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It was early, it was dark and, unfortunately, I was awake. As we drove toward Des Moines from the northeast, I remarked on the eerie glow of the streetlights reflected in the overcast sky. Then my son noticed a distinctly brighter glow north of town.

Hmm. The standard night sky color of the 21st century is sodium-vapor orange. What was this white spot all about? Then, you might say, the answer dawned on me. That was no pre-Christmas miracle; that was the location of the two car dealerships at the south edge of Ankeny: Karl Chevrolet and Dewey Ford. Their thousands of vehicles rest safely under a bluish-white light pouring out of hundreds of fixtures on tall poles. With this much candlepower, you could find everything you ever lost, or maybe even Rod Blagojevich’s sense of decency.

These lights blaze away all night long, deterring thieves and vandals, enabling the astronauts in the International Space Station to shop for a Malibu and reminding us all that America sure does like to use energy.

I dropped the kid off at basketball practice and drove on into downtown. The city is quiet at 6:30 a.m., but it’s not all that dark. You wonder why those noisy crows spend winter nights here? So they can see who they’re talking to.

Although Mayor Frank Cownie got into a fix when he tried turning off some streetlights a few years ago, we do seem to have more than enough illumination bouncing off the empty streets and sidewalks.

And even though you never know when a potential customer may drive past your place of business, the light streaming from company signs doesn’t move much product in the middle of the night.

We pay a lot of attention to gasoline prices, because they’re posted all over the place in big numbers, but electricity? Who knows what that costs?

It was surprising and encouraging when Americans cut back on driving as gas prices soared this year. It’s even more surprising to read that some utility companies reported a decrease in electricity consumption.

The average American uses 14,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year, twice as much as the typical German. However, according to The Wall Street Journal, Duke Energy Corp. recorded a third-quarter decrease of 5.9 percent in electricity sales in the Midwest, including a 9 percent drop among residential customers.

It could be that American families are spooked enough by this year’s economic calamities to actually turn off the lights when they leave a room. What’s next, cooking your own food?

Still, we seem to be a long way from pinching power bill pennies. Out in the country, I see a lot of houses with exterior lighting that just kind of shows you where the walls are. We live in a nation that’s proud of its siding.

When it comes to businesses, lighting can be a more complicated issue.

I called Karl Chevrolet and talked to Shaun Rydl, who actually looked into the idea of reducing the dealership’s outdoor lighting a couple of years ago.

In the first place, Rydl said, a business like Karl Chevrolet is paying about a fourth as much per kilowatt-hour as a homeowner pays. Also, one of the biggest costs of operating the car lot’s high-intensity metal halide lights is warming them up, not letting them shine.

But the biggest factor is the complex electrical grid that powers those lights. It’s not as if they can shut off every other switch on a panel. Each pair of poles constitutes a separate circuit, there are lots of transformers involved … After Rydl consulted with MidAmerican Energy Co., changes didn’t appear to be cost-effective.

Any other cost-cutting measures you guys are looking at? I asked. “People need to do more business, not cut costs,” Rydl suggested.

Shine on.