Making Do With Less
Amory Lovins is a bit of an odd duck. The energy-efficiency guru is one of the few people in the day of slim pocket calculators who carries around a slide rule, and uses it. But his slide rule produces some amazing revelations. One is that the Reagan Administration’s 1986 rollback of new-car fuel-efficiency standards caused the nation to waste more oil than would be yielded by proposed drilling in Alaska and offshore California once the savings were passed through the nation’s auto fleet.
The Administration’s 1987, 1988 and, now, 1989 rollbacks in the standards as applied to Ford and General Motors are costing the nation additional oil it cannot afford to waste. On the other hand, the savings from the modest efficiency standards imposed between 1973 and 1986 amount to more than twice as much oil as the United States imported from the Persian Gulf last year.
Lovins, who began preaching the wisdom of energy conservation more than a decade ago, continues to make the rounds, often as a consultant to electric utilities. He carries with him a black, slightly oversized briefcase crammed with energy-efficient appliances that are available now, and if put to wide use, would obviate the need for a number of massive new power plants. One is an 18-watt bulb that casts as much light as a conventional 75-watt bulb. Lovins has demonstrated that the average new home can save 80% on its electricity use with such state-of-the-art equipment. The modest additional cost is quickly paid back by the savings.
Lovins practices what he preaches. Lovins and his wife, Hunter, live and work in a 4,000-square-foot home and office complex in the Colorado Rockies where the temperature often falls to 40 below during winter. Yet, the handsome, liveable structure has no conventional furnace and the 2,100-square-foot living area consumes $5 worth of electricity a month for all lighting and appliances. The 20-desk research center uses an additional $18 worth for lighting and power for computers and other office equipment.
The United States has made incredible energy savings since the first oil shock of 1973. Lovins said the nation used a third less oil to produce a dollar of real gross national product in 1987 than it did 14 years earlier, primarily by using the simplest of energy-efficiency devices like caulking guns and duct tape. But the nation has barely begun to realize the potential, particularly in transportation, which accounts for about 65% of national oil consumption compared with 51% in 1973.
Lovins says the Department of Energy envisions an auto-market scenario in which new cars average 30 miles per gallon by 1990, with no major improvement after that. But Lovins notes that autos getting 40 to 55 miles per gallon now are commonplace and Volvo is prepared to produce a 71-m.p.g. auto that accelerates from zero to 60 m.p.h. in 11 seconds and would meet all U.S. emissions standards and crash tests. Other firms have prototypes in the 100-m.p.g. range. Raising the mileage standards to 45 m.p.g. in 1998 and to 60 m.p.g. a decade later would result in a savings of 16.8 billion barrels of oil over the Energy Department’s scenario, Lovins said.
Yet Ford and GM (but not Chrysler) claim the public is clamoring for bigger, less-efficient autos and are rewarded with a rollback in fuel efficiency standards for the fleet average from 27.5 miles per gallon to 26.5 m.p.g. Of course, nothing in the law now prevents the auto makers from producing as many giant, powerful cars as they want so long as they carry the gas-guzzler tax.
The Reagan Administration claims the market must rule. But the market clearly will not produce the fuel-efficient autos that will help assure the nation a secure energy future and save the economy billions in wasted energy development.
