It's a topsy-turvy world, and maybe the problems of two people don't amount to a hill of beans. But this is our hill. And these are our beans!*

Reduced operations at two Ohio power plants have fishermen and bird watchers anticipating a poor winter along Lake Erie.

The coal-burning plants on the lakefront in Cleveland and nearby Eastlake emit warm water that draws fish and rare gulls and ducks during the cold weather months. Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp. announced in August it was cutting back operations only to times of heavier power demand.

Avian education specialist Jim McCormac with the Ohio Division of Wildlife has called the plants "ecotourism magnets" that draw birders from throughout the Midwest. He tells The Plain Dealer the shutdowns are "a real bummer."

Wayne Ritchie has fished near the Eastlake plant for more than 40 years and says the change will "mess up" anglers.

via www.dispatch.com

So is warm water discharge from power plants a positive or a negative externality?

*Leslie Nielsen as Lt Frank Drebin in The Naked Gun