John H. Gibbons

The Conservation Revolution

About 4.7 billion years ago a star blew up, because of gravitational collapse, and became a supernova. In ten seconds, with neutron densities of hundreds of tons per cubic centimeter, many of the heavy elements of the solar system, today’s material heritage, were formed from lighter ones. Less than one hundred million years later, just a moment in astronomical time, the solar system condensed out of the debris of that explosion and formed the sun and planets. Roughly 4.3 billion years later (two hundred and fifty million years ago), the carboniferous period evolved on Earth with prolific swamps, lepidodendron trees, and giant reptiles. Sunlight was photosynthesized, then fossilized and stored under sea and rock. Meanwhile, radioactive elements released energy inside the earth, thereby creating earthquakes and volcanoes which slowly but elegantly segregated and concentrated mineral wealth.

Liquids and Gases, The Crux of the Matter

The U.S. currently uses about six billion barrels of oil per year (or 15 million barrels per day), but it produces only 3 billion barrels. Before World War II, the U.S. supplied approximately 70 percent of the world’s oil, but now supplies 15 percent while using 30 percent. If the U.S. relied solely on its proven reserves of about 40 billion barrels, domestic oil would be gone at current consumption rates in about seven years.

The Crisis and the Car

Tom Wolfe called the American automobile a baroque extension of the ego. He called it freedom, style, motion, sex, power…everything. For many Americans, it is a virtual necessity. And whatever else it is, it is the nemesis not just of the conservation of oil, but of air, land, and lives. The automobile is the major source of four of the six most serious air pollutants. It has made possible or perhaps necessary the paving of five percent of America. It costs 50,000 human lives and millions of injuries each year. One thing to keep in mind for energy policy is that only the energy part of these problems is new. If we were unwilling to curb our cars to save hundreds of thousands of lives, among other things, will we be more willing to do so to save BTU?

The U.S. in World Society

There is something frightening in the statistic that one-third of the world’s people are dependent upon firewood for fuel. In the eastern highlands of Africa, individuals frequently spend more than a half-day journeying to obtain the firewood that once grew outside their doors. In other cold mountainous regions, in the Andes, the Himalayas, and many other places around the world, forests recede in ever-widening circles around villages. Denuded hills erode and silt the rivers and add to the danger of landslides and flooding. Because of extensive wood cutting in Colombia, partly for firewood, the Anchicaya reservoir has filled with silt in less than seven years, and the multimillion dollar hydroelectric plant it was built to support now can run at only one-third of its intended capacity. As firewood in Nepal becomes less available, the cow dung that farmers have traditionally returned to agricultural fields now must be burned as cooking fuel. Not only is the resulting air pollution damaging in the extreme to human health, but severe food shortages are exacerbated.1,2,3,4

Energy Supply Policy

The metaphor of a watershed aptly describes the energy situation. Disparate opinions and branches of information about energy are beginning to flow together toward a consensus. Gramsci’s image* of the hiatus between the lingering death of an old system and the difficult birth of the new also rings true. The new emphasis on energy conservation is almost literally a revolution. But a watershed is most graphic. With the prevailing divergence of opinion and disjuncture of information, it is difficult to organize a body of knowledge and thought into a single channel of ideas. We hope that in this chapter we can bring together information on the economic, environmental, and physical issues of energy supply in order that better policies, a better consensus, can be formed.

Through the Straits

The energy future which we envision is not some specific scenario, but rather a future still dimly seen that unfolds by events yet to occur and by application of certain principles. These principles include: n n nuse of energy as a means, not an end; n n napplication of technical ingenuity and institutional innovation; n n nmaking investment decisions with clear signals of total long-run, marginal costs, and cost trends; n n ncorrecting distorted or inadequate market signals with policy instruments; n n ninternalizing to the extent possible the national security, human health, and environmental costs of using energy; n n ninvestment in energy supply and utilization research and development by both the public and private sectors; n n nproviding consumer equity not with energy price controls, but with other means; n n nincreasing cognizance of world conditions and needs, with special regard for international security and charity for the special needs of poor nations.

The Elements of Energy Demand

The author of The Little Prince made a serious accusation when he said that grown-ups love numbers. Saint Exupery complained that when children tell grown-ups they have made a new friend, the grown-ups never ask any questions about essential matters. “They never say to you, ‘What does his voice sound like? What games does he love best? Does he love butterflies?’ Instead they demand: ‘How old is he? How many brothers does he have? How much does he weigh? How much does his father make?’” With profound apologies to Saint Exupery and his petit prince, we plunge into a whole mess of numbers.

Industrial Sector Conservation

Reid and Chiogioji described American industrial equipment as probably the most energy-inefficient in the world. Comparisons of energy consumption by major industries among various countries tend to verify this assertion. Energy, of course, is not the only factor of production which managers must consider. Labor, time, materials, and capital most also be conserved. When an industrial plant is built, its builders seek to minimize the total costs of all these factors combined. When most of America’s industry was built, however, oil cost

Buildings—More Amenities, Less Energy

2.00 per barrel, and natural gas cost far less. The Great Embargo of 1973 and subsequent events made many of our industrial plants obsolete.

Conjunctures of Energy and Environment

One of the most persistent myths about energy conservation is the one about thermostat setbacks. If one wanted a house or office building warm at eight a.m., according to folklore, it would save energy to keep the building warm all night rather than to let it cool down and then warm it up quickly at 7:30 a.m. But putting heat in a room is like putting water in a bucket. The longer a leaky bucket must hold water, the more it will lose. Likewise, the longer that a room must hold warm air, the more it will lose.