Conservation - Energy's Best-Kept Secret

Energy is never far from the newswire.  Should we build the Keystone Pipeline to help Canada move its oil to the U.S. and also to international markets via Houston?  Do we dare to apply sanctions to Iran that might disrupt world oil supply?  Will the projected increases in fuel prices this summer derail our economic recovery?  Can we ignore the effect that burning fossil fuels has on global climate?  Is fracking (hydraulic fracturing) for natural gas safe?  Should we stop building coal-powered power plants that are known to be major polluters?

In most of our discussions about energy, we all seem to be die-hard supply-siders.  We focus most of our attention on how to obtain more energy and very little on how to make better use of what we have.

It is difficult to know how much energy we waste in the United States.  Information provided by the Department of Energy^[1] and Lawrence Livermore labs^[2] has been used to argue that we waste more than half of the energy we use. That may an overstatement since conversion and transmission of energy inevitably lead to some loss.

Nevertheless, we do use an extraordinary amount of energy, and much of it is unnecessary. In 2009, the U.S. consumed 9.4 quadrillion BTUs of energy.^[3] That is enough energy to heat all of the water in the Atlantic Ocean by more than half a degree.^[4]  We also know that the U.S. uses more than twice as much energy per person as does the European Union and more than four times as much as the world average.^[5]

We spend a lot of time, money and effort trying to find clean and renewable ways to produce energy, and we should.  However, it appears unlikely that any of these will be game changers in the near future. 

We wring our hands about energy independence, engage in wars over energy resources, and support horrible governments to get access to their oil. We dig in places that would be better left undisturbed. We pollute our environment with the byproducts of burning unbelievable amounts of fossil fuels. We flirt with unimaginable disasters by using nuclear energy.  We extract oil from sources like tar sands that are known to be environmentally damaging.  We extract natural gas using fracking techniques that pump thousands of gallons of toxic chemicals into our underground aquifers and may increase the odds of earth quakes.   And all the time the real payoff is simply to quit wasting energy. Conservation doesn’t mean sitting at home in the dark with your coat on. It simply means stopping the flow of energy that isn’t needed.

The opportunities are everywhere and include insulation, smart lights, smart power grids, black pipes on roofs to heat water, heat pumps, high mileage vehicles, goods shipped by train rather than truck, passengers moved by train or bus rather than by plane or car, high efficiency furnaces and air conditioners, and smart buildings. The opportunities are almost endless, and the government can have an enormous impact on facilitating their implementation by providing incentives and assistance. Doing so will create jobs, increase our quality of life, reduce pollution, improve international relations, and improve our business climate.

Conservation may not be as cool as some sexy new technology, but it sure makes a lot of sense.

References

[1] http://www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data/annual/index.cfm#summary
[2] https://www.llnl.gov/news/newsreleases/2010/images/energy-flow-annotated.pdf
[3] http://www.pennenergy.com/index/articles/display.articles.pennenergy.power.operations-reliability.2010.05.us-energy_consumption.QP129867.dcmp=rss.page=1.html
[4] http://www.chacha.com/question/how-many-gallons-of-water-are-in-the-atlantic-ocean
[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_energy_resources_and_consumption