Capitol Energy Hogs
Claudine Schneider
Friday, April 21, 2000
)2000 San Francisco Chronicle

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2000/04/21/ED74993.DTL

[Fair Use: For Educational/Research Purposes Only]

THE UNITED STATES represents 5 percent of the Earth's population and consumes 25 percent off its energy. Are you embarrassed as you read that?

Imagine sitting down to dinner everyday with 20 neighbors. You help yourself to one-quarter of the offerings, as the others watch. In the end, you leave 85 percent of the meal on your plate. And the others watch.

As a nation, we are only 10-15 percent efficient in how we generate, distribute and use energy. Americans consume twice as much energy as the average European, six times as much as the average Mexican and 14 times as much as the typical Chinese. Most of it is wasted.

I recently asked a foreign diplomat, ``If you had a message for the U.S. Congress, what would you say?'' The response: ``The American lifestyle is not sustainable. You should not take more than your fair share so the rest of mankind may co-exist with you. If we all behaved and consumed like you do, there would be no future for the children of the world.''

Our wastefulness does not build goodwill. We could avoid military forays to protect our oil interests, ballooning trade deficits and environmental degradation by making a sustainable investment in energy efficiency. Americans are not enthusiastic about the cost -- in dollars and lives -- of protecting Mideast oil fields. Just as diplomacy is the first line of defense, energy efficiency should be our first cost-effective energy option. We import 58 percent of our crude oil from other nations -- adding to our trade deficit. To meet the demand for oil, the Alaskan congressional delegation would have us drill in the pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

We, as taxpayers, have already benefited with a 4,000 percent return on investment over the past 20 years from just six energy- efficient technologies developed with federal funding, including: appliance standards, energy-saving glass, commercial- sized refrigerators and software for efficient building design. The Department of Energy estimates that our nation has reaped an $80 billion benefit from less than $2 billion spent on energy research.

The Rand Corp. says the Gross State Product of California in 1995 would have been 3 percent less were it not for energy efficient technologies and programs. Energy efficiency creates jobs, reduces air-pollution and the accompanying health-care costs, and minimizes the U.S. contribution (27 percent of the total) to greenhouse gases, while improving our diplomatic posture. The reward of more energy efficiency would be a more robust economy.

What's stopping us? Congress.

Congress no longer operates on a cost- benefit analysis. Its focus is one of winners and losers. If the president is for something, the Congress is against it. If Congress would take the lead, we all would benefit.

The good news is that the rest of the country is moving ahead, albeit slower and in a piece-meal fashion. Communities like San Jose, Alameda County and Osage, Iowa, have become models of energy efficiency. Pacific Gas and Electric Co. provides free energy audits and offers rebates on energy-efficient appliances.

Business has found the best return on investment is in energy efficiency. The CEO Coalition and companies like Patagonia, Hewlett-Packard, Lockheed Martin, DuPont and others report substantial energy savings that enhanced their bottom line. Companies investing these savings in renewable energy represent 40 percent of the ``green'' energy purchases in California.

Last, but not least, are the nonprofit organizations. For the first time in 30 years, Earth Day has a theme; ``New Energy for a New Era.'' The founder of Earth Day, Denis Hayes, has mobilized millions of activists worldwide to take action.

Let's not forget the media -- one of the most powerful conduits for change. How about more news about what's working on energy? And reporters, the next time the politicians say they ``care'' about our stature in the world, national security, the health of the individual and environment, job creation, a robust economy or our quality of life, please, ask them, ``What have you done lately to reduce our nation's energy consumption?''

As for you? Let's resolve this Earth Day/Year to be more conscious about how we use/waste energy. Be the catalyst for change at home/work. If everyone who reads this were to buy at least one compact fluorescent light bulb and, this November, shed some light on the U.S. Congress, then our future and that of our neighbors, would be significantly brighter.

Claudine Schneider is a former member of Congress. She is a contributing author to ``The Planetary Interest.'' If you'd like to be part of the solution, check other sites:
http://www.earthday.net http://www.crest.org/renewamerica
http://www.ase.org
http://www.pge.com/energysurvey

)2000 San Francisco Chronicle

-- Anonymous, April 26, 2000