VO: “Do you know where your electricity comes from? I interviewed folks on the streets to find out what people do know.”
BARRIE BEHIND CAMERA: “Do you know ah where you get most of your electricity?”
TEENAGER: (looks away)
GUY IN WHITE HAT: “Um that’s a tough question.”
TEENAGER: “Uummm”
BARRIE BEHIND CAMERA: “Do you know where, do you know how your electricity is generated?”
COUPLE: “No it’s just there! (laughs) Sorry!”
WOMAN IN SUNGLASSES: “I have no idea.”
VO: “In America today, half our electricity is generated from coal. Each kilowatt hour of electricity we use requires about one pound of coal to be burned. One kilowatt hour, or one pound of coal can run 10 light bulbs for an hour, or a refrigerator for half an hour, or an air conditioner or water heater for 15 minutes. The average American home burns 30 kilowatt hours in a single day. That’s more than 900 kilowatt hours per month. In a single year, the typical American home burns more than 5 tons of coal.”
Typical American Home
Native sound: truck dumps coal in front of home
VO: "Five tons per home adds up. America mines and burns more than 1 billion tons of coal every year. This is enough coal to fill a train extending from coast to coast and back, then around the world three times, and we burn this much every year.”
GIBSON: "People that live in the big cities or small towns in America go to the wall and flip a light on and they don't even think about what other people have to go through for that."
VO: “Demand for electricity is rising.”
JOHN SELL (Director of Corporate Communications, Georgia Power, Atlanta, GA): “You know, ten, fifteen years ago, people may have had a-a refrigerator, 1 or 2 T.V.’s and that was about it in their house. Now, many of them have two refrigerators, 4 and 5 T.V.’s, 2 and 3 computers, 2 or 3 microwaves. A lot more appliances, a lot more electricity being consumed.”
WOMAN IN HOUSE: “This is my electric hand lotion warmer…and it helps keep my lotion warm so that way when I put it on my hands, it is not cold.”
VO: “How much coal do you burn?”
Pause