Energy, Environment and Resources Center

Jack Barkenbus EERC Executive Director

FROM THE DIRECTOR………

Energy Follies

As this piece is being posted, a conference committee within the U.S. Congress is seeking consensus on widely divergent energy policy bills passed separately by the House and Senate. No one’s holding out much hope that this consensus, if it can be achieved, will be either meaningful or particularly significant. Indeed, the compromise will be a far cry from the bold pronouncements of the Bush Administration that kicked off energy policy deliberations in the spring of 2001.

The current president’s National Energy Policy will simply join the ever-growing scrap heap of sweeping Presidential energy initiatives dating back some thirty years to “Project Independence.” Those of us old enough to remember Project Independence, and its progeny, cringe every time a politician boldly declares that we need an energy policy worthy of another Manhattan Project. The fact of the matter is that Americans have never been sufficiently convinced that “heroic” approaches to energy policy are necessary, particularly if such measures involve new, large-scale construction of nuclear or coal-fired power plants, potential harm to sensitive environments like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, or conservation practices that could measurably impact the American lifestyle. So, forget the heroics and think more in terms of muddling through the periodic energy crises that arise from our nation’s energy dependence, or from unpredictable price spirals.

A “muddling through” strategy shouldn’t connote a do-nothing policy. The good news on the energy front is that we have, in fact, gradually coalesced around a collective vision of a desirable energy future: the hydrogen economy. Hydrogen and associated fuel cells hold the potential to fulfill all the qualities we seek in a foundational energy source ¾independence, abundance, safety, inexpensiveness, cleanliness, and unobtrusiveness. Our current fossil-fuel economy has proven itself incapable of achieving those objectives simultaneously. Although we are a far distance from actually creating a desirable hydrogen economy, the public and governmental agencies are sending positive signals about hydrogen and fuel cells that America’s vaunted private-sector engine is picking up.

As we move haltingly, but inexorably, to a hydrogen world, there are sensible things we can do to tide us over. These include bolstering electricity and natural gas distribution and transportation systems; seeking greater energy efficiencies in our buildings, transportation, and appliance stocks; and taking seriously our obligation to reduce greenhouse gases.

Energy analysis was once the core activity of our Center. Now, after a hiatus of several years, the EERC is once again becoming seriously engaged in energy efficiency efforts. Senior Research Associate Greg Harrell is working at major industrial facilities across the United States and abroad. Greg is identifying waste and capturing major cost savings for industrial clients through improvements to their steam systems. Research Associate Jonathan Overly is working with the Tennessee State Building Energy Management program to find inefficiencies and realize energy savings in state-owned office buildings. We expect to expand EERC’s programs in energy efficiency over the next few years.

With some luck, the Bush Administration’s National Energy Policy will be the last brute-force plan foisted on the American public. Since the 1970s, we, as a society, have learned a lot about energy and what the public will tolerate and support. Now its time to put those lessons into action and move expeditiously to a new world of energy.