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Demand-Side Management: Government Planning, Not Market Conservation...

Editor Note: Demand-Side Management (DSM) is an electric-utility program where all ratepayers subsidize the energy conservation investments of those ratepayers who participate in the program. Dan...

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“Why Energy Efficiency Does Not Decrease Energy Consumption:” Comment on...

One of the most curious facts about energy is that economies continue to use more of it even as they use it more efficiently. This strikes us as strange because it has become an article of faith that...

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Daylight Saving Time: Arrogant Central Planning

Although smart phones and computers make it easier to remember, last month Americans endured the semi-annual hassle of changing their clocks an hour. “Daylight Saving Time” (DST) was originally started...

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Remembering the Birth of Conservationism (Part I: President Nixon’s price...

Richard Nixon (1913–94) got on the wrong side of economic law three years before his Watergate-related resignation from the U.S. presidency. In August 1971, in a surprise decision, Nixon imposed the...

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Remembering the Birth of Conservationism (Part II: Amory Lovins’s “Soft...

[Editor note: Part I on energy conservationism examined Richard Nixon's price control order of August 1971 as the birth of peacetime conservationism , with shortages leading to mandatory allocation...

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The Conundrum – by David Owen (Jevons’“rebound effect” enters the New Yorker...

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...

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Economic Efficiency, Not ‘Energy Efficiency’ (Economist Cordato parses a...

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...

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

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...

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Energy Consumers vs. Regulators: Who Knows Best? (Mercatus study stands up to...

“Perhaps the main failure of rationality is that of the regulators themselves.” -Ted Gayer and W. Kip Viscusi, authors, Overriding Consumer Preferences with Energy Regulations In a working paper for...

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‘Demand Response’ in Electricity: Economists vs. FERC on (Over)Pricing

“The [Federal Energy Regulatory] Commission’s recent progress in promoting competitive wholesale energy markets has the potential to be undone as a result of this well-meaning, but misguided Rule.” -...

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“Grid-Enabled” Water Heating: “Deep Decarbonization” as Crony...

[Editor note: An under-the-radar energy intervention is to force fossil-fuel fired water heating to go electric “regardless of adverse economic impacts,” as Mark Krebs explains in this post and Part I...

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‘Home Appliance Energy Efficiency Standards’ Hearing: Some Reflections (Part I)

“Over the years, there have been numerous iterations of more stringent minimum efficiency mandates for the most important appliances. Thus, the most economical ‘low hanging fruit’ has generally been...

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‘Home Appliance Energy Efficiency Standards’ Hearing: Some Reflections (Part II)

“No more thousand-page ‘Technical Resource Documents’; those are too heavy to lift, let alone read. No more ‘too big and too expensive to analyze’ proprietary models and data bases that take a team of...

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LEED: From Market Efficiency to Political Conservationism

“Projects pursuing LEED certification earn points across several areas that address sustainability issues. Based on the number of points achieved, a project then receives one of four LEED rating...

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Direct-Use Natural Gas Needs a Free Market Too (‘deep decarbonization’ easy...

“The basic strategy of deep decarbonization is to ‘electrify everything’ because, theoretically, someday soon, wind and solar could affordably displace all fossil fuels. The analytical basis of such...

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“Market Conservation vs. Government Conservationism: Understanding the Limits...

Editor Note: The post below, published at MasterResource in June 2009, has profound challenges for the notion that self-interested business underinvests in energy efficiency, giving a “market failure”...

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Federal Energy Efficiency Mandates: DOE’s End Run vs. the Public Interest...

“EERE inappropriately colluded with NRDC, and some in the electric industry, to its predetermined and self-serving conclusions. Clearly, EERE’s mission is to promote energy efficiency and renewable...

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Federal Energy Efficiency Mandates: DOE’s End Run vs. the Public Interest...

“Perhaps most important is the self-fulfilling prophesy: if renewables are made to look more attractive, they’ll increase in actual use. As they increase in use, according to the EERE Guidance document...

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Malthusianism circa 1948 (running out of oil, etc.)

“We build into our automobiles more power and greater gas consumption than we need. We use the press and radio to push the sales of more cars. We drive them hundreds of millions of miles a year in...

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Update: ‘Is DOE Leading Us Astray?’ (A 1999 analysis revisited)

“In DOE’s ostensible energy efficiency zealousness, it assumes ‘command and control’ of a portion of the economy. Such political markets inevitably displace free markets, as vested interests organize...

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