State of the Union Address Missed the Boat on Energy Efficiency
*Thank you to Allison Bailes for allowing SASBC to re-produce content from the Energy Vanguard Blog
President Obama delivered the 2012 State of the Union address last night. In a 7000 word speech, he devoted about 800 words to energy. The majority of those words were about oil, natural gas, and clean energy - the supply side. There was one little paragraph about energy efficiency, and it seems more of an afterthought than a substantive, well thought out part of an energy strategy:
Of course, the easiest way to save money is to waste less energy. So here's another proposal: Help manufacturers eliminate energy waste in their factories and give businesses incentives to upgrade their buildings. Their energy bills will be $100 billion lower over the next decade, and America will have less pollution, more manufacturing, and more jobs for construction workers who need them. Send me a bill that creates these jobs.
I don't believe we're going to solve the energy challenges we face by focusing solely on the supply side. We've got to become more efficient in our use of energy, and the good news is that we still have a lot of opportunity to do that.
But the State of the Union address left me wondering:
Why didn't the President mention homes, schools, and commercial buildings when he talked about wasting less energy?
Does he have a plan to build on all the weatherization training that came out of ARRA, the Stimulus Act?
Will that $3000 he wants to save homeowners on their mortgages be tied to energy efficiency to create long-term savings?
We can make energy efficiency work without throwing lots of money at it. We simply need to make it easy for people to pay for energy improvements over time in a way that the savings are equal to or greater than the cost. You know, the way an Energy Efficient Mortgage does. All we need is a little help making options like this widely available.
[Note to commenters: Play nice! Disagreeing on politics is OK. Personal attacks are not.]
Photo from White House photos, by Pete Souza.