This entry was posted on 3/28/2007 9:42 PM and is filed under uncategorized.
Multiple choice:
The best way to increase energy conservation is:
A. Government regulation similar to efficiency standards for common appliances and CAFE standards.
B. Have the price of non-renewable energy more closely match it's total costs (includes items like environmental damage, and dollars and lives "spent" in attempts to secure oil)
Discussion on A - Efficiency standards for appliances have saved energy. But, how is the Department of Energy (DOE) doing on meeting their 34 mandatory rule-making deadlines? According to a GAO report, they've missed every one. As reported in a Los Angeles times article,
"Analysts at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory calculated that the missed deadlines for just four of the more popular appliances would ultimately cost consumers at least $28 billion in forgone energy savings -- equivalent to the annual primary energy consumption of about 20 million households. The delays will also result in 53 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions, about the same as 1% of total U.S. carbon dioxide emissions in 2004, the analysts reported."
And, how much are we paying the DOE to miss these deadlines? Inefficient government meddling; let the market decide.
Discussion on B - What if some of the really smart people at DOE were working instead to determine the best way to phase-in a tax shift from income to non-renewable energy so that the price more closely reflected the actual cost of the use of these resources?
Where would gas consumption be today if we hadn't had the regulation-driven mileage increases of the 1980s (which resulted from the gas crises of the 1970s)? Other energy efficiency standards, such as the EnergyStar program, drive huge savings in electricity today.
The problem is less with the scientists and regulators who would come up with tougher standards than it is with the elected politicians and political appointees who intentionally impede such efforts. They serve the corporate interests who provide them with enough campaign contributions to almost-guaranteed reelection every term.
Because most Americans are sleepwalking through their roles as citizens, I don't expect US politics to change sufficiently in the near-term to enable a better regulatory process. That does not mean, however, that we should abandon that route altogether. We can start implementing tax shifting as an ADDITIONAL method of addressing these problems. Reply to this
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