‘Astounding Potential’
“This may sound too good to be true, but the U.S. has a renewable-energy resource that is perfectly clean, remarkably cheap, surprisingly abundant and immediately available. It has astounding potential to reduce the carbon emissions that threaten our planet, the dependence on foreign oil that threatens our security and the energy costs that threaten our wallets. Unlike coal and petroleum, it doesn't pollute; unlike solar and wind, it doesn't depend on the weather; unlike ethanol, it doesn't accelerate deforestation or inflate food prices; unlike nuclear plants, it doesn't raise uncomfortable questions about meltdowns or terrorist attacks or radioactive-waste storage, and it doesn't take a decade to build. It isn't what-if like hydrogen, clean coal and tidal power; it's already proven to be workable, scalable and cost-effective. And we don't need to import it.” - Michael Grunwald, Time Magazine, December 31, 2008
That resource is energy efficiency.
Reducing the Footprint of Our Energy Policy
Efficiency, often overlooked as an energy resource, is unmatched by other options as a means for reducing our land use footprint as well as our carbon footprint. Energy that we don’t use is energy we don’t have to generate or transport. Reductions in energy use during times of peak demand have the greatest benefits in reducing the need for new energy infrastructure.
The untapped potential for energy efficiency is large, large enough to offset the need for new generation and transmission projects. This invisible power plant has been overlooked for too long. While other, more charismatic options capture the public attention, we have lost sight of the best option for a rapid shift to a homegrown, cleaner energy policy.
Energy efficiency is the option which maximizes our return on investment. Cheaper than all traditional and non-traditional options, efficiency is the one option which provides jobs growth while minimizing our energy costs, our climate policy costs, and our on-the-ground costs in community landscapes and habitat losses.
To get our energy policy right, we must get our planning right. If efficiency is the low hanging fruit, the win-win for land and energy policies, then we need to make efficiency a top tier, preferred resource in our energy strategy. Rather than discounting or ignoring efficiency opportunities, our planning should seek to make efficiency our First Resource among energy choices.
We have the tools at our disposal. We can begin to correct course today and take maximum advantage of the “too-good-to-be-true” option, energy efficiency. It’s available everywhere, in every community. It’s up to us and our leaders to choose the policies and actions to make this happen. Our choice is clear: other options consume land, cost more, and too frequently degrade the environment. Ask yourself – “Why wouldn’t we choose energy efficiency?”
>> The Invisible Power Plant
|
