Energy Use The Human Dimension (1984) / Chapter Skim
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3: Some Barriers to Energy Efficiency
3: Some Barriers to Energy Efficiency
Pages 32-54
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From page 32... ...
The Department of Energy estimated in late 1980 (Lewis, 1980) that continued federal support of energy conservation would help reduce oil imports from the 1979 average of 7.9 million barrels per day to an average of 6.7 million per day by 1990 and -- with optimistic estimates of domestic supply -- that imports might fall to 3.8 million barrels per day by 1990.
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From page 33... ...
energy policy because recent changes base policy even more on assumptions about the behavior of energy producers and users that are increasingly being questioned. In particular, current policy assumes that the profit motive will encourage producers to develop and market technologies that will save users money at current energy prices and that economic motives will also spur energy users to purchase and use those technologies.
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From page 34... ...
About this PDF file: This new digital representation of the original work has been recomposed from XML files created from the original paper book, not from the original typesetting files. Page breaks are true to the original; line lengths, word breaks, heading styles, and other typesetting-specific formatting, however, cannot be retained, and some typographic errors may have been accidentally inserted.
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From page 35... ...
energy costs. ENERGY INVISIBILITY AND ITS LEGACY Because of the way energy-using technologies work, it is often difficult for energy users to take effective action when rising prices provide a strong economic motive to save energy.
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From page 36... ...
This style of life implies the consumption of great amounts of energy, but when prices were low, there was no pressing need to be concerned about energy costs. The low economic cost and easy availability of energy made energy users relatively unaware of energy.
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From page 37... ...
. Some of the inaccuracies are explicable in terms of energy visibility: when energy use is and some typographic errors may have been accidentally inserted.
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From page 38... ...
Structural Effects of Invisibility Another part of the legacy of energy invisibility is a diminished technical capacity of energy users to respond effectively to the stimuli of price and shortage. Freedom from concern about energy has produced structural changes in energy consuming equipment.
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From page 39... ...
The policy implications of energy invisibility are discussed in Chapters 4 and 5. PROBLEMS OF ENERGY INFORMATION It is important for energy users to have accurate information as a basis for action, and such information is available from many sources.
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From page 40... ...
A central problem with information for energy users is uncertainty: accurate estimation of the net costs of energy options depends on future economic conditions in general and, in particular, on future energy prices and availability. Both of these variables have recently been difficult to predict.
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From page 41... ...
Diversity of Consumers Energy information is often discredited because it is not appropriate for many of the people who receive it. This is almost unavoidable because the needs of energy users vary so widely: what saves energy for some users is wasted effort for others.
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From page 42... ...
Conflicting Information and Policies Despite the limitations of information, expert advice can help energy users who are concerned with minimizing energy costs. And many formal information sources exist: various governmental agencies at federal, state, and local levels offer conservation information, as do many electric and gas utilities, heating oil suppliers, heating and insulation contractors, and representatives of the petroleum, automobile, and building industries.
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From page 43... ...
In these cases the economic interests are evident, so a wise consumer will be suspicious. and some typographic errors may have been accidentally inserted.
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From page 44... ...
The conflicts in government go beyond information; they are embodied in policy -- and news about policy becomes part of the information available to energy users. In transportation, for example, the federal government has set standards for the fuel efficiency of new cars, yet it offered financial support for Chrysler Corporation, a company that was in trouble partly because of its failure to produce fuel-efficient cars.
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From page 45... ...
Trust in Information Sources We have pointed out that since energy users cannot get accurate information about the ultimate comparative cost of different energy options, they will rely on the most credible available information. In fact, there is a large body of well controlled experimental literature showing that the effectiveness of a given message depends on the credibility of the source of the message (Hovland, Janis, and Kelley, 1953; McGuire, 1969, 1983)
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From page 46... ...
And since utilities are often perceived as particularly untrustworthy (see, e.g., Brunner and Vivian, and some typographic errors may have been accidentally inserted. Please use the print version of this publication as the authoritative version for attribution.
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From page 47... ...
Accordingly, the battle over symbols -- the association of control and freedom with energy use or with energy saving -- is almost certain to have tangible implications for the behavior of individual energy users and for the public acceptability of alternative energy policies. Experimental research in laboratory and field settings has shown that when external demands or regulations put pressure on people against making a particular choice, people resist this threat to their freedom -- by increasing their preference for other options (Brehm and Brehm, 1981; Mazis, 1975)
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From page 48... ...
Reasoning that the resistance was due to people's not having enough control over the temperature and some typographic errors may have been accidentally inserted. Please use the print version of this publication as the authoritative version for attribution.
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From page 49... ...
Some people would purchase such appliances despite the added initial cost. But without expensive advertising to educate energy users, a manufacturer who chooses to produce an efficient appliance might well lose the market to the manufacturer of an inefficient machine with a lower price tag.7 Because consumer preferences for energy efficiency cannot reliably be expected to induce manufacturers to produce efficient equipment, government programs have recently required energy efficiency labels to be attached to major household appliances.
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From page 50... ...
At and some typographic errors may have been accidentally inserted. Please use the print version of this publication as the authoritative version for attribution.
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From page 51... ...
. and some typographic errors may have been accidentally inserted.
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From page 52... ...
Summary Several important properties of the energy environment keep energy users from making the decisions their economic self-interest would dictate, even if they want to make self-interested decisions and even if accurate information is available. Energy users often do not know what responses are effective in their situations because energy and energy savings are invisible to them.
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From page 53... ...
Criteria based on other views of energy would imply other ideal levels of energy use. For example, a concern with energy resources might lead to a and some typographic errors may have been accidentally inserted.
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From page 54... ...
However, during the Carter Administration, the conclusion that rail transportation is more energy efficient was accepted as fact. It was supported by a number of careful studies, and it was the conclusion of the Transportation Energy Conservation Data Book (Kulp, and some typographic errors may have been accidentally inserted.
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