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Jul 22
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Kooky Car CEOs Catch Stockholm Syndrome

By Energy Rant No Comments
As a company leader and owner, efficiency advocate, and AESP Board Member, I spend many of my waking hours and maybe many of my unconscious hours analyzing and processing behavior. What motivates people, and why do they choose what they choose? When I read a headline like White House Poised to Relax Mileage Standards - Rebuffing Automakers, the caution lights start spinning in my mind. What is going on here? Why on earth would they want this? Read on. The Trump administration seeks to reduce the federal average fuel mileage standard from the Obama-set 54 miles per gallon to 37…
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Apr 09
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CAFE Standards, Chicken Taxes, and Tin Can Coopers

By Energy Rant One Comment
We’re headed off-road in this edition of the Rant to discuss fuel mileage standards. Last Monday, April 2, the EPA rolled back Obama era EPA fuel mileage standards, also known as corporate average fuel economy standards, or CAFE standards. There are many opinions on this, from ACEEE to The Wall Street Journal and thousands of others. I will stick with facts and reality and stay out of that muck.It would be great if the efficiency in buildings and cost of energy were as transparent as they are for vehicles. I think everyone knows how many gallons of gasoline or diesel…
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Nov 04
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Federal Fuel Mileage Con Job

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant, Government No Comments
A few weeks back I lampooned the federal government’s desire to implement energy efficiency policy, and in particular, Shaheen Portman.  You can view the key elements of that in that post, but one thing mysteriously missing is automobile mileage – the crown jewel of federal energy efficiency regulations.  Why is this?  I don’t know, but one thing I can explain is how these regulations are as modern as building codes for ancient pyramids.  Nobody knows why pyramids were ever built, but I’m sure it involved male instincts prior to the development of calculus.  For example, put a guy in charge of…
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Nov 19
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Mad States of Saudi America

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant No Comments
Remember peak oil?  That was the glorious theory, which at some point will occur and no one will know, or maybe it won’t matter, that the stewards of the planet have maxed out oil production, and we would be headed for terminal depletion – and we adopt Mad Max-like diplomacy to survive.  By the way, the Mad Max dog is an Australian Cattle Dog, or Blue Heeler, and his name is Dogmeat and he has his own Facebook page.  We had a Red Heeler when I was a kid, and her nickname was Tough Dog for a reason.  Not mean. …
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Sep 07
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Soothsayer: Analyze This

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant, Renewable Energy, Sustainability No Comments
How many times have you read "we can create 40 million jobs and reduce our energy consumption by 90% if only we did x, y, and z."  Lester in this article says by 2035 we can double our fuel economy.  Well I should hope so!  Lester is actually one guy that is conservative in his estimates/goals.  David Goldstein in the same article says we can decrease our energy consumption by 88% by 2050.  Now where does he or any other egghead come up with these numbers? I had to laugh out loud regarding the results of an energy efficiency potential…
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Aug 03
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Sane Personal Transportation

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant, LEED, Renewable Energy, Sustainability No Comments
A couple weeks ago I beat up electric automobiles for being overpriced and unpractical due to their short driving ranges and cripplingly long charge times.  This week I present a saner approach to substantial energy and emissions reductions. The electric car is the equivalent of installing renewable energy sources before making conventional systems and technologies as efficient as possible in buildings.  Like buildings, we can cost effectively cut personal transportation energy consumption substantially, without sacrificing anything with readily available technologies - rather than pouring gobs of money into technologies that are just five years away from prime time; like they…
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We talk a lot about energy – from the serious to the satirical.

All things energy. That’s our jam.

We talk a lot about energy – from the serious to the satirical.

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