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Energy Rant

This is a satirical and at times humorous but critical commentary on energy efficiency issues of the day.

“Keep up the good work! I like the variety of topics; never boring. It's like a Box of Energy Chocolates.... you never know what you're gonna get!”

Mike MernickSenior Vice President, ICF
Jeff Ihnen
By In Energy Rant

Are You Serious About the Climate Apocalypse?

Washington Post headline last week: “World is on brink of catastrophic warming, U.N. climate change report says.” Wolf! Wolf! People…
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Apr 22
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Demand Side Market Transformation

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant No Comments
Last week I was reading a couple regulatory dockets; one by a citizen and another by an intervener.  They made some good points, including a situation of being locked out of the market in one’s own state, to which I replied, “Welcome to the party.”  Both dockets had a ring of “market transformation”. Our friends at the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE) define market transformation as, “The strategic process of intervening in a market to create lasting change in market behavior by removing identified barriers or exploiting opportunities to accelerate the adoption of all cost-effective energy efficiency…
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Apr 15
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Business Ethics – Me First

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant No Comments
This week, while reviewing my long list of potential topics, I came across this year-old blog post regarding the “ethical grid” and business ethics in general.  The author talks about three ways of doing business: immoral, amoral (insouciant), and moral.  He states that the immoral business operates under purely selfish reasons.  I disagree.  I argue that prosperity and moral business practice almost always involve selfishness, what’s best for me and the company. I will start with a simple example to pivot your brain.  Probably in just about any line of business, people deal with difficult customers and clients.  The inclination,…
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Apr 08
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CAFE Standards and Auto Executive Dunces

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant No Comments
Provide a chimpanzee with a computer loaded with MS Word and some sort of reward for pounding on the keyboard, and sooner or later it will produce a sentence, probably consisting of two words: subject, verb.  Provide a workbook with a one-trick-pony energy calculation to an unqualified user who applies it to a scenario it doesn’t represent whatsoever, and they may return the “right” answer, once in a while.  Allow 536 mostly clueless individuals to craft laws and policies, and sooner or later by unintended consequences, they may achieve an objective.  And so it goes with automobile fuel economy standards,…
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Apr 01
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Impact Evaluation – Catch Lucky

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant No Comments
For many years of my adult life I thought, “courts and judges: who cares?”  I’ve learned that I do, big time.  Why?  Because courts can bend and twist laws and essentially rewrite them to the point that we might as well send legislators home, which in and of itself sounds like a good idea.  The danger is the courts are the backstop to protect us from unconstitutional law, and if they are creating law by fiat, there is no backstop.  There is no accountability.  They have the final say.  Energy efficiency impact evaluation is much the same, as evaluators declare…
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Mar 25
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Industrial Energy Efficiency – Stay Out of the Ditch

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant One Comment
To win people over and get them to join your cause, it is best to not clobber them over the head as the beginning of this article for the top five measures for industrial energy efficiency does.  The first paragraph reads like a senator’s stump speech with selective facts that deliver a distorted message.  To wit, “the United States ranks first in energy wastefulness among developed nations”.  Presumably, China is not a developed nation.  Moreover, is waste measured in energy consumption, waste, or either of those per unit of economic output? The next statement is that industry is responsible for 30%…
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Mar 18
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Energy Efficiency Mandates – And Geese

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant No Comments
Last week this commentary regarding energy efficiency mandates from the Heritage Foundation showed up in my Google news feed, and it made for an interesting read.  I hold the same view when it comes to shoving products down the gullets of people like the goose in preparation of foie gras, a disgusting practice.  That is not a way to make friends for desired lasting results.  E.g., we’re going to unplug the water cooler to save energy and you will like the warm water.  Besides, the feng shui will improve and bring better karma because that cold stuff throws your system…
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Mar 11
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Energy Efficiency Professionals – FIFA V NFL

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant One Comment
I remind and inform people from time to time that my career in this industry consists of three distinct eras.  In the first era, lasting about five years, I was running, climbing, crawling, and digging around in commercial and industrial facilities for comprehensive energy assessments and studies.  This included gobs of energy analyses, simulations, and fairly complex cost estimating.  The second era included essentially mentoring others to do the same, plus reviewing thousands of calculations and hundreds of reports.  The third includes business development, program development, implementation, and evaluation – with a much grander view of the industry.  In the…
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Mar 04
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Efficient Driving Tips – Karma for Birders

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant One Comment
One of the things we do on this blog is provide information you won’t find anywhere else, easily anyway.  In this post, you will find efficient driving tips, information and/or policy suggestions not published anywhere else; I promise.  Well, the WWW is quite large so you may find it all in a week or two of searching, but I will do my best.Let me prove this from the jump with an analysis of how much energy a typical driver burns up in their brake pads every year.  To wit (see image to the left): There.  The average driver wastes 20…
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Feb 25
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Energy Management System – Not Another Litter Box

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant No Comments
In recent weeks, I have been spending considerable time examining energy management system projects for energy efficiency program evaluation on the east coast.  My conclusion is this: blown opportunity abounds. The program documentation for one particular project drips with evidence that the project is a free rider, which means the project would have happened anyway in absence of the program.  How do I reach this conclusion?  First, the calculation methodology could work if the user knew what they were doing, but it is clear they either don’t know what they are doing or don’t care to get it right –…
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Feb 18
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Program Evaluation – Nellie, You Are Toast

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant 2 Comments
In the blah, blah, frufrah blogosphere there are plenty of rosy fables and opinions of energy efficiency and green energy.  In a blatant marketing pitch, the Energy Rant is the only blog from the inside, critical of things in our industry.  Our industry is not unlike any family, marriage, workplace, company, celebrity, elite athlete, pet, child, or even a normal person.  It has faults.  It has problems and failure.  There is trouble.  There is dishonesty (gasp!).  Lots of money is wasted.  There are problem children.  There are competent reliable firms, and there are “yes ma’am” firms.  This is what one…
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All things energy. That’s our jam.

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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