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Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio.

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Speaker 1: He there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host,

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Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio

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Speaker 1: and I love all things tech. And yesterday I published

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Speaker 1: a tech News episode. Today's date, by the way, is July,

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Speaker 1: in case you're listening in the future. But yes on

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Speaker 1: July I published a tech News episode and mentioned in

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Speaker 1: that episode a story, a fairly amusing story about how

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Speaker 1: alien Ware, which is the the Dell Computers subsidiary that

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Speaker 1: focuses on building you know, gaming PCs, recently acknowledged that

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Speaker 1: the company was going to have to avoid orders from

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Speaker 1: certain regions for a selection of gaming rigs, and that

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Speaker 1: these regions included six states. Those states are, by the way, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Vermont,

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Speaker 1: and Washington State. Now, the reason that alien Ware was

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Speaker 1: going to have to cancel those orders is that these

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Speaker 1: particular models of these particular gaming computers exceed the energy

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Speaker 1: consumption rates that are allowed by those states regulatory bodies. So,

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Speaker 1: in other words, these states have limits on how much

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Speaker 1: electricity a computer system is allowed to consume per hour,

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Speaker 1: and these particular computers exceed that. So if you prefer

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Speaker 1: to look at it a different way, these computers are

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Speaker 1: too powerful or really to power hungry, and are thus

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Speaker 1: illegal in six states. Now that's being a bit hyperbolic,

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Speaker 1: but it's also a way to spend this that could

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Speaker 1: make those computers seem really cool, right Like if alien

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Speaker 1: Ware said it's a computer, so fat asked it's illegal

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Speaker 1: in six states, that could sell a lot of computers.

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Speaker 1: But anyway, this all got me to thinking about energy

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Speaker 1: efficiency and power consumption regulations in general. So we have

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Speaker 1: different certifications for energy efficiency. You might have seen different

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Speaker 1: labels on stuff that claims that a particular product meets

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Speaker 1: a certain set of standards for energy efficiency. And as

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Speaker 1: I've just pointed out, there are some states that have

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Speaker 1: some fairly strict limits on energy consumption. So what is

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Speaker 1: the history here, How did all this develop and why?

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Speaker 1: And what do these different certifications mean and what is

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Speaker 1: the history behind those? So today we're going to take

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Speaker 1: a look at the issue of energy efficiency. Now I

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Speaker 1: hope by the end of this episode you'll have a

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Speaker 1: better understanding of why these regulations are in place in

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Speaker 1: the first place, and why certain areas might have greater

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Speaker 1: restrictions compared to others. And you also know what that

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Speaker 1: energy star label actually means when you see it on

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Speaker 1: say an appliance or maybe on a home listing. So

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Speaker 1: this episode, like most of my episodes, is going to

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Speaker 1: focus largely on the United States because that's where a

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Speaker 1: lot of this evolved. But there are other regions of

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Speaker 1: the world that have similar stories. It's just that to

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Speaker 1: cover a global approach to this issue would require an

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Speaker 1: entire podcast series, not just an episode. However, it will

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Speaker 1: involve global events because, as it turns out, some big

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Speaker 1: events on the global scale impacted the United States approach

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Speaker 1: to energy consumption. So let's set the stage, and we

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Speaker 1: do have to go quite ways back to kind of

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Speaker 1: cover this. So way back in the early eighteen hundreds,

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Speaker 1: most Americans were living in rural areas. Right like in

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Speaker 1: the first few decades of the nineteenth century, only around

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Speaker 1: ten or scent of the American population were living in cities.

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Speaker 1: Even by eighteen sixty that percentage was still below twenty

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Speaker 1: five percent of the population. For comparisons sake, today, more

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Speaker 1: than eighty percent of all Americans live in a metropolitan area.

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Speaker 1: So urbanization plays a part of our story today. But

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Speaker 1: as we'll see the story is big and it has

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Speaker 1: lots of moving parts to it. So another element is

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Speaker 1: the rising dependence on fossil fuels. So up through the

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Speaker 1: eighteen fifties, one of the main resources used for stuff

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Speaker 1: like lighting fuel because you know before the light bulb,

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Speaker 1: was whale oil. But by the eighteen fifties, whale oil

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Speaker 1: was starting to get in short supply because of the

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Speaker 1: shortage of whales because of how they were hunted extensively.

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Speaker 1: But enterprising engineers learned how to produce kerosene by refining

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Speaker 1: crude oil, and then in the eighteen sixties we get

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Speaker 1: the first US oil refinery, which takes raw petroleum and

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Speaker 1: then refines it into a fuel that provides an alternative

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Speaker 1: to coal, and thus the oil rush begins. In the

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Speaker 1: latter half of the nineteen hundreds, the United States takes

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Speaker 1: the world lead in oil production and refining and provides

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Speaker 1: around of the global supply of oil. In eight other

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Speaker 1: parts of the world are getting into the oil speculation

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Speaker 1: craze themselves, with countries like England and the Netherlands and

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Speaker 1: Russia all discovering oil deposits, but the US continues to

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Speaker 1: lead the global stage in that regard. At the same time,

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Speaker 1: inventors start creating creating new technologies that rely upon refined

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Speaker 1: oil for operation. So a growing consumption of oil is

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Speaker 1: going hand in hand with the growing production of oil.

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Speaker 1: So not only are you producing more of it, but

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Speaker 1: we're finding new ways to use it. And thus the

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Speaker 1: demand continues to increase along with the supply. Uh, we

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Speaker 1: find and refine more oil, but we also consume more oil,

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Speaker 1: and it's not like we quite hit an energy excess. Instead,

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Speaker 1: we just find lots of new ways in order to

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Speaker 1: need that good old bubble and crude. In the early

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Speaker 1: nineteen hundreds, the rise of the automobile in the United

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Speaker 1: States would further push oil consumption to new heights, and

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Speaker 1: Ford would introduce the Model T in nineteen o eight

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Speaker 1: that was a mass produced car that actually brought automobiles

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Speaker 1: within the realm of purchase for a lot more households

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Speaker 1: in America. So by nineteen ten, the US demand for

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Speaker 1: gasoline had surpassed the demand for kerosene for the first time,

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Speaker 1: because you know, kerosene was being used for things like

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Speaker 1: lighting fuel and heating fuel. And now the fact that

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Speaker 1: we were starting to see a motorized population in the

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Speaker 1: United States meant that gasoline was becoming more in demand.

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Speaker 1: And again Ford's approach to mass production means that automobiles

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Speaker 1: are actually within the grasp of a significant percentage of

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Speaker 1: US households, not all of them, but a lot of them.

