Better late than never

The Star notes that Toronto's public housing authority is finally replacing older appliances with new, energy-efficient ones:

Toronto Community Housing Corp. expects to spend about $30 million by the end of 2007 to replace about 75,000 appliances. About 25,000 have been replaced this year at the public housing company, Canada's largest with 58,500 units.

When finished, the shift to new efficient appliances is projected to reduce electricity demand by 10 megawatts, saving enough juice to power 10,000 homes.

It's a shame it took this long for the housing authority to make a full move toward more responsible resource use - while the extent of last summer's strain on Ontario's power grid may have been relatively new, surely nobody could be surprised that it's possible to avoid a lot of unnecessary waste by replacing such a large number of outdated appliances. But at the very least, the authority is starting to set a positive example now.