This article from the WSJ highlights the growing pains in the energy efficiency industry. Boulder, Colorado is walking the path less traveled with respect to creating an energy policy and educating the public on their carbon footprint. The city will eventually be the model to which the rest of the nation looks. All good policy is built on mistakes.
The article also implies the critical need for certified energy auditors (see RESNET) to help homeowners and businesses save the most money on their energy efficiency efforts. I remember one of my energy teachers saying in class, that we need a license to drive a car but we don't need a license to own a home. He was implying that we really don't know how our homes work (see carbon monoxide deaths due to blockage of combustion air) just as we don't know how to drive a car until we are taught. Each home is unique in that it uses energy differently and wastes energy at different rates. A certified energy auditor will be able to examine your home or commercial building and recommend enhancements that will help your home use energy wisely.
And I'll leave you with this one quote in the 4th paragraph of the article:
"What we've found is that for the vast majority of people, it's exceedingly difficult to get them to do much of anything," says Kevin Doran, a senior research fellow at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
I wonder if humans have always been this way. It is certainly possible that we need some sort of existential threat to light a fire under our posterior.
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2 comments:
Because the people won't do it, the govt must make it harder NOT to do it!! ie Gas Tax
Hi Justin!
Hey there Ben! Thanks for reading the blog. And a progressive gas tax huh. That's something that's never occurred to me. We could tax coal and natural gas consumption. I remember last summer when gasoline prices where sky high, there was never so little traffic on the roads and the light rail trains were packed. Behavior was altered, well at least until gasoline prices went back down. A tax on our household energy consumption (coal and natural gas) might just work. Although now that I think about it you don't have to drive a car (there are other means of transportation) but you always need heat in the winter time. Since it's a necessity, a household energy consumption tax might not be the right thing. I'll throw this out to other folks and see what they think.
Hope things are treating you well!
-Justin
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