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Speaker 1: And before the automobile was essentially a vehicle for the

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Speaker 1: idly rich. Right wealthy people could afford a car, no

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Speaker 1: one else could until we started seeing, you know, the

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Speaker 1: the principles of mass production applied to the automobile. So

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Speaker 1: the US rapidly becomes motorized, much more rapidly than other

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Speaker 1: parts of the world. You know, part like Europe was

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Speaker 1: also getting motorized at this time, but at a much

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Speaker 1: slower rate, and thus the United States dependence upon oil

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Speaker 1: grew significantly as a result of this. World War One

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Speaker 1: obviously would change things up quite a bit. Countries like

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Speaker 1: Britain and France began to depend upon US oil exports

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Speaker 1: when they were, you know, needing fuel to help in

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Speaker 1: their war efforts, and of course, the Germans worked to

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Speaker 1: disrupt supply lines between the United States and these countries,

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Speaker 1: and when the US entered the war in nineteen seventeen,

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Speaker 1: the demands for US oil exceeded domestic production. At that point,

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Speaker 1: the US was still supplying oil to its allies, but

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Speaker 1: it also needed oil to provide for domestic use right

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Speaker 1: for people back here in the States, and so in

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Speaker 1: order to supplement oil production in the US, the United

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Speaker 1: States began to import oil from Mexico because now it

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Speaker 1: just couldn't produce enough to meet all the demands. By

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Speaker 1: nineteen nineteen, the U s Geological Survey comes up with

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Speaker 1: a startling revelation and incorrect one, as it would turn out,

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Speaker 1: but they didn't know it at the time, and that

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Speaker 1: revelation was that the United States supply of oil was

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Speaker 1: going to run out within a decade. So by nineteen

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Speaker 1: twenty nine, oil reserves were going to be gone. Now,

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Speaker 1: at that point, the United States was producing around a

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Speaker 1: million barrels of oil every day, and consumption rates meant

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Speaker 1: that of that oil was being consumed domestically. So again

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Speaker 1: that means the only ten of US oil was available

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Speaker 1: as an export. Everything else was was immediately being used

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Speaker 1: because consumption rates were on the rise. Meanwhile, overseas in

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Speaker 1: the Middle East, Britain and France were overseeing regions that

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Speaker 1: they called protectorates. Though I'm sure the locals had less

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Speaker 1: you know, nice words to describe them. The Middle East

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Speaker 1: was proving to be rich with oil, and Britain and

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Speaker 1: France were doing their best to keep US oil companies

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Speaker 1: out of the Middle East because this way, you know,

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Speaker 1: Britain and France, by overseeing these protectorates, could get access

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Speaker 1: to that oil and thus remove their dependency upon US oil.

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Speaker 1: They wouldn't have to win port as much because they

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Speaker 1: would just essentially take the oil that was in these protectorates.

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Speaker 1: By the late nineteen twenties and early nineteen thirties, oil

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Speaker 1: diplomacy had become a major part of politics as various

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Speaker 1: countries saw their energy needs hinging on access to oil

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Speaker 1: production and oil refinery. So an agreement called the nineteen

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Speaker 1: twenty eight Red Line Agreement established an oil monopoly in

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Speaker 1: the Middle East, governed by the Iraq Petroleum Company, which

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Speaker 1: in itself was made up of multiple partners, including an

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Speaker 1: American oil company, and the agreement essentially laid out rules

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Speaker 1: that prohibited these partners from independently drilling for oil outside

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Speaker 1: of the partnership, you know, within this specific region of

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Speaker 1: the Middle East that was defined by this Red Line,

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Speaker 1: and they were all supposed to engage in what was

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Speaker 1: called a self denial clause. So if any one partner

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Speaker 1: of this group were to pursue oil interests within this region,

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Speaker 1: that partner would then be obligated to share that with

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Speaker 1: other partners. They could not claim it for their own.

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Speaker 1: Every partner within this UH this organization would have equal

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Speaker 1: right to it. This Iraq Petroleum Company, and again that

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Speaker 1: was essentially a cartel. It was the the one authority

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Speaker 1: for how the oil in this region could be exploited. However,

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Speaker 1: it turned out that the back in the United States,

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Speaker 1: that geological survey that said the US was going to

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Speaker 1: run out of oil was totes wrong, and in fact,

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Speaker 1: the US would begin to produce a surplus of oil.

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Speaker 1: And that meant that the supply actually outpaced the demand

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Speaker 1: for oil. And thus if you have a lot of

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Speaker 1: supply and lower demand, prices drop an oil prices plummeted. Now,

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Speaker 1: the government tried to respond to this by putting in

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Speaker 1: quotas for oil auction, saying don't produce more than x

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Speaker 1: amount in order to limit the effect of these price drops.

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Speaker 1: Like so this was to protect oil companies from you know,

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Speaker 1: having financial disaster because suddenly the stuff they provide is

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Speaker 1: so plentiful that they can't make a profit off of

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Speaker 1: it anymore. By the way, the Supreme Court would later

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Speaker 1: overturn those quotas. But then we get up to World

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Speaker 1: War Two, which obviously really complicated things. For one thing,

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Speaker 1: Mexico took the step of nationalizing oil production within that country,

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Speaker 1: something that many other countries would do in the following years.

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Speaker 1: And in the process, Mexico revoked US oil concessions, which

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Speaker 1: was a move that the US did not counter for

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Speaker 1: fear that if it did counter that, if it put

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Speaker 1: any sort of political pressure on Mexico, it might push

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Speaker 1: Mexico to align with the access powers in World War two.

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Speaker 1: So again politics plays a huge part in this. Now,

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Speaker 1: during World War Two, the United States against to ration

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Speaker 1: various resources and luxuries, and one of those resources is gasoline.

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Speaker 1: The US government issues gas coupons which limits how much

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Speaker 1: gasoline citizens are allowed to get, and also institutes a

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Speaker 1: national speed limit of thirty five miles per hour, again

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Speaker 1: to cut back on consumption. Uh, you know, the slower

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Speaker 1: speeds would mean less fuel consumption even over great distances. Now,

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Speaker 1: by the end of World War two, this would completely

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Speaker 1: do a one eight. At that point, consumption would boom.

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Speaker 1: Returning soldiers start buying homes and houses and appliances. At least,

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Speaker 1: you know, if they were white, they were able to

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Speaker 1: do that. There's plenty out there about the unfair practices

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Speaker 1: that disproportionately harmed people of color who are coming back

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Speaker 1: from World War Two. Anyway, there's a proliferation of inventions

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Speaker 1: around this time and that gain popularity, everything from air

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Speaker 1: conditioners to refrigerators, to televisions to brand new automobiles, including

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Speaker 1: gas guzzlers. And here's the thing. At the time, there

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Speaker 1: was plenty of oil to power all that stuff, whether

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Speaker 1: it was you know, using oil in the process of

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Speaker 1: electricity generation or oil being used in order to refine

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Speaker 1: it into gasoline. There's enough to go around. It was

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Speaker 1: a time of plenty. The US also starts to reach

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Speaker 1: out to Saudi Arabia at this time and established connections

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Speaker 1: just as that nation was discovering enormous oil fields within

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Speaker 1: its borders. It would actually take a few years before

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Speaker 1: the United States would import a massive amount of oil

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Speaker 1: from Saudi Arabia. But this is where the foundation was laid.

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Speaker 1: In the mid nineteen forties and from nineteen to nineteen fifty,

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Speaker 1: we see a transformation in the United States. The increased

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Speaker 1: consumption requires more oil than the US can produce. Finally,

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Speaker 1: demand is actually outpacing supply, So in nineteen forty five,

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Speaker 1: the US is a net oil exporter because it's producing

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Speaker 1: more than it needs. But by nineteen fifty it's a

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Speaker 1: net oil importer, bringing in nearly a million barrels of

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Speaker 1: oil every day. This was just the beginning of a

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Speaker 1: trend that would see the US import more and more

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Speaker 1: oil from other nations, including the Middle East. In nineteen

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Speaker 1: fifty two, the Prime Minister of Iran, Mohammed Massadiq, nationalized

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Speaker 1: the oil industry there not by coincidence. Just two years later,

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Speaker 1: there's a military coup in Iran, supported by British and

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Speaker 1: US intelligence. By the end of nineteen fifty four, there's

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Speaker 1: a new Iranian government headed by a shah who agrees

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Speaker 1: to allow US oil companies to manage Iran's oil industry.

