That’s the Fox News headline we can expect if US environmental campaigners get their way. A hilarious petition has been launched, to get the White House of President-elect Barack Obama to use a clothes line instead of a dryer. The idea comes from a group I’ve never heard of before, called Project Laundry List*.

The image below is a screen capture of the natty flash animation petition.

Should we petition that Kevin Rudd install some hills-hoists on the lawns at Parliament House and his official residences, Kirribilli House and The Lodge?

When I lived in California for a few months I was amazed that locals didn’t use washing lines.

I spent time living and working in a semi-arid, mid-state Cali, at a residential facility run by the Department of Resources and they didn’t even have a clothes line! So us Aussies put our washing up on the fences and were confirmed as ‘crazy kangaroos’.

At the time someone quipped that the amount of energy Americans used in clothes dryers was roughly the same as they generated in nuclear power plants. I suspect nukes circa 1990 generated a bit more than that, but the point is taken; you have nothing to lose but your lint filters!

* “Project Laundry List is a nonprofit organization whose mission is making air-drying laundry acceptable and desirable as a simple and effective way to save energy. Learn more about the work of our 501(c)(3) and make comments on our our blog, The Clothes Peg.”