What a heady time it was!  The Reagan Revolution had begun with his election in 1980 and there was one hugely symbolic, meaningful act that the new regime was delighted to perform to show that the old regime had gone and a new philosophy had emerged.

The newly arrived Reagan team could hardly wait to have functionaries climb onto the White House roof and remove all those absurd solar energy collectors that the man they considered the big bad wolf of pessimists, President Jimmy Carter, had installed, warning all the while about energy depletion and the severed consequences that this held not only for America but the entire planet.

While the era of Doctor Feelgood Reagan had begun the new team and followers had almost as much fun poking fun at Reagan's successor as California's governor, Jerry Brown, as they did Carter.  

Brown was designated "Governor Moonbeam" since those ideas he was advocating had, like Carter's, an "Uncle Scrooge" implication.  Brown warned of an ecological disaster if America did not face the challenge of runaway energy consumption.  How absurd, the critics laughed, the guy was in the wrong century and sounded like Thomas Malthus reinvented.