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Speaker 1: So technically the companies don't own the oil, but they're

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Speaker 1: allowed to manage the industry. Uh this, you know, this

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Speaker 1: is again another one of those cases where you see

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Speaker 1: energy and politics just tightly intertwined. Here. Then we get

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Speaker 1: to the Suez Crisis, which was a very complicated affair

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Speaker 1: that's best left to some other podcast than mine. And

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Speaker 1: by nineteen fifty nine, the US faces another over supply

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Speaker 1: of oil. So President Eisenhower issues an import quota and

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Speaker 1: that limits foreign imports of oil to know more than

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Speaker 1: nine percent of domestic production, saying all right, well, let's

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Speaker 1: not bring in more and completely destroy this economy. While

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Speaker 1: we'll have plenty of oil for our energy needs, we

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Speaker 1: would also at the same time undermine the industry that

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Speaker 1: it's built upon. So the following year, in nineteen sixty,

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Speaker 1: a group of countries including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, and

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Speaker 1: Iran in the Middle East, and as well as Venezuela

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Speaker 1: in South America, all form a group called the Organization

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Speaker 1: of the Petroleum Exporting Countries or OPEC. Now, the reason

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Speaker 1: that they did this was that the United States and

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Speaker 1: various nations in Europe had been essentially dictating things like

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Speaker 1: oil prices without actually consulting these countries in a lot

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Speaker 1: of the countries where the oil was coming from, and

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Speaker 1: so these these nations, like the United States and various

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Speaker 1: countries in Europe were largely seen as being exploitative. They

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Speaker 1: were exploiting the resources of these other oil producing countries

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Speaker 1: for their own advantage. Now, it would take several years

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Speaker 1: before OPEC would actually have enough political leverage and economic

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Speaker 1: leverage so that countries like the United States would even

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Speaker 1: really pay attention to them. But that would come to pass,

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Speaker 1: and then we move ahead by like a decade a

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Speaker 1: little more than that, and we come to a conflict that,

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Speaker 1: depending upon your perspective, you might call the yam Kapoor War,

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Speaker 1: or you might call it the Rama Don War. You

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Speaker 1: might call it the nineteen seventy three Arab Israeli War.

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Speaker 1: That conflict began on October six nine, and it lasted

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Speaker 1: until October twenty six of that same year. Now, this

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Speaker 1: was the fourth in a series of major conflicts between

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Speaker 1: Israel and various Arabic nations in the Middle East, and

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Speaker 1: it largely stemmed. This particular one largely stemmed from a

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Speaker 1: demand that Egypt was making to Israel. Egypt was telling

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Speaker 1: Israel to return certain territories that Israel had received in

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Speaker 1: the previous conflict, the Six Days War, and Israel declined

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Speaker 1: that demand, and then hostilities followed. Well. A full discussion

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Speaker 1: of these conflicts again goes well beyond this show. I

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Speaker 1: imagine the hosts of stuff you missed in history class

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Speaker 1: would put together a phenomenal breakdown of the incredibly complicated

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Speaker 1: scenarios that led to these conflicts. But for our purposes,

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Speaker 1: the salient point here is that on October nineteenth, two

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Speaker 1: weeks into the conflict, the then US President Richard Nixon,

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Speaker 1: sent a request to Congress to extend two point to

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Speaker 1: billion dollars worth of emergency aid to Israel, which was

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Speaker 1: a move that Arabic countries would protest. I'll explain more,

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Speaker 1: but first let's take a quick break. So, in response

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Speaker 1: to the United States extending aid to Israel in the

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Speaker 1: form of two point to billion dollars worth of it,

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Speaker 1: the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Companies, so kind of

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Speaker 1: a subset of OPEQ, elected to raise an oil embargo

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Speaker 1: against the United States. Now this had happened once before

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Speaker 1: in the conflict in nineteen sixty seven between Israel and

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Speaker 1: Egypt and Syria and Jordan's that was the Sixth Day

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Speaker 1: War I mentioned before the break, and during that time

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Speaker 1: Arabic country is placed an oil embargo on all of

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Speaker 1: Israel's allies but at that time, the United States was

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Speaker 1: able to offset that embargo with domestic production, so it

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Speaker 1: didn't really affect the US that much. But it was

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Speaker 1: a very different story in nineteen seventy three. In fact,

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Speaker 1: nineteen seventy three was a particularly vulnerable time for the

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Speaker 1: United States. While the country had placed an import quota

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Speaker 1: years earlier due to that over supply I mentioned where

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Speaker 1: you know, the US could not import more than nine

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Speaker 1: percent of domestic production, otherwise you would have over supply.

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Speaker 1: While all that had changed, by nineteen seventy three, oil

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Speaker 1: production in the United States was lagging behind the demand

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Speaker 1: for oil. So this oil embargo ended up having a

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Speaker 1: much larger effect on the US in nineteen seventy three

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Speaker 1: than the one from nineteen sixty seven. Gasolene prices rose

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Speaker 1: by forty percent. Now you know that that conspicuous consumption

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Speaker 1: that had really driven the fifties and sixties was unsustainable.

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Speaker 1: In the seventies, the big gas guzzlers that were the

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Speaker 1: hallmarks of US automotive industry were now a liability. Politically,

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Speaker 1: the US government moved to form a plan to gain

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Speaker 1: energy independence by nine eight. Spoiler alert, that didn't happen.

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Speaker 1: Advisors were pointing out how energy dependence on imported fuel

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Speaker 1: sources isn't just a matter of energy, it's also a

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Speaker 1: matter of national security. And so in the early to

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Speaker 1: mid nineteen seventies we saw the first programs launched dedicated

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Speaker 1: to improving energy efficiency and lowering energy consumption. The oil

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Speaker 1: embargo lasted until March of nineteen seventy four, but the

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Speaker 1: effects of that embargo would stretch on much further. The

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Speaker 1: experience really emphasized a need to reduce energy consumption so

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Speaker 1: that when things are tight, the U. S economy would

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Speaker 1: not grind to a halt. And so we started seeing

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Speaker 1: some big changes, like here in the United States. One

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Speaker 1: major change that happened was the US government passed a

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Speaker 1: mandate that capped highway speeds to fifty five miles per hour.

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Speaker 1: Now these days that's not necessarily the case. It can

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Speaker 1: vary from region to region. But as a kid, I

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Speaker 1: remember that all highways had that as the top speed

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Speaker 1: limit fifty at the time. When I was a kid,

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Speaker 1: I just assumed that those limits were there because somewhere

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Speaker 1: some number crunchers figured out that there was a balance

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Speaker 1: between letting people get to where they needed to go

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Speaker 1: within a timely fashion and cutting down on the severity

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Speaker 1: of traffic accidents. Except it wasn't really about safety, it

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Speaker 1: was about conserving gasoline consumption. That's why that speed limit

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Speaker 1: was there. Now, the state of California would lead the

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Speaker 1: way when it came to setting energy efficiency standards. The

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Speaker 1: state established energy consumption standards starting in nineteen seventy four.

