An All-encompassing Policy Towards Climate/Environmental Change
I hope you had a chance to read my Global Warming story. One statement I made was this: “Politicians are supposed to represent the people, but they don’t know how to guide their constituency to unpopular, but healthier choices. This is not leadership but an abdication of responsibility. All solutions in society require industry, government, and the public who uses the goods and services. All three need to have a role and work together. It is not a popularity contest; it is about changing our lives for the better.”
I am adding a very critical fourth party to this because they are at the core. I am adding the energy companies because they are at the core to change and “industry” I am modifying to business and industry. They are independent users of energy, separating them from energy producers. Similar, but they have very different parts of energy and environmental solution.
All the solutions to our concerns about climate change, environmental & energy responsibility, and conservation of natural resources converge at the cross roads of these four groups. The solution must have each of the four groups involved. Today the group that I think is most missing, least committed, and the largest part of the solution is the general public. This is not to say there are not 100’s of thousands of strong supporters of environmental responsibility, but most do, what comes easiest, least expensive, most convenient as an alternative. I hope you also read about my JEDI Fund which is a way to change the economics that drives most of us common consumer’s behaviors around gasoline. The same kind of contribution could be made over coal, natural gas, and even oil used to generate energy (electricity). Doing this makes the other alternatives more attractive which give them a chance of being desired and wanted because the economics drive it.
Energy consumption by Sector breaks down this way. Total energy consumption in 2005 was 99.9 Trillion BTU’s (for reference 1 gallon of gas = 115,000 BTU’s). Residential was 22%, Commercial was 18%, Industrial was 32%, and Transportation was 28%. The private consumer is residential plus a good portion of the transportation market for energy. The public consumer also indirectly drives a lot of business and commercial activities with their associated energy use. I would estimate that the private consumer drives nearly 50% of our energy consumption. How can you have a solution without involving the consumer directly in the purchase decisions?
It is so easy for the politicians to say let’s increase CAFE on cars and trucks to solve the petroleum issue. Or to mandate more bio-fuels be used. Or set targets for use of more alternative energy. Who are they forgetting? Just about everyone who votes! It is all talk with total abdication of responsibility for the results or lack of results. The consumer will not pay more for anything where a lower cost option is available. All that is required is public policy that resets the cost balance. That takes courage and leadership to do. Do we have any of those people?
Since I am an automotive person, let’s look at CAFÉ or Corporate Average Fuel Economy. In 2001 the Federal Highway Administration reported that there were 230,428,326 vehicles registered for road operation in US. Passenger cars averaged 22.1 mpg and light trucks, vans, SUV averaged 17.6 mpg. In 2004, cars were at 22.4 mpg and trucks were at 16.2 mpg. In 2001 average vehicle age was 9 years old. The data also shows that the number of vehicles is rising continuously and so are the miles of travel per vehicle and fuel consumption per vehicle. Those 230M vehicles (2001) have grown to about 250M in 2006 and the average fuel economy for that fleet is now about 20 mpg. What does increasing fuel economy by 4% per year on just 17M new cars and trucks do to overall consumption of gasoline. NOT MUCH! Will it reverse the trends in driving behavior? ABSOLUTELY NOT! The politicians talk about how many millions of gallons of gas they will save but did you know that every man, women, and child consumes a 1 ¼ gallons of gas per day! We consumed in 2005, 140 billion gallons of gasoline! How do you stop this and make a significant reduction.
This is why we must pursue a 4-way discussion with the government, energy producers, business/industry, and the PUBLIC private consumer! What is needed is leadership and not an abdication of responsibility.
I am adding a very critical fourth party to this because they are at the core. I am adding the energy companies because they are at the core to change and “industry” I am modifying to business and industry. They are independent users of energy, separating them from energy producers. Similar, but they have very different parts of energy and environmental solution.
All the solutions to our concerns about climate change, environmental & energy responsibility, and conservation of natural resources converge at the cross roads of these four groups. The solution must have each of the four groups involved. Today the group that I think is most missing, least committed, and the largest part of the solution is the general public. This is not to say there are not 100’s of thousands of strong supporters of environmental responsibility, but most do, what comes easiest, least expensive, most convenient as an alternative. I hope you also read about my JEDI Fund which is a way to change the economics that drives most of us common consumer’s behaviors around gasoline. The same kind of contribution could be made over coal, natural gas, and even oil used to generate energy (electricity). Doing this makes the other alternatives more attractive which give them a chance of being desired and wanted because the economics drive it.
Energy consumption by Sector breaks down this way. Total energy consumption in 2005 was 99.9 Trillion BTU’s (for reference 1 gallon of gas = 115,000 BTU’s). Residential was 22%, Commercial was 18%, Industrial was 32%, and Transportation was 28%. The private consumer is residential plus a good portion of the transportation market for energy. The public consumer also indirectly drives a lot of business and commercial activities with their associated energy use. I would estimate that the private consumer drives nearly 50% of our energy consumption. How can you have a solution without involving the consumer directly in the purchase decisions?
It is so easy for the politicians to say let’s increase CAFE on cars and trucks to solve the petroleum issue. Or to mandate more bio-fuels be used. Or set targets for use of more alternative energy. Who are they forgetting? Just about everyone who votes! It is all talk with total abdication of responsibility for the results or lack of results. The consumer will not pay more for anything where a lower cost option is available. All that is required is public policy that resets the cost balance. That takes courage and leadership to do. Do we have any of those people?
Since I am an automotive person, let’s look at CAFÉ or Corporate Average Fuel Economy. In 2001 the Federal Highway Administration reported that there were 230,428,326 vehicles registered for road operation in US. Passenger cars averaged 22.1 mpg and light trucks, vans, SUV averaged 17.6 mpg. In 2004, cars were at 22.4 mpg and trucks were at 16.2 mpg. In 2001 average vehicle age was 9 years old. The data also shows that the number of vehicles is rising continuously and so are the miles of travel per vehicle and fuel consumption per vehicle. Those 230M vehicles (2001) have grown to about 250M in 2006 and the average fuel economy for that fleet is now about 20 mpg. What does increasing fuel economy by 4% per year on just 17M new cars and trucks do to overall consumption of gasoline. NOT MUCH! Will it reverse the trends in driving behavior? ABSOLUTELY NOT! The politicians talk about how many millions of gallons of gas they will save but did you know that every man, women, and child consumes a 1 ¼ gallons of gas per day! We consumed in 2005, 140 billion gallons of gasoline! How do you stop this and make a significant reduction.
This is why we must pursue a 4-way discussion with the government, energy producers, business/industry, and the PUBLIC private consumer! What is needed is leadership and not an abdication of responsibility.
posted by Rich Marks at
8:46 AM
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