Kudos to Governor Bill Ritter for making Colorado a leader among states in tackling our nation's energy-related problems. These include excessive reliance on polluting, non-renewable fossil fuels; carbon emissions causing climate change; an antiquated electric transmission infrastructure; dependence on fuel imported from other often unstable nations, and the military expenditures in the form of money and lives required to ensure that supply. There are many obstacles to transition our dependency on traditional fossil fuels to cleaner energy solutions, and Governor Ritter has demonstrated the courage and foresight to confront those obstacles.
The Governor's stated mission for Colorado's New Energy Economy, a now-popular catchphrase he is credited for introducing, is to "advance energy efficiency and renewable, clean energy resources." Colorado is the first state whose voters passed a renewable portfolio standard mandate (RPS) by popular vote, which has subsequently been increased by the state legislature. For all its focus on it, Colorado now has solid grounds to boast that clean energy is good for an economy since companies have chosen to locate new facilities and jobs in the state.
Over the past year, the Governor has been touting an addendum-of-sorts to his New Energy Economy plan by advocating the importance of natural gas in America's long-term energy future. Natural gas in the short-term may serve to reduce per capita carbon emissions as a substitute for coal and oil to produce heat and electricity, however, it is still a non-renewable fossil fuel that requires drilling and chemicals for its extraction, requires transport to end-users, and that will cause carbon dioxide emissions to increase. This is not comforting when considering that many believe that a stabilization level for greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere has already been exceeded, yet in forty years our world energy consumption is forecasted to more than double from today's levels by a world population expected to increase by almost 3 billion people. This population includes our own nation of citizens with ever-increasing energy appetites, and developing nations with many more people who strive to be just like us.
A more direct and less intrusive strategy that the Governor and residents of Colorado and the nation are encouraged to consider is to support and implement strong policy measures based on the approaches of energy efficiency and conservation. There is significant untapped energy savings from efficiency related measures when one considers that typically over 90% of energy from electricity generation has been wasted by the time is it used in a home or building. Colorado is already making strides in improving its energy efficiency, as it recently upped its ranking from 24th to 16th in performance among the states. However, the full potential for these approaches to contribute in a lasting manner to the serious reform needed to confront the very real energy issues facing us has barely been tapped.
Some efficiency and conservation related regulatory steps that are proven to be cost-effective and clearly fit within the stated New Energy Economy paradigm include:
- "Decoupling" profits from the sale of energy to reward a utility's efforts to save energy. Currently, an investor owned utility (IOU) such as Xcel Energy which sells power to the majority of Colorado residents is primarily motivated by a duty to maximize profits to their shareholders, and thus is obligated to sell lots of its product -- Energy. Under a full decoupling structure, utilities are encouraged to: a) install processes and technology that make their energy production and distribution processes and equipment more efficient, b) include clean, renewable energy generation such as from wind, solar and geothermal as a part of their energy portfolio mix, and c) encourage distributed renewable generation installations by consumers at their homes and businesses, such as solar PV, thermal and rooftop wind turbines. The utilities are then compensated for the reduction in energy sales achieved by their actions, and their expenses are lowered as the need for new power facilities decreases. Consumers' energy bills would likely also decrease as efficiency measures implemented by the utility cause energy consumption levels to decline. Over a dozen states already have an active or pending decoupling structure in place. Colorado and the rest of the nation should be included to this list.
- Establishing varying "time of use" (TOU) electricity rates for consumers based on the time of day the energy is consumed. The price variances are based on the cost required by the utility to generate that energy (or purchase it wholesale). During peak power periods of the day, such as on summer days at 5pm when many folks are returning from work and turning on their TVs, stereos, and computers and ovens, a utility sees high demand. They must purchase power from expensive "spot" power sources that only operate at these peaks to provide additional power than the more efficient and less expensive power production facilities operating at full capacity are able to generate. A properly designed TOU program would be priced to provide the opportunity for consumers to lower their energy bills if they are willing to switch some of their normal power consuming activities such as dishwashers and laundry to off-peak periods when energy is less expensive for the utility to supply. Again, utility expenses are lowered by reducing the need for those expensive spot power sources and new power facilities. Implementing a TOU pricing structure would be complementary to the transition to a smart grid and smart meter infrastructure currently underway throughout the state and nation.
Shades of these measures have been introduced in Colorado and are being discussed with respect to the national energy bill currently being crafted in Congress. However Colorado should not wait to fully implement these steps since many forces are sure to chip away at the effectiveness of a national bill. Instead, it should join the pack of states who have already successfully implemented these and other strong measures. For example, California has had decoupling in place since the 1980s, and combined with strong energy efficiency standards for appliances and buildings has kept energy use per capita at a flat rate over three decades while the rest of the nation has increased about 50%. Further, enacting real efficiency measures will ensure the state is well positioned for the inevitable time when carbon emissions have a price tag attached.
Some will maintain that these measures are inadequate, anti-capitalist, too complex and expensive to implement, or too much of an inconvenience to our personal freedoms to do and consume whatever we want, whenever we want. On the contrary, efficiency measures have been shown to be the low hanging fruit in the energy solution that have the most potential for meaningful energy reduction at the lowest cost. For example, in a traditional power plant only about 35% of the energy released from the coal ends up as electricity leaving the power plant. Another 7-10% is lost during transmission and distribution of that electricity to the end-user. An incandescent bulb's poor efficiency (10% of electricity going into the bulb becomes light) will then cause the final energy produced from that lump of coal to decrease to less than 3% of its original amount.
It is estimated that the U.S. could reduce its projected energy consumption 23% by 2020 by making economically beneficial investments in energy efficiency. It's unfortunate that more of this ripe fruit has not already been picked. But how could it? The regulatory structure in place for many utilities in the U.S. encourages growing sales of energy, building more power plants to satisfy that ever-increasing demand, and a guaranteed profit for those sales. This arrangement pairs in near-perfect harmony with the strong forces dominating the energy scene that profit from greater sales of fuel regardless of the polluting effects.
In contrast, if these suggested next steps to the New Energy Economy are implemented in a meaningful way in conjunction with a continued increase in use of renewable energy (Colorado ranks 4th in the nation for its solar and geothermal resources, and 11th for its wind resources, yet only 21st for non-hydro renewable electricity generation), much energy reduction could be accomplished without increasing energy bills. With small contributions in our behavior, such as changing out incandescent bulbs to CFLs or LEDs, running dishwashers and laundry machines after 9pm, turning off computers when not using them, hanging some clothes to air-dry, and installing programmable thermostats, even greater energy savings could be achieved. The only fuel required to accomplish these next steps is human will.
Lisa Bennett: Where are Schools on Climate Change?
Schools, like the rest of us, need to acknowledge the part they have played in perpetuating the ignorance that has gotten us into our environmental messes.