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Speaker 1: California has the largest population of the fifties states here

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Speaker 1: in the United States, and the energy crisis was keenly

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Speaker 1: felt in California, especially when it comes to gasoline. The

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Speaker 1: matter was somewhat mitigated in that most of California actually

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Speaker 1: has a pretty mild climate, so that reduces the need

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Speaker 1: for energy consumption on a per capita basis for things

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Speaker 1: like heating and cooling. That's not as big of an

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Speaker 1: issue in California during most years. During the era of

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Speaker 1: climate change, it's a different story. But we're talking about

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Speaker 1: the seventies here, So the key here is that California

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Speaker 1: has frequently led the pack when it comes to energy

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Speaker 1: efficiency and power consumption policies. In ninet two really big

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Speaker 1: things happened that relate to this podcast. One is that

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Speaker 1: I was born and without me this episode wouldn't exist.

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Speaker 1: I wouldn't be here to talk to you. But the

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Speaker 1: more important thing for this topic is that the United

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Speaker 1: States government passed the Energy Policy and Conservation Act. The

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Speaker 1: goals of this piece of legislation were many. One was

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Speaker 1: to give the president more executive options in the face

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Speaker 1: of an energy crisis in order to speed up the

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Speaker 1: response process, so if something goes wrong, the president can

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Speaker 1: do something about it quickly without having to go through

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Speaker 1: all the bells and whistles that you would normally have

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Speaker 1: to do. Another was to increase US energy production while

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Speaker 1: simultaneously lowering energy consumption, so produce more but use less.

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Speaker 1: In other words. Part of that focus was on creating

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Speaker 1: rules about efficiencies, with a large focus on automobiles. This

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Speaker 1: is where we start to see rules for a minimum

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Speaker 1: miles per gallon rate for vehicles. So in the early

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Speaker 1: nineteen seventies, the average miles per gallon rate for a

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Speaker 1: passenger car in the United States was around thirteen to

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Speaker 1: fourteen miles per gallon, which is pretty bad, and there

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Speaker 1: were some gas guzzlers that were way worse than that.

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Speaker 1: The new legislation set standards that car manufacturers would need

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Speaker 1: to meet in order to you know, sell their cars

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Speaker 1: or to receive certain incentives or subsidies, And in nineteen

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Speaker 1: seventy eight that minimum was set at eighteen miles per gallon,

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Speaker 1: and it went up each successive year like with it

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Speaker 1: reaching twenty seven point five gallons by the mid nineteen eighties.

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Speaker 1: Now the law also gave authority to the newly formed

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Speaker 1: Department of Energy in the United States to set energy

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Speaker 1: conservation standards for equipment and appliances. So the Department of

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Speaker 1: Energy began to set minimum efficiency standards for a selection

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Speaker 1: of different technologies. In nineteen seventy eight, an oil workers

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Speaker 1: strike in Iran escalated to an outright revolution, with the

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Speaker 1: Iranian shaw fleeing in nineteen seventy nine and the country

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Speaker 1: coming under new leadership, the Ayatola. And in addition, a

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Speaker 1: group of Iranian students seized the US embassy in Tehran

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Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy nine and took more than sixty Americans hostage.

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Speaker 1: The US President Jimmy Carter leveled an embargo on oil

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Speaker 1: imports from Iran, and oil prices escalated to more than

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Speaker 1: twice the going amount as a result. Following that was

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Speaker 1: an oil shortage in the United States with long lines

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Speaker 1: at gas stations and super high gas prices. President Carter

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Speaker 1: signed the Energy Security Act, which encouraged the pursuit of

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Speaker 1: fossil fuel alternatives. Now at this stage, the reason for

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Speaker 1: doing that was primarily because of the continuing political and

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Speaker 1: economic dependence upon fossil fuel imports. It was not because

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Speaker 1: of the environmental impact of fossil fuels. That also is

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Speaker 1: a factor, But the main concern here was if we're

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Speaker 1: dependent upon fossil fuels and we're getting a significant percentage

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Speaker 1: of our fossil fuels from foreign sources and then foreign

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Speaker 1: conflicts breakout, we're kind of up the creek. So we

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Speaker 1: need to find a different way. And that's why this

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Speaker 1: Act was about looking into alternatives for fossil fuels. In

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Speaker 1: this era, there was a lot of activity. Uh, there

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Speaker 1: was a lot of innovation, and there was a lot

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Speaker 1: of failure in the realm of energy efficiencies and lower

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Speaker 1: energy consumption. By that, I mean organizations attempted to take

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Speaker 1: some steps towards energy conservation, but with varying degrees of success.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes it was the smallest of actions, like it was

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Speaker 1: telling companies, hey put up signs that tell people to

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Speaker 1: flip off the light switches at the end of a

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Speaker 1: day so that they're not wasting electricity. And that's important,

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Speaker 1: and it does reduce waste, but it's kind of a

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Speaker 1: tiny drop in the bucket compared to some other activities.

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Speaker 1: Were companies that were producing products that claimed to help

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Speaker 1: reduce energy consumption, like plug this in between. You know,

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Speaker 1: your outlet and whatever it is you're you're using the

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Speaker 1: electricity for, Like this would be a go between that

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Speaker 1: somehow would magically reduce the amount of electricity you were consuming.

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Speaker 1: But a lot of these were of dubious effectiveness and

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Speaker 1: amounted to a little more than a black box that

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Speaker 1: didn't really do anything at all. Also, they were scams.

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Speaker 1: In other words, most of them were. This is something

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Speaker 1: we still encounter today. In fact, manufacturing companies were having

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Speaker 1: a little bit more impact. Guided by the requirements of

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Speaker 1: the Energy Act of nineteen five and a subsequent amendment

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Speaker 1: to that Act in nineteen seventy nine, companies making big

435
00:28:46,320 --> 00:28:50,560
Speaker 1: appliances like refrigerators and washers and dryers and air conditioners

436
00:28:50,560 --> 00:28:53,600
Speaker 1: and that kind of thing began to innovate in being

437
00:28:53,640 --> 00:28:57,760
Speaker 1: able to do more while consuming less energy. The days

438
00:28:57,800 --> 00:29:01,280
Speaker 1: of seemingly endless energy were long gone, and now the

439
00:29:01,360 --> 00:29:04,440
Speaker 1: name of the game was figuring out how to outperform

440
00:29:04,520 --> 00:29:09,040
Speaker 1: the competition while still being energy efficient. California continued to

441
00:29:09,120 --> 00:29:13,560
Speaker 1: lead the way news standards in night set new goals.

442
00:29:14,080 --> 00:29:18,520
Speaker 1: The state consulted with various engineers and energy experts to

443
00:29:18,640 --> 00:29:23,200
Speaker 1: draft the standards, and further, those standards would increase the

444
00:29:23,280 --> 00:29:28,400
Speaker 1: efficiency requirements every three years automatically, so you would have

445
00:29:28,480 --> 00:29:31,440
Speaker 1: a certain set of standards. Three years later, those standards

446
00:29:31,480 --> 00:29:35,040
Speaker 1: would get more strict. Three years after that they would

447
00:29:35,080 --> 00:29:38,320
Speaker 1: increase again. They would do so no matter who was

448
00:29:38,400 --> 00:29:43,360
Speaker 1: in office. Uh that included the building code in California,

449
00:29:43,640 --> 00:29:46,440
Speaker 1: so every three years, the building code would get more

450
00:29:47,200 --> 00:29:50,960
Speaker 1: strict and there were numerous benefits to this approach. One

451
00:29:51,080 --> 00:29:55,160
Speaker 1: was that due to those higher standards, Californians were starting

452
00:29:55,160 --> 00:29:59,120
Speaker 1: to consume less energy on an individual basis, which meant

453
00:29:59,160 --> 00:30:02,840
Speaker 1: their electricity bills were going down. People in California were

454
00:30:02,880 --> 00:30:07,040
Speaker 1: spending less for electricity even as electricity costs would increase.

