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Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Good energy policy: efficiency pays back 2 to 1

From wind power to biofuels, there's a lot of time and money spent on replacing our carbon-emitting fossil fuel power sources with renewable and green ones. But the cheapest and most effective way to save the planet (and money) is energy efficiency. And a new study finds that for every dollar states spent on energy efficiency in the past 15 years, it paid back two.

Support energy efficiency standards, it may be the easiest way to save the planet.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

A skeptic who accepted this analysis might question whether the results clearly indicate that we should spend more on efficiency.

It might be argued that we've shown that the amount we do spend pays us back. Is it clear that spending more will achieve the same payback? There is probably a point of diminishing returns. Where is it? Maybe we should do "more research" to find out, the argument could go...

Anonymous said...

By the way, I do think we should spend more on efficiency, but I'm just not convinced this is a good argument, unless there's some solid analysis behind the statement:

"The whole US economy could reap such easy returns if Washington ponies up the political will and applies these policies on a national scale."

jff said...

To play devil's advocate to yours, at least make a decision based on past, empirical evidence would be a step up in decision-making standards for Washington.