Conservation, conservation, conservation
It’s the 10,000lb elephant in the discussion of global climate change and renewable energy. It’s not politically popular. (I hear echoes of Dick Cheney: “Conservation may be a sign of personal virtue, but it is not a sufficient basis for a sound, comprehensive energy policy.”) It’s not easy to monetize or enforce. Yet realistically, conservation is by far our greatest untapped energy resource in the U.S. today.
One of my pet peeves when debating our energy policy and its global ramifications is the classic complaint “we can’t afford to clean up our energy supply. The only way to reduce green house gas emissions is to raise taxes!” It’s ever so disheartening to find that so many of our fearless leaders in Washington are so clueless about the realities of energy policy. There are exactly two ways to reduce green house gas emissions but we only think about the first. 1) Change the energy source. 2) Reduce the energy demand.
Here’s the beauty of conservation: it’s cheaper than free! If we can make incremental changes to our homes, cars, cities, and overall lifestyle, we will collectively save billions of dollars while reducing pollution and green house gas emissions.
But wait! It gets better: due to the extraction, transportation, and distribution needs in our national energy system, conservation actually has a multiplicative effect. Saving 100 kilowatt/hours of electricity at my home is equivalent to 105 kilowatt/hours of electricity at thepower plant , which is equivalent to 160 kilowatt/hours of coal at the plant, which is equivalent to 200 kilowatt/hours of coal still in the ground. (This is an example for electricity; the reader can perform a similar calculation for gasoline.) By simply reducing my demand, I multiplied my energy savings by a factor of two!
Conservation is not an overnight change. It is a gradual process of shifting priorities and shifting cultural values and norms. It can start in simple ways, like replacing yourincandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent , washing your laundry in cold water, or using fans instead of an air conditioner during cooler days in the summer. Larger changes might be an increase in public transportation or a vigorous car-pooling initiative paired with the addition of HOV lanes, consumers buying local foods and products, or using smart landscaping to take advantage of passive solar energy. The next step in this progression is a rebirth in city living–by far the least energy intensive–and gradual elimination of the bedroom suburb.
You’ll notice that exactly zero of the initiatives mentioned above require raising taxes or significant capital investment. These are all things that we could be doing today. The biggest limitation thus far is a vacuum of leadership at the federal and state level when it comes to conservation. Jimmy Carter had it right when he asked us all to conserve to soften the spike in oil prices. And guess what? It worked.
Filed under climate change, culture, energy : Comments (0) : Apr 7th, 2007 by tadfad
