Energy Efficiency Takes Center Stage At Congressional Hearing

(RTTNews) - Energy efficiency as a solution to the energy crisis is the best and only long-term solution, witnesses before the Joint Economic Committee testified Wednesday. In the 20th hearing held in July to address energy costs, witnesses - including Dan Reicher, Google's (GOOG | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) Director of Climate Change and Energy Initiatives; Dr. Jonathan Koomey of Stanford University; and Mark P. Mills, Co-Founder, Chairman ICx Technologies, Inc. - offered their suggestions for a solid, sustainable energy plan.

"We need to look beyond quick fixes that will do little for consumers and do less to address this energy crisis," JEC Chairman Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) said. "In the long-term, we must address the demand side of the energy equation."

Schumer noted that he supports "targeted drilling" in the Gulf of Mexico, but that is only for temporary relief. "I don't believe that we can drill our way out of this energy crisis," he said.

Of special concern is the ability of Americans, already battling high energy, food, and health care costs, to pay for heating in the winter. Heating bills are expected to soar, and Schumer said he is concerned that families "will be choosing between heat and food or between heat and health care."

"Various analysts and political leaders have advocated increasing the supply of energy through expanded offshore oil drilling, more construction of power plants, and increased production of alternative fuels, some of which surely is necessary to meet the joint challenges of oil dependency and climate change," Stanford Professor Koomey said in a prepared statement.

"But there has been remarkably little focus (relative to the vast potential) on America's secret energy surplus, "energy production" from innovation in the efficient end-use of energy," he added.

One common theme was the 1970's energy crisis. The crisis sparked a wave of energy conservation in the U.S., inspiring innovations and forcibly reminding Americans that simple steps like insulation, energy efficient appliances, and other conservation efforts could reduce high energy bills. Former President Jimmy Carter famously wore a sweater in the White House, keeping the heat down in his own effort to lead by example.

Google's Reicher, who served as Assistant Secretary of Energy for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, the Acting Assistant Secretary of Energy for Policy, and Department of Energy (DOE | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) Chief of Staff and Deputy Chief of Staff under the Clinton Administration, offered a view of the differences between the attitudes of the 1970's and today.

"We have made an important transition in this country away from a focus on 'energy conservation' and toward the more recent concept of 'energy efficiency,'" Reicher said. "In the era of energy conservation in the 1970's and 1980's, we were asked to 'do less with less' - to lower the thermostat, turn off the lights, don a sweater and leave the car in the garage. Energy efficiency takes a different approach, offering the opportunity to 'do more with less.'"

Reicher urged Washington to promote private sector investment in energy efficiency. Doing so would "dramatically increase U.S. competitiveness, improve national security, and confront climate change," he said.

Hybrid and electric cars were also promoted by several witnesses. Specifically, Reicher suggested standards, tax credits, research and development funding and support of plug-in hybrids.

Plug-in hybrids are "perhaps the most exciting technological development" in the automotive industry, Reicher said.

"The bottom line is that plug-in hybrids - and down the road all electric vehicles - have the potential to dramatically reduce America's oil dependence, improve our national security, and help fight global warming," he said.

Mills, from ICx, said he was "optimistic" about the long-term energy outlook, although he recognized the "substantial challenges in the near term."

"Nearly everything in our economy operates like today's cars - sub optimally," he said.

Mills suggested a larger view. Much attention is placed on automobile fuel efficiency, due to the fact that prices at the pump are one of the most visual reminders of the high cost of gasoline. However, he said that a concerted effort needs to be made for technology outside of the automotive sector.

"Cars are much simpler to fix in this regard than are factories, offices, and homes. Yet the latter, collectively, is where 70 percent of our energy is used - sub optimally," Mills said. "Cost-effective hybrid energy technologies now emerging have potential for energy efficiency gains greater than anything in the transportation sector."

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