Summer's here, so's the governor

Ed Rendell must have a restaurant he really likes in Ridley. He’s becoming a regular.

Just a couple of days after he held a hearing at Ridley High School pushing his school education plan, the governor was back in town yesteday, talking about his energy initiative at the Ridley Community Center.

His timing could not have been better.

Rendell had a warning for residents: If you think the cost of gasoline is putting a crimp in your wallet, wait until you see what’s in store with the price of electricity. You can read Alex Rose’s account here.

The short version is that electricity is about to get a lot more expensive. Rendell is pushing a package of bills to cut electricity demand in Pennsylvania by 2.5 percent and peak demand by 4 percent by 2013.

I wouldn’t count on that happening this weekend. My guess is that all across Delaware County, residents are breaking out the air-conditioners, fans and anything else they can get their hands on to stay cool.

That’s because we’re about to jump ahead a few weeks and enjoy our first real blast of summer weather. That’s as in blast furnace.

Starting tomorrow and right through the middle of next week, temperatures are expected in the mid to high 90s. And we’ll have high humidity as well. They’re saying we could shatter the record for high temperatures on Sunday and Monday.

So saving on air conditioning likely won’t be high on residents’ to-do lists. Staying cool will.

Maybe Rendell can come back to Ridley and do one of his classic pool-opening photo ops, just as he did as mayor of Philly when he took the plunge into local community pools.

One thing’s for certain, he’d have lots of company.

Let’s all keep our cool out there this weekend, folks.

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