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Efficiency and conservation get lip service from the Bush Administration, but when it actually comes down to doing something effective, like raising efficiency standards of air conditioners, the special interests of corporations trump everything else.
Even the NPC report recommends some attention be paid to conservation. But almost every other recommendation in its report is undercut by a study conducted for the Energy Foundation by the
American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. The ACEEE recommends efficiency targets for utilities, appliance efficiency standards, building energy codes, renewable energy targets, and tax credits for efficient and renewable energy technologies.
Says Neal Elliott, Industry Program Director at ACEEE and co-author of the study: "Contrary to what many are saying, there is something we can do about natural gas prices right now. Increased efficiency and renewable energy can reduce natural gas prices quickly and affordably."
Typical analyses of the natural gas situation look only at supply solutions that will take five or more years to make an impact. The ACEEE study focuses on results during those next five years.
Among other things, ACEEE's analysis shows that natural gas expenditures by electric power generators would decrease by $6.2 billion in 2004 and by as much as $10.4 billion by 2008 merely by adopting energy efficiency and renewable energy policies. This reduction would likely reduce electricity rates as well.
Obviously, conservation and improved efficiency cannot meet all our energy needs. As novice financial investors are always warned: diversify. That's exactly what we need in our energy "portfolio." To do so, we must escape from the Old Paradigm entrenched in the Bush-Cheney Energy Plan.
Two excellent and comprehensive alternatives are the National Energy Policy Initiative sponsored by the Rocky Mountain Institute and Consensus Building Institute, and the Natural Resources Defense Council's A Responsible Energy Policy for the 21st Century.
For a marvelously well-written and thought-provoking piece about smart energy, distributed power and other near-future possibilities, I cannot recommend highly enough Steve Silberman's July 2001 article in Wired magazine.
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