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Princeton narrowly beat Keremeos in the 2012 Earth Hour challenge by a margin of around two per cent.
Keremeos council now owes Princeton mayor and councillors dinner – the prize in a friendly bet between the two communities.
Princeton came out ahead with 24 per cent of its population pledging, while a close 22 per cent of Keremeos took part.
Seventeen communities competed, and Princeton came in third.
Salmo – a small community east of Castlegar – came in first place.
Keremeos beat Princeton and all other communities in the challenge last year, causing Princeton to step up its game this time.
More than 120 people showed up to Princeton’s Earth Hour hotspot at Veterans Square yesterday evening for conservation-related goodies, kids’ contests, glow-stick handouts and free hotdogs.
Many business and residential lights turned off for an hour starting at 8:30 p.m., in recognition of the annual energy-saving event.
“We really believe in getting youth involved in conservation,” said Coun. Fred Armitage.
“Tonight is a wonderful, different way to get everyone out.”
In total, more than 6,000 pledges to participate were registered with FortisBC, a record-setting number that’s more than triple from last year.
This resulted in a 1.7 per cent drop in electricity consumption – or 5.48 megawatts during Earth Hour – that’s equal to switching off approximately 90,000 60W incandescent light bulbs.
In the FortisBC area last year, electricity consumption dropped by around one per cent during Earth Hour – equal to switching off about 60,000 incandescent light bulbs.
“Earth Hour 2012 showed us how easy it is to save energy and reduce GHG emissions by taking some pretty easy steps and I challenge British Columbians to continue saving energy whenever they can,” said Environment Minister Terry Lake.
