The wonderful thing about energy conservation projects is that they pay themselves off in a few years. So right about the time the business cycle is turning over, and the economy needs a shot of adrenaline to grow, businesses are experiencing a 30% to 60% reduction in utility bills. That is, the utility bills remain constant while the energy conservation projects are being paid off. After that there is an immediate reduction in utility bills. What better way to generate growth in any business than to prop up the bottom line?
Energy inflation is going to be a problem soon. So far it’s counter acted the deflation fears economists have had, because computer applications have increased productivity at such a rapid rate in recent years. Nobody figured that China and Latin America would traverse the event horizon, and start industrializing at a break neck pace. They are getting more and more work from the western nations via outsourcing of every possible kind of job, every kind of industry. Their output per energy unit far exceeds that offered by Americans, OPEC realizes this, and so individual members of OPEC are sending excess output to these areas – to secure a permanent market for their product, in a region which will be able to pay higher and higher prices for oil because their workers are paid such low wages.
America has the infrastructure to compete on equal terms with these markets, because the ability of energy conservation to benefit from complex networking. Sharing power, keeping generating facilities optimally loaded, generating and transmitting power at the most efficient levels – in regions, states, and within buildings – are all highly developed disciplines, proven by countless engineering applications, and applied in as many different scenarios as their exist. Implementing these strategies on a national level will instantly rocket America into competition with any low wage region of the world. We have the capability of using energy more efficiently than any other economy. The problem is that we lack the political will (because of special interests), the public knowledge and comfort level (because of special interests), and the entrepreneurial freedom to implement such a program (because of special interests).