455
00:30:07,440 --> 00:30:10,680
Speaker 1: The consumption was going down, so the bills were going down.

456
00:30:11,240 --> 00:30:13,600
Speaker 1: The standards also meant that California didn't have to go

457
00:30:13,640 --> 00:30:17,560
Speaker 1: into a phase of building out new power plant facilities

458
00:30:17,960 --> 00:30:20,640
Speaker 1: they didn't have to increase production, in other words, because

459
00:30:20,720 --> 00:30:25,560
Speaker 1: they were reducing consumption, and obviously if they had increased

460
00:30:25,600 --> 00:30:29,480
Speaker 1: production and built more power plants, that would have had

461
00:30:29,560 --> 00:30:34,640
Speaker 1: an enormous negative environmental impact. So this also helped cut

462
00:30:34,640 --> 00:30:37,840
Speaker 1: down on smog generation, which was a problem that was

463
00:30:37,920 --> 00:30:40,320
Speaker 1: huge in California, to the point that if you grew

464
00:30:40,400 --> 00:30:43,640
Speaker 1: up in the same era that I did, you probably

465
00:30:43,680 --> 00:30:48,280
Speaker 1: associated the words smog with Los Angeles like that was

466
00:30:48,800 --> 00:30:51,960
Speaker 1: a defining feature of l A and it didn't appear

467
00:30:52,080 --> 00:30:55,160
Speaker 1: to come at the cost of California's economy. In fact,

468
00:30:55,160 --> 00:30:59,720
Speaker 1: California's economic growth outpaced that of the US as a whole,

469
00:31:00,160 --> 00:31:02,440
Speaker 1: so the state was able to do this and not

470
00:31:02,680 --> 00:31:05,800
Speaker 1: have it make a negative impact on economy. That's often

471
00:31:05,920 --> 00:31:12,160
Speaker 1: a counter argument to adopting environmentally friendly or energy efficient

472
00:31:12,320 --> 00:31:15,840
Speaker 1: processes is that it could have a negative economic impact,

473
00:31:16,360 --> 00:31:21,040
Speaker 1: But in reality, in the regions where we see states

474
00:31:21,280 --> 00:31:28,080
Speaker 1: and other countries adopt more restrictive regulations, we don't tend

475
00:31:28,120 --> 00:31:31,120
Speaker 1: to see a huge hit to the economy. That seems

476
00:31:31,160 --> 00:31:36,960
Speaker 1: to be a fallacious argument. So there were both federal

477
00:31:37,040 --> 00:31:40,400
Speaker 1: and state energy efficiency regulations at play here, and if

478
00:31:40,440 --> 00:31:43,120
Speaker 1: you are in the United states. The ones that apply

479
00:31:43,200 --> 00:31:46,560
Speaker 1: to you depend entirely on where you reside. For example,

480
00:31:46,960 --> 00:31:49,360
Speaker 1: I live in the state of Georgia. Now, according to

481
00:31:49,400 --> 00:31:53,320
Speaker 1: the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, my state

482
00:31:53,440 --> 00:31:57,120
Speaker 1: ranks number forty two out of fifty one in the

483
00:31:57,200 --> 00:32:00,000
Speaker 1: United States. And you might say, hey, the United States,

484
00:32:00,000 --> 00:32:03,760
Speaker 1: it only has fifty states. Well, the a c e

485
00:32:03,760 --> 00:32:08,120
Speaker 1: E is also including Washington, d C in this scorecard.

486
00:32:08,960 --> 00:32:12,760
Speaker 1: That ain't great. And uh, the neighboring states to Georgia,

487
00:32:12,960 --> 00:32:15,360
Speaker 1: at least to our right and left, are kind of

488
00:32:15,400 --> 00:32:19,240
Speaker 1: in a similar boat. So South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, and

489
00:32:19,280 --> 00:32:23,720
Speaker 1: Louisiana all rank in the forties. But some other states

490
00:32:23,760 --> 00:32:28,520
Speaker 1: like Vermont, Massachusetts, Washington State, and several others have adopted

491
00:32:28,640 --> 00:32:32,360
Speaker 1: energy standards similar to California's, and they have a much

492
00:32:32,400 --> 00:32:37,120
Speaker 1: better track record when it comes to energy consumption. Now,

493
00:32:37,360 --> 00:32:39,920
Speaker 1: before I move on, I should also point out that

494
00:32:40,880 --> 00:32:43,000
Speaker 1: you can't just compare apples to apples. There are a

495
00:32:43,040 --> 00:32:45,800
Speaker 1: lot of factors at play here. For example, the Southeastern

496
00:32:45,960 --> 00:32:49,760
Speaker 1: United States has a climate that's pretty brutal for about

497
00:32:49,800 --> 00:32:52,600
Speaker 1: half the year. Although with climate change, I think we've

498
00:32:52,600 --> 00:32:56,240
Speaker 1: got some pretty stiff competition now but we often have

499
00:32:56,440 --> 00:32:59,400
Speaker 1: very hot, very humid summers, and that means we're frequently

500
00:32:59,480 --> 00:33:03,240
Speaker 1: using more energy to keep cool during those months. But honestly,

501
00:33:03,360 --> 00:33:05,240
Speaker 1: over the past few years, we've seen a lot of

502
00:33:05,280 --> 00:33:08,360
Speaker 1: areas of the country hit just as hard, if not harder,

503
00:33:08,400 --> 00:33:12,120
Speaker 1: than we are, So that story is changing over time.

504
00:33:13,160 --> 00:33:16,560
Speaker 1: Now I've got a lot more to say about energy efficiency,

505
00:33:16,600 --> 00:33:19,880
Speaker 1: but before I get to that, let's take another quick break.

506
00:33:27,680 --> 00:33:31,720
Speaker 1: So I've mentioned a couple of things here about energy

507
00:33:31,760 --> 00:33:34,480
Speaker 1: efficiency and the factors that that play a role, but

508
00:33:34,520 --> 00:33:36,720
Speaker 1: there are a lot of other complicating factors that also

509
00:33:36,760 --> 00:33:40,000
Speaker 1: come into play. So the economic and political issues with

510
00:33:40,040 --> 00:33:44,520
Speaker 1: oil provided the initial urgency to move towards energy efficiency,

511
00:33:44,920 --> 00:33:47,400
Speaker 1: But then there was also this growing awareness of the

512
00:33:47,520 --> 00:33:51,360
Speaker 1: environmental impact of fossil fuels that was developing around the

513
00:33:51,400 --> 00:33:55,920
Speaker 1: same time. Now, there were environmental activists working hard in

514
00:33:55,960 --> 00:34:00,040
Speaker 1: the nineteen sixties and nineteen seventies, of course, but you

515
00:34:00,080 --> 00:34:02,720
Speaker 1: know that, I think an event that really brought this

516
00:34:02,800 --> 00:34:07,440
Speaker 1: issue into the national focus was a man made disaster

