Puget Sound Energy’s pilot project to reduce energy use on Bainbridge Island is giving Kitsap Sun political columnist Pam Dzama visions of a dystopian future in which the government regulates all energy use and bananas are a controlled substance.

“The government started slowly to implement procedures which rescued the world. The first thing targeted was energy usage. It started as a pilot program on Bainbridge Island in 2009 when a number of Island residents agreed to have a thermostat installed in their homes which could be controlled by Puget Sound Energy in times of high electricity use. It was supposed to regulate in-home power consumption without having to build an additional substation. It was a success. By 2020 those thermostats were in all residential and commercial buildings nationwide and electricity use was regulated by the government.

After this energy regulation was enacted, everyone in the country was assigned a personal “carbon allowance.” A “green road tax” was imposed and massive transit programs initiated to get people out of vehicles.”

Also in the year 2065: Ford begins making tiny solar-powered “Clever Cars,” the government mandates monthly home safety inspections, and sugar, beef and pineapple are sold only on the black market.

Read more of Dzama’s column here.