksgiving break.

Farmers should not be paying Pennsylvania sales tax on electricity, according to an energy expert in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences. However, some are, noted Dennis Buffington, professor of agricultural engineering. "While visiting farms over the past few months, I was surprised to see that a number of producers were being charged the full 6 percent of sales tax on their electricity bills," he said. "The bills were for farmers who are on commercial rates (as opposed to residential rates) for their dairy farms and poultry farms."

According to a report released by the Natural Resource Defense Council (NRDC), gaming consoles, which populate nearly 40 percent of U.S. households, consume about $1.6 billion worth of energy annually -- an amount equal to the annual energy consumption of San Diego. The NRDC report encourages gaming console owners to set their systems to an automatic "sleep" function. According to the report, using these energy conserving, power-management features could save about 11 billion kWh of electricity a year, cut the nation's electricity costs by more than $1 billion a year, and avoid more than 7 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions a year.

Penn State has filed an appeal in Commonwealth Court to a recent ruling of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) that will cause electric rates on the University Park campus to increase by an estimated $18 million over the next two years.