517
00:34:07,800 --> 00:34:12,160
Speaker 1: that happened in nine That's when the Exxon valdis And

518
00:34:12,360 --> 00:34:16,560
Speaker 1: oil tanker carrying more than ten million gallons of crude

519
00:34:16,560 --> 00:34:20,560
Speaker 1: oil struck a reef off the coast of Alaska and

520
00:34:20,680 --> 00:34:24,439
Speaker 1: spilled its contents into the region, and it caused an

521
00:34:24,520 --> 00:34:29,600
Speaker 1: unprecedented man made environmental disaster. So this was in the

522
00:34:29,640 --> 00:34:33,840
Speaker 1: news day after day, complete with disturbing videos of the

523
00:34:33,920 --> 00:34:38,440
Speaker 1: impact on the Alaskan coastline and the wildlife, and it

524
00:34:38,480 --> 00:34:41,920
Speaker 1: would stand as the worst oil spill in American history

525
00:34:42,040 --> 00:34:46,280
Speaker 1: until twenty ten. That's when Deepwater Horizon, when that oil

526
00:34:46,360 --> 00:34:50,000
Speaker 1: platform released even more oil in the Gulf of Mexico.

527
00:34:50,640 --> 00:34:54,560
Speaker 1: But arguably the Valdis was one that was far more

528
00:34:54,719 --> 00:34:59,560
Speaker 1: visible because of the impact it had on that region. Now,

529
00:34:59,600 --> 00:35:04,880
Speaker 1: while these were acute disasters with a truly enormous scale,

530
00:35:05,600 --> 00:35:09,359
Speaker 1: there was this growing understanding in the general public as

531
00:35:09,400 --> 00:35:12,640
Speaker 1: to the effects of fossil fuels on the environment in general,

532
00:35:13,120 --> 00:35:16,880
Speaker 1: even without disasters. The idea of greenhouse gas emissions, of

533
00:35:17,040 --> 00:35:20,760
Speaker 1: the emissions of various chemicals that could lead to acid

534
00:35:20,920 --> 00:35:24,680
Speaker 1: rain like these were things that were starting to become

535
00:35:24,840 --> 00:35:29,439
Speaker 1: clear in the American consciousness around this time. And so

536
00:35:29,719 --> 00:35:32,400
Speaker 1: around the late eighties and early nineties, we saw the

537
00:35:32,400 --> 00:35:38,600
Speaker 1: conversation around energy consumption include not just energy costs and efficiency,

538
00:35:38,760 --> 00:35:42,120
Speaker 1: as in, you can save money by switching to you know,

539
00:35:42,960 --> 00:35:48,600
Speaker 1: more efficient technologies. But now we also had environmental impact

540
00:35:49,120 --> 00:35:52,880
Speaker 1: become part of the conversation, so the story gets a

541
00:35:52,880 --> 00:35:56,960
Speaker 1: bit more complicated in other words, And interestingly, these days,

542
00:35:57,040 --> 00:36:00,520
Speaker 1: you're far more likely to see energy efficiency come stations

543
00:36:00,560 --> 00:36:05,200
Speaker 1: contextualized as an environmental issue. Which, don't get me wrong,

544
00:36:05,640 --> 00:36:09,880
Speaker 1: it is an environmental issue, but it's also all these

545
00:36:10,000 --> 00:36:13,120
Speaker 1: other things that we've already talked about. You know, it's

546
00:36:13,120 --> 00:36:17,040
Speaker 1: also a national security issue, it's an economic issue, it's

547
00:36:17,080 --> 00:36:20,640
Speaker 1: a political issue, etcetera. It's all of these things at

548
00:36:20,680 --> 00:36:23,960
Speaker 1: the same time. Personally, I believe if you reduce it

549
00:36:24,080 --> 00:36:29,919
Speaker 1: down to just one factor, it's misleading. Now, admittedly it's

550
00:36:29,960 --> 00:36:32,600
Speaker 1: way easier to talk about if you reduce it down

551
00:36:32,640 --> 00:36:35,160
Speaker 1: to one. You know that that makes it an easier

552
00:36:35,200 --> 00:36:41,239
Speaker 1: to message, but it actually reduces how important this is

553
00:36:41,560 --> 00:36:46,479
Speaker 1: on multiple fronts. So this brings us up to that's

554
00:36:46,480 --> 00:36:50,239
Speaker 1: when the Environmental Protection Agency or e p A, introduces

555
00:36:50,320 --> 00:36:54,520
Speaker 1: a program called green Lights. The e p A formed

556
00:36:54,520 --> 00:36:58,279
Speaker 1: on December two, nineteen seventy, under the executive order of

557
00:36:58,440 --> 00:37:01,200
Speaker 1: President Richard Nixon, and the purpose of the e p

558
00:37:01,400 --> 00:37:05,520
Speaker 1: A was to consolidate the U. S. Government's environmental responsibilities.

559
00:37:05,600 --> 00:37:10,719
Speaker 1: The government was responding to various environmental crises and issues,

560
00:37:11,160 --> 00:37:15,200
Speaker 1: and this was a way of kind of focusing the

561
00:37:15,239 --> 00:37:19,200
Speaker 1: government's role with that regard. Now, over the years and

562
00:37:19,560 --> 00:37:23,640
Speaker 1: over the various presidential administrations since nineteen seventy, the e

563
00:37:23,760 --> 00:37:26,799
Speaker 1: p a's role has changed a great deal. But on

564
00:37:26,920 --> 00:37:31,920
Speaker 1: January six and initiated the Green Lights Program, which pushed

565
00:37:31,960 --> 00:37:36,600
Speaker 1: for US organizations, including companies and government agencies to adopt

566
00:37:36,840 --> 00:37:41,160
Speaker 1: energy efficient lighting. Now, at the heart of the matter

567
00:37:41,200 --> 00:37:44,520
Speaker 1: here was energy waste. According to the e p A,

568
00:37:44,920 --> 00:37:49,719
Speaker 1: twenty five of all electricity consumption at that time was

569
00:37:49,760 --> 00:37:54,200
Speaker 1: going to lighting, and stuff like incandescent light bulbs were

570
00:37:54,760 --> 00:37:59,560
Speaker 1: highly inefficient, with most of that energy the vast majority

571
00:37:59,600 --> 00:38:03,120
Speaker 1: of the ergy sent to these light bulbs going into

572
00:38:03,480 --> 00:38:07,359
Speaker 1: turning into waste heat rather than light. In fact, incandescent

573
00:38:07,400 --> 00:38:10,799
Speaker 1: bulbs only convert somewhere between five and ten percent of

574
00:38:10,840 --> 00:38:14,480
Speaker 1: the energy they receive into visible light, and the rest

575
00:38:14,719 --> 00:38:20,680
Speaker 1: is waste heat. Fluorescence or CFL bulbs are far more

576
00:38:20,760 --> 00:38:26,120
Speaker 1: energy efficient than incandescent bulbs. Commercial and consumer led light bulbs,

577
00:38:26,160 --> 00:38:28,440
Speaker 1: like the kind used you know that you would use

578
00:38:28,480 --> 00:38:31,040
Speaker 1: to light your room, those really didn't have a presence

579
00:38:31,040 --> 00:38:35,680
Speaker 1: in the early nineties. They are obviously available today, but

580
00:38:36,040 --> 00:38:41,160
Speaker 1: those are even way more efficient than both incandescence and CFLs.

