SubscribeFrom BuildingRating.org via GreenSource:
Disclosure advocates like Lane Burt are bullish about the power of data: “Anytime you provide more info into the marketplace in a way that’s usable for the market, it’s a good thing,” he says. But not everyone is happy about these new laws—the National Association of Realtors has been [...]
DemandSideSolutions
energy issues in the built environment
Category: energy policy
More on Disclosure
Great Observation
Like most of the country, I’ve been entranced by the back-and-forth brinksmanship of the debt ceiling debate. Today, R.A. from DiA connects some very interesting dots:
When we emit carbon into the atmosphere, we impose a tiny negative cost on society as a whole in the form of more rapid global warm and a [...]
Smil: “Changing furnaces is an energy transition.”
Vaclav Smil, my favorite energy writer and curmudgeon (sorry Carl), has written extensively on the topic of energy transitions. His book “Energy at the Crossroads” changed my view of the world (I still cherish my copy with notes and stickies throughout). To say that the capital intensive energy sector takes a long view of things [...]
Around the World in 80 Labels
OK, maybe not 80, but BuildingRating.org has done a fine job gathering building energy labels from the EU and US.
Why doesn’t this surprise me?
From Free Exchange:
Among OECD members, America does the worst at raising revenue through taxes designed to discourage pollution. I suspect that a big part of this is due to America’s remarkably low petrol tax, but that in itself is worth noting. Ideally, one would like to tax bad things rather than [...]
Kansas: Lessons Learned?
I was researching something on the energycodes.gov website the other day and came across a tidbit of information I wasn’t aware of. There are only a few states with no energy code on the books, one of which is Kansas. It takes this alternate route:
Homebuilders or realtors must disclose information about the home energy [...]
Lighting Grief
DiA has an entertaining post about what American’s are likely to go through with the phasing out of low efficacy lighting. I think they sum it up nicely at the end:
So after a while, the loss doesn’t seem so bad. Especially if one has had the house remodeled to install banks of 50-watt halogen [...]
Tough Calculations in Utility DSM Programs
From Matthew Kahn:
So, how do we know that the incentive program has caused CFL lightbulb adoption. We all agree that it is silly to give a performance bonus to the electric utility if its efforts have no affects on a household’s behavior. If Matt Kahn’s household never buys CFLs or always buys [...]
Creative Marketing
Via Jim Gunshinan on Home Energy Magazine:
Incandescents are already banned in Europe, but according to Ira Eisenstein, writing in the Home Energy Pros blog space, some stores there are selling 100-watt incandescents under the name “100-watt heat source.”
I’d buy a 100 W heat source for my desk and reading lamps.
I’ve commented on the efficacy standard [...]
Shifting Approach to Climate Policy?
From Free Exchange, worth a full read:
THE typical baseline economist response to the problem of global warming is a very simple and straightforward one. Climate change is a negative externality, and the carbon emissions that generate it are easily targetable. The clear thing to do, then, is to place a tax on [...]