Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Will daylight savings help save energy?
Daylight saving times (DST) starts 3 weeks early this year, in hope of decreasing national energy consumption, signed into law in summer 05, was one of the measures of “the great energy bill”. Most of you must have wondered how much does daylight savings saves “us” in the end. Well, studies show that the saving is close to 100,000 barrels a day, which by itself looks like a large number. US alone consumes over 20 million barrels day, the 100,000 barrels accounts for just 0.5% oil savings.
US being the largest contributor (25%) to greenhouse gases should do more than this, after walking away from the Kyoto protocol we have in fact increased CO2 emissions significantly (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3143798.stm). Reason, protect the broader economy as higher energy prices will hurt consumer spending, etc, etc. But did it really matter, when the current administration took power, oil was less than $30 and today it is close to $60 and the economy is still expanding. The cost paid in other terms was many folds, one example Katrina, off course we have a whole coterie which would disagree that there is a relationship between Katrina and climate change.
Politically drafting this bill was more of economy, anti-terror and security bills and reducing dependency on foreign oil, the goals were too near-sighted and make no effort to look into the bigger picture. The bill has few good things, in terms of investment into renewable energy, also encourages investment into new energy finds and gives tax credits for hybrid buyers, etc.
However the simple big energy savings were missed, like failing to increase gas mileage for all new auto’s manufactured, 40% of oil is consumed by automobiles in US. Even one additional mile increase in auto mileage translates to close to 1.5% reduction in oil consumption. In the 70’s US had less than 20% of total auto’s as trucks/suv’s, today this makes up 50% of the auto market. This has reduced average mileage considerably and increased oil consumption in US, simply increasing taxation on SUV/trucks (thereby making users buy cars) will reduce oil consumption. Both the technology (Asia and Europe have much higher mileage efficiencies) and the means are already available to make a difference.
The bill was supposed to be a long term comprehensive energy policy which would help push innovation and bring in new way of producing energy with “renewable” and “conservation” being the key. Are we kidding ourselves on conservation, congress/government have smart people and they know what they are doing and may surprise us all by achieving these goals. As for the simple people, they have decided to kill the gas guzzlers of GM, Ford and Chrysler and moving to the more efficient imported cars. Even the scientist and evangelical movement (which put the current establishment to power) are talking the same language (http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=12054). Hopefully the “smart people” must know something the rest do not know and we can all sit back, relax and enjoy an extra hour of light in the evening :).
US being the largest contributor (25%) to greenhouse gases should do more than this, after walking away from the Kyoto protocol we have in fact increased CO2 emissions significantly (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3143798.stm). Reason, protect the broader economy as higher energy prices will hurt consumer spending, etc, etc. But did it really matter, when the current administration took power, oil was less than $30 and today it is close to $60 and the economy is still expanding. The cost paid in other terms was many folds, one example Katrina, off course we have a whole coterie which would disagree that there is a relationship between Katrina and climate change.
Politically drafting this bill was more of economy, anti-terror and security bills and reducing dependency on foreign oil, the goals were too near-sighted and make no effort to look into the bigger picture. The bill has few good things, in terms of investment into renewable energy, also encourages investment into new energy finds and gives tax credits for hybrid buyers, etc.
However the simple big energy savings were missed, like failing to increase gas mileage for all new auto’s manufactured, 40% of oil is consumed by automobiles in US. Even one additional mile increase in auto mileage translates to close to 1.5% reduction in oil consumption. In the 70’s US had less than 20% of total auto’s as trucks/suv’s, today this makes up 50% of the auto market. This has reduced average mileage considerably and increased oil consumption in US, simply increasing taxation on SUV/trucks (thereby making users buy cars) will reduce oil consumption. Both the technology (Asia and Europe have much higher mileage efficiencies) and the means are already available to make a difference.
The bill was supposed to be a long term comprehensive energy policy which would help push innovation and bring in new way of producing energy with “renewable” and “conservation” being the key. Are we kidding ourselves on conservation, congress/government have smart people and they know what they are doing and may surprise us all by achieving these goals. As for the simple people, they have decided to kill the gas guzzlers of GM, Ford and Chrysler and moving to the more efficient imported cars. Even the scientist and evangelical movement (which put the current establishment to power) are talking the same language (http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=12054). Hopefully the “smart people” must know something the rest do not know and we can all sit back, relax and enjoy an extra hour of light in the evening :).
Labels: change, climate, daylight, dst, energy, katrina, oil, reduction, savings, time
¶ 5:34 PM
