Energy efficiency. Energy conservation. Save, baby, save. These ideas may not sound exciting or sexy, but they are the best first steps toward dealing with climate change, according to a diverse panel of experts at an environmental journalism seminar in Washington earlier this month.
The 2008 Grantham Prize Seminar took place September 8 at the Newseum in downtown Washington, a few hours after the awarding of the Grantham Prize for environmental reporting.
Sitting on the seminar panel to discuss “The Climate Policy Puzzle: Piecing Together Solutions” were Juliet Eilperin (Washington Post environment and politics reporter); Bracken Hendricks (senior fellow with the Center for American Progress and a founder of the Apollo Alliance); James J. McCarthy (professor of biological oceanography at Harvard University and current president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science); Jim Rogers (chair, president and CEO of Duke Energy); and David Goldston (columnist for the journal Nature and a former Chief of Staff of the House Committee on Science). Lisa Mullins, anchor and senior producer of The World, moderated the discussion.
They talked about politics and climate change, prospects for a bill in Congress and the presidential candidates’ climate views. Two things that kept coming up were the ideas of energy conservation and energy efficiency. Most of the panelists agreed these are significant things we can do right now to reduce energy use and carbon emissions.
Here are a few quotes from the panel discussion:
David Goldston: “It would be better to hear people say ‘save, baby, save.’ Conserve. Energy efficiency is a cheaper, easier better way to start.”
Jim Rogers: “We need to aspire to become the most energy efficient economy in the world. Because, a.) The world is going to 9 billion people by 2050, will put stress on commodities, cement, you name it. 1.6 billion people who don’t have electricity or access to the modern world,” and are going to want it, he said. They need access and deserve it.
Bracken Hendricks: Energy efficiency has great potential.
Jim Rogers: “I’d like to see an arms race on energy efficiency … That would make a difference in our world … Electricity industry mission for the 21st century: Bring access to energy efficient products and services. Save-a-Watt program – we get incented for every megawatt I reduce. I believe we’re at the threshold of changing our mission … our business model.”
(You can watch a video of the panel discussion here.)
Can Americans use less energy? If the response to high gasoline prices is any indication, the answer is yes. Since last November, Americans have driven 53.2 billion miles less than they did over the same period a year earlier, according to the Federal Highway Administration. In June 2008, we drove 4.7 percent fewer miles than in June 2007.
High energy prices might encourage people to conserve, but the challenge is huge. The Department of Energy expects electricity demand for residences to rise 27 percent by 2030.
Jim Rogers’ idea for a Save-a-Watt program — giving power companies incentives to help consumers use less energy — makes a lot of sense to me. I first read about this about a year ago in a column by Thomas Friedman of the New York Times. In the Grantham forum this month, Rogers indicated that state regulations are making it difficult to implement his Save-a-Watt program. That’s a shame.
As Rogers said in the Friedman article, “The most environmentally sound, inexpensive and reliable power plant is the one we don’t have to build because we’ve helped our customers save energy.”
How can we get there and conserve more energy and make our use of energy more efficient? Should states implement Save-a-Watt? How much can conservation and energy efficiency help? Post your comments here!
One of the mistakes I see people make is the term of renewable energy. This statement is false since it goes against “The First Law of Thermodynamics” which states that “energy cannot be made or destroyed”. I do see effency as the key. I see many household appliences where effency could be boosted like A/C’s. One of the advantages of being a mechanic’s son is to find out that cars are innefficient. About 80% of the energy goes out the tailpipe.
Jim Rogers touting energy efficiency is like Don Juan touting the virtues of chastity. Fine Jim - but you are the poster boy for hypocrisy. Duke Energy is building one coal plant and trying to build another - and has two nuclear reactors being planned. His Save-A-Watt proposal is predominently an extremely expensive scam to do load shifting with almost no energy efficiency. Fourteen environmental, poverty, and consumer groups are opposing it in North Carolina. Rogers is the king of Greenscaming. One just has to look past what he says and look at what Duke Energy actually does.
I like the idea of bicycling - burning up calories instead of gas.
I like the idea of bicycling, too. I lived in downtown Detroit for several years, and I found it possible and pleasuable to be car free– my bike took me most places, public transit was not great but workable. It was not as easy as my hometown, Toronto, where a bike is the simplest and most joyful way of travelling, but it was doable, and lots of fun.
I would like to see planning that protects and restores wild places, watersheds, and other intact ecosystems.
I would like to see food policy that encourages regional self-sufficiency, that protects and encourages small, efficient and organic farms, and that helps us all to grow the food where the people live, right inside the towns and cities, in public and private garden and small farm spaces. I would like to see us thinking of the food we grow and eat as our medicine and our pleasure.
Adapting our patterns of living so that we have walkable lives is one sure way of using fewer energy resources without creating a feeling of lack. Rather, it makes you feel rich and good to walk through a real, thriving neighbourhood full of people who know you.
Walking to school, to work, to our friend’s homes, to our shops and to our shared public cultural and recreational spaces– returning to an older village or parish way of life (walking to synagogue on the Sabbath was a custom that shaped the neighbourhood I grew up in), this way of life is gentle and just, and it helps local businesses and other community structures and institutions thrive in ethical and sustainable ways.
When you have real, entertaining friendships, and lots of interesting things going on outside in the park or garden (where you have lots of work that needs doing to do, as well), you don’t go shopping to see people, to have some thing to do, to avoid loneliness, and you don’t watch TV to stave off boredom.
I ride a bike and turn off lights… I try to unplug them when I go out, but remembering to that is a bit of a pain… I’d love to someday go off grid, but for now, I don’t even yet have the money for new appliances, and as soon as I can manage to replace those, my carbon footprint will be much smaller– how much tax spending would have to be diverted to make sure everyone had efficient appliances and well insulated home and compact flourecent lightbulbs, I wonder? Would it cost as much as a power plant, or two, or three?
Energy conservation is an important part of making any forward looking alternative energy strategy work. It has been estimated that with current solar technologies, the states of the desert Southwest could produce enough solar energy to exceed the electrical demands of our nation. Reflector solar technologies are proven to be viable now. The Mojave solar park, when finished in 2011, will provide enough electricity for 400,000 homes. That’s just one plant.
With each individual improving their efficiency and cutting consumption to 50% (very doable in the next 5-10 years by simply replacing lighting and appliances as they wear out with energy efficient versions) such a plant could serve 800,000 homes with no increase in output and zero green house emissions. That’s just one plant that takes up less land than a coal fired power plant of the same capacity.
However, to every silver lining, there is a cloud. I live in Nevada and I am keenly aware of why alternative energy won’t be coming to your town any time soon. Presently, the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) and their staff enviropoliticians are purposefully standing in the way of the development of solar plants by imposing huge land use study fees, outrageous fees on permits, years of application review delays, and bickering over things as stupid as the use of water to clean the reflectors and enforcing dust laws. Many investors are simply giving up and walking away from the table in total dismay over how antagonistic the BLM is towards solar plants.
While energy conservation is critical to the success of future energy technologies, also critical to its success might be to fire the politicians who make a living off standing in the way of new energy technologies. “Place reflectors here and now!” IMHO
Hi!
Good blogs