581
00:38:41,880 --> 00:38:44,880
Speaker 1: But let's get back to green lights. So the e

582
00:38:45,040 --> 00:38:49,200
Speaker 1: p A was advocating for a move for less wasteful

583
00:38:49,640 --> 00:38:52,800
Speaker 1: you know, light lighting solutions, which would not only provide

584
00:38:52,800 --> 00:38:57,520
Speaker 1: an environmental benefit, but would also lead to lower energy consumption.

585
00:38:58,080 --> 00:39:02,480
Speaker 1: Thus it would costs to use these kinds of light bulbs.

586
00:39:02,840 --> 00:39:05,680
Speaker 1: In the long run, the bulbs or the tubes or

587
00:39:05,719 --> 00:39:10,200
Speaker 1: whatever would last longer, they would use less power, and

588
00:39:10,239 --> 00:39:12,640
Speaker 1: that meant over the course of a single light bulb

589
00:39:13,160 --> 00:39:17,040
Speaker 1: the organization would spend less money on it. That would

590
00:39:17,120 --> 00:39:21,040
Speaker 1: mean that the organization would actually profit off of cutting

591
00:39:21,040 --> 00:39:24,919
Speaker 1: back on waste. It might be a higher upfront investment

592
00:39:25,440 --> 00:39:30,480
Speaker 1: to buy CFLs over incandescence, but over the life of

593
00:39:30,520 --> 00:39:34,880
Speaker 1: that CFL you would more than save the money you

594
00:39:34,880 --> 00:39:38,319
Speaker 1: would have spent on a larger number of incandescent bulbs.

595
00:39:38,360 --> 00:39:40,600
Speaker 1: So this was a pretty good message and it would

596
00:39:40,600 --> 00:39:44,200
Speaker 1: also be part of the move to abandon incandescent bulbs.

597
00:39:44,400 --> 00:39:46,960
Speaker 1: I mean, you can still find some types of incandescent

598
00:39:46,960 --> 00:39:51,520
Speaker 1: bulbs today, especially like those specialized like Edison bulb types,

599
00:39:52,200 --> 00:39:55,080
Speaker 1: but for the most part, we've moved away from those.

600
00:39:55,520 --> 00:39:59,360
Speaker 1: The e p A stated, quote, every kilowatt hour of

601
00:39:59,400 --> 00:40:03,600
Speaker 1: electricity not used prevents the emission of one and a

602
00:40:03,600 --> 00:40:07,840
Speaker 1: half pounds of carbon dioxide, the most important greenhouse gas,

603
00:40:08,640 --> 00:40:12,960
Speaker 1: also five point eight grams of sulfur dioxide, a principal

604
00:40:12,960 --> 00:40:16,319
Speaker 1: component of acid rain, and two point five grams of

605
00:40:16,440 --> 00:40:20,920
Speaker 1: nitrogen oxides, precursor to both acid rain and smog, as

606
00:40:20,960 --> 00:40:24,840
Speaker 1: well as the pollution attendant upon mining and transporting power

607
00:40:24,880 --> 00:40:29,120
Speaker 1: plant fuels and disposing of power plant wastes in the quote.

608
00:40:29,760 --> 00:40:31,759
Speaker 1: So the e p A was taking a pretty big

609
00:40:31,800 --> 00:40:35,240
Speaker 1: picture approach with this messaging, of which I approved because

610
00:40:35,640 --> 00:40:38,680
Speaker 1: when we get a really narrow focus, we miss out

611
00:40:38,760 --> 00:40:42,000
Speaker 1: on a lot of stuff. In the e p A

612
00:40:42,120 --> 00:40:45,080
Speaker 1: made another move, one that would have a big effect

613
00:40:45,120 --> 00:40:48,440
Speaker 1: on the consumer electronics industry, and that is when the

614
00:40:48,520 --> 00:40:52,239
Speaker 1: e p A launched the Energy Star Label. Now, the

615
00:40:52,280 --> 00:40:57,400
Speaker 1: program identified energy efficient products with a special Energy Star

616
00:40:57,760 --> 00:41:01,880
Speaker 1: label or sticker. Products that matched or exceeded the energy

617
00:41:01,920 --> 00:41:04,960
Speaker 1: efficiency standards that were set by the e p A

618
00:41:05,400 --> 00:41:10,040
Speaker 1: would qualify for this designation, which would serve as a

619
00:41:10,080 --> 00:41:13,759
Speaker 1: guide for consumers. When it came time to shop for

620
00:41:13,920 --> 00:41:18,200
Speaker 1: various types of technology. When we come back, I'll talk

621
00:41:18,239 --> 00:41:21,960
Speaker 1: a little bit more about energy Star to explain how

622
00:41:22,000 --> 00:41:33,080
Speaker 1: it works. When the e p A first launched energy Star,

623
00:41:33,480 --> 00:41:37,600
Speaker 1: which would eventually actually incorporate the green Lights program that

624
00:41:37,600 --> 00:41:40,160
Speaker 1: that had launched the year before. Green Lights would then

625
00:41:40,239 --> 00:41:43,960
Speaker 1: incorporate into energy Star, well, when it launched it, the

626
00:41:44,120 --> 00:41:47,719
Speaker 1: focus was on computer systems and computer displays, or rather,

627
00:41:47,800 --> 00:41:51,640
Speaker 1: I should say computer monitors display as being far too

628
00:41:52,360 --> 00:41:56,280
Speaker 1: grand to describe what we were using back in those days.

629
00:41:56,480 --> 00:41:58,960
Speaker 1: So this kind of gets at an issue that we

630
00:41:59,040 --> 00:42:02,960
Speaker 1: saw with alien where and its computers. Because the six

631
00:42:03,160 --> 00:42:06,400
Speaker 1: states that Dell is not going to be shipping alien

632
00:42:06,400 --> 00:42:09,720
Speaker 1: Ware computers to or these specific models, I should say,

633
00:42:09,840 --> 00:42:13,560
Speaker 1: all have energy standards for computers that the alien Ware

634
00:42:13,600 --> 00:42:17,759
Speaker 1: models don't meet. They exceed those standards, they're not as

635
00:42:17,880 --> 00:42:21,279
Speaker 1: energy efficient as is required, so they cannot be shipped there.

636
00:42:22,320 --> 00:42:25,680
Speaker 1: According to an e p A publication that was celebrating

637
00:42:25,719 --> 00:42:30,160
Speaker 1: the twentieth anniversary of the launch of energy Star, the

638
00:42:30,239 --> 00:42:36,200
Speaker 1: program was apocryphal. Lee sprung from an office tour that

639
00:42:36,320 --> 00:42:39,480
Speaker 1: the then director of the e p a's Atmospheric Pollution

640
00:42:39,520 --> 00:42:43,480
Speaker 1: Prevention Division took back in nineteen nineties. So the idea

641
00:42:43,520 --> 00:42:47,760
Speaker 1: is this director is walking around an office after hours,

642
00:42:47,800 --> 00:42:50,640
Speaker 1: just taking a look to see what's going on, and

643
00:42:50,680 --> 00:42:54,000
Speaker 1: according to the story, he was upset that a number

644
00:42:54,360 --> 00:42:57,000
Speaker 1: of the employees at the e P A, we're not

645
00:42:57,120 --> 00:42:59,520
Speaker 1: shutting down their computers at the end of the day.

