Debates about energy often get testy. That’s because the arguments are usually clouded by emotions. The number one reason people buy mileage efficient hybrid cars, for example, is that it makes them feel good about themselves; the purchase provides for a moral superiority especially over those who continue to drive gas guzzlers. The fact that the premium paid over a comparable non hybrid vehicle cannot be economically justified with gas prices at current levels is irrelevant. It’s the environment that’s important even though the ecological benefit of driving a hybrid cannot be quantified.
As with hybrid cars, most arguments about energy are devoid of facts about cost. Politicians love to spout their support for alternative environmental friendly energy development, particularly ethanol, wind, and solar. They never mention the reality that these energy sources cannot be developed without enormous government subsidies and delivery consumption prices that will be a multiple of present energy costs. Add in other development problems such as land use, delivery unreliability, other adverse environmental effects and it obvious that these energy alternatives will never supply more than a fraction of our power needs.
If energy independence and protecting the environment is truly important it is necessary to recognize that costs do matter as a conservation motivator. For example, higher gasoline prices-say $5.00 per gallon- would drive more people to hybrid and smaller more fuel efficient cars purchases than any environmental benefit factor. Of course few politicians would support a consumption tax on gasoline and oil companies and speculators would be vilified if market prices got that high. Needless to say, the public wouldn’t like it either.
But there are other area where cost rationality is making progress. One example is the planned installation by utilities of smart meters in some 10 million homes and businesses. These devices are programmed to measure a customer’s use of electricity incrementally during the day, say every ten minutes or hour. This information is automatically forwarded to the utility which will charge different prices for energy depending on peak or non peak power demand. Customers opting for lower bills could reduce energy usage during the higher cost peak period. Ultimately, smart meters could directly control a household’s appliances making the home more energy cost efficient. This is real energy smarts.