I had to repost this.  The photo is beautiful, but the subject matter is so important and it’s something that we at Wattbot learned from the very beginning.  Saving energy is something that red states and blue states and young and old people care about, but it’s all in the messaging and for Kansas “thrifty” and “energy independence” are phrases that resignate most with them.

Justin Brigman, 9, ate by candlelight with his parents at Martinelli’s Little Italy, a restaurant in Salina, Kan., that was among several in the area that left their lights off in their dining areas to conserve energy around Valentine’s Day. The effort was part of the competition in six communities to see which one could reduce its energy consumption the most. In the course of the program, which ended last spring, energy use in the towns declined as much as 5 percent relative to other areas — a giant step in the world of energy conservation, where a program that yields a 1.5 percent decline is considered successful.

Credit: Steve Hebert for The New York Times