Energy ‘Rebounds’ and ‘Backfires’: An Introduction and Literature Overview

By -- July 17, 2012 5 Comments

Much of today’s energy policy assumes that regulations mandating greater energy efficiency will reduce energy use. But that isn’t always the case, and energy efficiency improvements are seldom as large as promised by engineering calculations because of “rebounds.” Such is the most general conclusion from hundreds of studies pertaining to the effects of energy efficiency, whether market or nonmarket.

Such is the message from my literature review published by the Institute for Energy Research (pictured here):

For example, people who install lighting that is 50 percent more efficient frequently leave the lights on longer, negating some of the energy savings from greater efficiency. This is called an energy efficiency rebound. Sometimes these mechanisms even bring about net increases in energy use known as backfires.

Rebounds have a direct implication for energy efficiency mandates and incentives.…

Continue Reading

Economic Efficiency, Not 'Energy Efficiency' (Economist Cordato parses a sacred cow)

By -- July 6, 2012 18 Comments

Energy efficiency and energy savings are considered to be intrinsically good. Politicians of all stripes sing the praises of less-is-more. Only one problem: this view is simplistic and wrong from the economic point of view.

Energy efficiency is so central to the current energy conversation that to criticize it is to take on the unenviable role of the contrarian or, as some have called me, the curmudgeon. In a recent paperRoy Cordato of the John Locke Foundation happily takes on the role of critic as he dissects energy efficiency as a policy goal.

Dr. Cordato states in part:

It seems that no matter what governments at any level do, from building buildings to formulating and implementing legislation, “energy efficiency” has to be a consideration…. The problem is that the term, as defined by those who embrace it as a policy guide, is focused strictly on saving energy even if it means sacrificing overall economic efficiency.

Continue Reading

The Conundrum – by David Owen (Jevons' "rebound effect" enters the New Yorker mainstream)

By Josiah Neeley -- May 2, 2012 9 Comments

Whether it is a new fuel efficiency standard for cars, bans on incandescent light-bulbs, or those commercials touting businesses’ commitment to lowering their carbon footprint, the idea that we can reduce carbon emissions by using energy more efficiently is a mantra of our age.

In fact, energy efficiency is considered to be so important that it is sometimes said to be a “fifth fuel” along with coal, petroleum, nuclear, and “alternative” energy. And who can forget Amory Lovins’s term negawatt in this regard?

But as New Yorker staff writer David Owen details in his new book The Conundrum, the idea that we can reduce our energy use by buying the right products is based on flawed economic reasoning.

Background

Improving efficiency and related conservation are not unique to energy but all resources.

Continue Reading

1Q–2012 Activity Report: MasterResource

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- April 13, 2012 2 Comments

One thousand in-depth posts, 135 different contributors, and 1.2 million views to date–MasterResource has stature as a free-market movement-wide energy blog.

With 415 categories in our index, MasterResource is a lasting research tool, not only a day-to-day contribution to energy scholarship and current political debates. And we have achieved critical mass; ‘Google’ an energy-policy-related term along with MasterResource, and there we usually are!

Our content promises to stand the test of time. Our headlines do not have Stunner or Stunning as does a rival blog selling energy/climate alarmism. Our contributors are wed to reality, not to think-it-and-make-it-is-real and wish-it-and-it-can-happen postmodernism.

Wind Power Niche

One particular niche at MasterResource has been giving voice to the growing, articulate grassroot opposition to industrial wind parks. Such turbines generate a heavy environmental footprint, not only small, unreliable bursts of electricity.…

Continue Reading

Dear Wind Industry: We Need Your Workers and Materials (and taxpayers need your cessation)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- March 6, 2012 6 Comments Continue Reading

On Sustainable Energy (Part I)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- January 9, 2012 5 Comments Continue Reading

Energy & Creative Destruction: Fossil Fuels Triumphant

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- January 4, 2012 9 Comments Continue Reading

MasterResource Turns Three (4Q-2011 Activity Report)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- December 26, 2011 7 Comments Continue Reading

Robert Bryce Challenges Energy Statism (real energy for real people)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- November 21, 2011 3 Comments Continue Reading

ECONOMIST Debate on Renewable Energy (Part III: Fossil Fuels Triumphant)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- November 16, 2011 3 Comments Continue Reading