Kilowatt Ours

by Jeff Barrie

Kilowatt Ours

The film opens with Vice President Dick Cheney's energy policy speech in which Cheney makes the claim that America needs nearly 1900 new power plants in the next 20 years to meet projected electricity demands.

Kilowatt Ours challenges this assertion by presenting an alternative based on conservation and renewable power. Produced on a $20,000 budget, this 65-minute documentary reveals the underreported side effects resulting from America's voracious appetite for coal-generated electricity. Kilowatt Ours follows filmmaker Jeff Barrie on his 18-month journey across the southeast United States, where more than six tons of coal are burned to generate electricity for the average home annually. Barrie takes viewers from our light switches at home to the sources of our energy, examining social and environmental consequences such as global warming, mountain top removal, air pollution, childhood asthma and mercury contamination.