[Greenbuilding] Debunking Energy Efficency

[Ted Inoue]

Would one of you please give a specific reference to this research. I've
googled quite a bit and reached dead ends because there are so many hits for
George Monbiot. I remember reading about this theory some time ago but would
like to go back and review it in more detail.

In spite of my ignorance of this particular theory, I am most skeptical of
how generalizable the theory is and fear that a sound economic theory has
been improperly extrapolated. While it may in fact be 'proven' by economic
and sociological studies that as products and services become less
expensive, people keep their overall spending constant, hence increasing
consumption, it does not follow that one can extrapolate this indefinitely.
I would be extremely surprised if this 'law' was shown to be linear over all
values.

Applied to energy efficiency, it could indeed be true that increasing an
auto's efficiency by, say 10% results in the owners driving somewhat more
because energy is seen as cheap. However, that does NOT imply that
increasing efficiency by 20% or 50% or 80% will result in a proportionally
larger amount of consumption. Quite often, people look at a small segment of
a graph that shows a statistically linear dependency and conclude that the
sections outside of the measured region follows the same rules.

Anyway, as noted, I'd like to see the original source material so that I can
comment on the particularls of the study.

Thanks!

On 2/22/07, Mary Bull - Greenwood Earth Alliance <chalicenew at earthlink.net>
wrote:
>
> Please read Monbiot, or some of the other comments on this list: Auto
> fuel-efficiency leads to more driving; manufacturing efficiency leads to
> more manufacturing...and increased use of fuel/energy and emissions.
>
>
> Mary Bull, Co-director
> Greenwood Earth Alliance, Save the Redwoods - Boycott the Gap Campaign
> 252 Frederick, San Francisco, CA 94117 http://www.gapsucks.org
> Chalice Farm and Sustainable Living Center, 748 Montgomery Rd, Sebastopol
> CA
> 95472
> 415-731-7924 - 415-509-1188 chalicenew at earthlink.net
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Rob Tom" <ArchiLogic at yahoo.ca>
> To: "Mary Bull - Greenwood Earth Alliance" <chalicenew at earthlink.net>;
> "Greenbuilding" <GREENBUILDING at listserv.repp.org>
> Sent: Thursday, February 22, 2007 12:14 PM
> Subject: Re:Debunking Energy Efficency
>
>
> On Thu, 22 Feb 2007 12:08:40 -0500, Mary Bull - Greenwood Earth Alliance
> <chalicenew at earthlink.net> wrote:
>
> > I question the whole Energy Efficiency as God thing. Not wasting energy
> > is an appealing notion, but does it really come close to solving the
> > problem?
>
>
> Short answer: Yes
>
> Energy intensity is directly related to and directly reflects resource
> depletion (and hence habitat destruction), air and water pollution (and
> hence species destruction), greenhouse gas production and hence global
> warming (and hence all non-cockroach life on this planet destruction).
>
> Reducing energy intensity (ie energy efficiency) includes reducing
> embodied energy and  long-term operating energy.
>
> So which aspect of the "problem" is not addressed by implementing energy
> efficiency measures ?
>
>
>
> === * ===
> Rob Tom
> Kanata, Ontario, Canada
> <A r c h i L o g i c   at  c h a f f y a h o o   dot   c a >
> winnow the chaff from my edress in your reply
>
>
>
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