“Thrown under the bus.” Now there is a term that has to be going out of style pretty soon. The phrase is used practically daily by everyone, especially in the news-talk business. Where did that come from? Why is it so popular and useable? Has it ever happened? It seems it would be very difficult to do. You would have to take the guy down like roping a calf and somehow stuff them under the cargo hold while the bus is going down the road I guess?? Your timing, strength and technique would have to be impeccable. It may deserve to be elevated to an Olympic sport. Seems like it would be like trying to stuff a cat into an ice cream bucket.
Some precursors to “thrown under the bus”: Thrown down the stairs (that’s already been coined but I think it was much underrated); Taken to the woodshed (already coined, gaining traction in politics); Burned at the stake! Wow, now there’s an old one that probably died at the hands of political correctness; Tarred and feathered; Fed to the lions; Thrown to the wolves.
Some suggested new ones: Thrown from the train? Rammed through the wood chipper? Shoved into the hammer mill? Sentenced to Oprah? Boiled in milk? Shredded with the Sunday paper? Canned with tuna? Bagged with the grass clippings? Thrown in the lake of fire? Fed to the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man? Pitted and stuffed with pimento?
“Low hanging fruit” is another favorite of mine – not. What does low hanging fruit mean? Well, everybody has their definition of what they think it is but they are not all the same. Low hanging fruit to me includes all energy efficiency measures that fit in a four year lumped package. Low hanging fruit to a firm that does performance contracting may represent a package of measures that has a combined five to seven year payback.
In some, circles low hanging fruit means all the energy savings you (consultant) can generate with your magic wand, while rubbing a rabbits foot and humming the cheesy Steve Miller hit, ♫♪Abracadabra ♪♫. Like politicians who think alternative energy is a low cost, abundant source of energy that we just aren’t trying hard enough to develop, these customers seem to think they can cut their energy bills by 10-15% by spending virtually nothing on consultants, hardware, software, programming or contractors.
You can save a lot of energy, and if/when real time pricing becomes available, a lot of money in your home with behavioral changes. Turn the thermostat up in hot weather; wash clothes on the weekends or after 9 at night, lock your electric water heater and maybe your dehumidifier out during peak hours, and even turn the lights off when you leave the room!
Which of these sorts of measures are going to be available to commercial and industrial facility managers? – shut the lights out when you leave and maybe they can eek the temperature up a couple degrees in hot weather before people start to howl. How much will this save? Somewhere between 0.01% and 1.00%. There it is, your abracadabra free audit.
We are working with customers that have savings goals of 10-15% for huge manufacturing facilities and they plan to start with the “turn out the lights” solution. This is a potential huge waste of calendar time while they watch their bills roll in over subsequent months. They won’t see savings because it’s down in the grass and well within the “noise” of typical energy consumption gyrations from month to month and year to year.
Getting to the goal can be done with cost effective measures but cost effective and free are two different things. Ten to 15% savings isn’t going to happen without spending money on expertise, time, and in many cases some equipment or controls. There is no magic/free solution and the sooner this is accepted, the sooner customers can get on with achieving their energy goals.
Tidbits
Tidbits provides comment and follow up on recent news and posts to this blog.
I said at least twice that the disaster in the gulf would be underestimated. Two thousand barrels a day turned into 5,000 and now I think the most recent estimate is 50,000 barrels a day. Touché.
I also said the robotic government bureaucracy would act like idiots. Recently, the EPA was threatening to keep the A Whale gigantic skimmer with a capacity of 500,000 barrels of treatment per day from performing because its discharge of cleaned seawater may not meet the EPAs standards. I hope the EPA isn’t around if I should get in an accident and my arteries are spewing blood all over the road. They may not allow a good Samaritan doctor from plugging the leak. The area and the doctor’s instruments may not meet hygiene standards. What morons.
Thirteen countries offered up ships to help contain the “spilled” oil. Thanks, but no thanks guys. We don’t need your help. The 80 year old (or so) Jones Act in a sop to the unions, prohibits foreign vessels from docking in US ports in consecutive stops. It’s refreshing to know unions take precedent over beaches, birds, turtles, and fishing and tourism industries. The only thing worse than bureaucracy is a crony one.