646
00:43:00,000 --> 00:43:04,360
Speaker 1: And his point was, we know that increased energy consumption

647
00:43:04,440 --> 00:43:07,839
Speaker 1: leads to increased greenhouse gas emissions, and that this in

648
00:43:07,920 --> 00:43:12,520
Speaker 1: turn affects climate change, and yet we, the people who

649
00:43:12,600 --> 00:43:15,279
Speaker 1: know this and who are in charge of trying to

650
00:43:15,840 --> 00:43:20,279
Speaker 1: protect the environment, are doing this. So the machines were

651
00:43:20,320 --> 00:43:24,440
Speaker 1: continuing to run after hours, consuming electricity and thus contributing

652
00:43:24,440 --> 00:43:26,759
Speaker 1: to air pollution. And so he saw the need to

653
00:43:26,800 --> 00:43:31,279
Speaker 1: launch a program that would encourage technical solutions to human problems.

654
00:43:31,640 --> 00:43:34,840
Speaker 1: If people were too lazy to turn off their computers,

655
00:43:34,960 --> 00:43:38,080
Speaker 1: or if for some reason they believe that turning computers

656
00:43:38,160 --> 00:43:41,200
Speaker 1: off and on again too many times would decrease the

657
00:43:41,360 --> 00:43:44,799
Speaker 1: useful lifespan of those machines, there needed to be some

658
00:43:44,920 --> 00:43:50,040
Speaker 1: sort of technology solution to encourage computer manufacturers to build

659
00:43:50,080 --> 00:43:54,000
Speaker 1: in standby or low power modes that would engage automatically

660
00:43:54,040 --> 00:43:57,120
Speaker 1: after some period of inactivity. Now the e p A

661
00:43:57,239 --> 00:44:01,640
Speaker 1: says this story is only kind of sore true, and

662
00:44:01,719 --> 00:44:03,720
Speaker 1: that there were in fact a lot of people working

663
00:44:03,719 --> 00:44:06,759
Speaker 1: on ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and how to

664
00:44:06,880 --> 00:44:10,200
Speaker 1: create a path for companies to go that particular route.

665
00:44:10,600 --> 00:44:14,040
Speaker 1: It wasn't enough to say this will cause less pollution.

666
00:44:14,719 --> 00:44:18,680
Speaker 1: There needed to be some economic incentives as well. So

667
00:44:19,440 --> 00:44:22,880
Speaker 1: here's your proposition. If you're the e p A. You

668
00:44:22,960 --> 00:44:27,880
Speaker 1: tell companies, hey, here's how much money you're spending just

669
00:44:28,040 --> 00:44:31,560
Speaker 1: to keep those machines running when no one is there

670
00:44:31,600 --> 00:44:36,359
Speaker 1: to use them. That's just money down the drain. And

671
00:44:36,480 --> 00:44:41,480
Speaker 1: businesses hate throwing money down the drain. Now, I mean,

672
00:44:41,560 --> 00:44:44,239
Speaker 1: some businesses are actually pretty free with their cash, and

673
00:44:44,280 --> 00:44:46,080
Speaker 1: you could argue that some of the stuff that business

674
00:44:46,080 --> 00:44:48,959
Speaker 1: has spend money on effectively is the same as throwing

675
00:44:49,000 --> 00:44:51,279
Speaker 1: it down the drain, but they prefer to feel like

676
00:44:51,320 --> 00:44:56,520
Speaker 1: they're getting something out of using cash, and just spending

677
00:44:56,520 --> 00:44:59,360
Speaker 1: money to keep computers running when no one is around

678
00:44:59,440 --> 00:45:03,200
Speaker 1: to use them doesn't really make the cut. So then

679
00:45:03,320 --> 00:45:07,080
Speaker 1: you've got these companies which need to use computers, wanting

680
00:45:07,120 --> 00:45:10,520
Speaker 1: a solution to an economic problem, and this creates an

681
00:45:10,520 --> 00:45:14,600
Speaker 1: incentive for the computer manufacturers who want to land those

682
00:45:14,600 --> 00:45:17,719
Speaker 1: suite orders with big businesses to provide, you know, a

683
00:45:17,800 --> 00:45:22,760
Speaker 1: truckload of computers for an office. So the computer manufacturers

684
00:45:23,080 --> 00:45:26,480
Speaker 1: have an incentive to create a more power efficient computer

685
00:45:26,880 --> 00:45:30,160
Speaker 1: to meet the expectations of these customers, who in turn

686
00:45:30,680 --> 00:45:34,200
Speaker 1: see these computers as an investment both in resources and

687
00:45:34,320 --> 00:45:39,520
Speaker 1: in decreased wastage. And along the way, we see electricity

688
00:45:39,719 --> 00:45:44,279
Speaker 1: being used by the organization's computer systems UH at a

689
00:45:44,280 --> 00:45:47,080
Speaker 1: lower level, and that means less of a load on

690
00:45:47,120 --> 00:45:50,880
Speaker 1: the power grid and ultimately less of an environmental impact.

691
00:45:51,160 --> 00:45:54,239
Speaker 1: So this is kind of like three D chess, y'all. Now,

692
00:45:54,280 --> 00:45:57,560
Speaker 1: I should also remind you the bag in the early nineties,

693
00:45:57,560 --> 00:46:01,120
Speaker 1: computer monitors, as I kind of alluded to early were different.

694
00:46:01,200 --> 00:46:05,040
Speaker 1: We are not talking about flat led displays that are

695
00:46:05,080 --> 00:46:10,480
Speaker 1: really energy efficient. I'm talking about big, old, honking electricity

696
00:46:10,640 --> 00:46:16,560
Speaker 1: hungry cathode ray tube or CRT monitors. Sometimes these things

697
00:46:16,600 --> 00:46:21,200
Speaker 1: weighed more than a small child and they were not

698
00:46:21,560 --> 00:46:25,359
Speaker 1: energy efficient devices. So the e p A launches this

699
00:46:25,600 --> 00:46:31,839
Speaker 1: market driven approach towards energy efficiency totally voluntary. This is

700
00:46:31,880 --> 00:46:35,120
Speaker 1: not like you must meet these qualifications or you're not

701
00:46:35,200 --> 00:46:39,880
Speaker 1: allowed to produce monitors. Instead, it's if you meet these,

702
00:46:40,080 --> 00:46:43,080
Speaker 1: then you get an energy Star rating. You know, that

703
00:46:43,239 --> 00:46:46,640
Speaker 1: Energy Star rating was originally for computers and monitors that

704
00:46:46,680 --> 00:46:49,200
Speaker 1: would go into a low power sleep mode after a

705
00:46:49,200 --> 00:46:53,200
Speaker 1: period of inactivity. That was pretty much it. This mode

706
00:46:53,800 --> 00:46:57,719
Speaker 1: meant that they should consume thirty watts or less when

707
00:46:57,719 --> 00:47:00,400
Speaker 1: they're operating, so when they're in sleep mode, it should

708
00:47:00,400 --> 00:47:02,680
Speaker 1: be thirty watts or less to keep them in sleep mode.

709
00:47:03,360 --> 00:47:06,000
Speaker 1: As long as it met those criteria, then the Energy

710
00:47:06,000 --> 00:47:09,480
Speaker 1: Star label could be slapped onto those products, and that

711
00:47:09,640 --> 00:47:12,440
Speaker 1: Energy Star label would then give consumers the heads up

712
00:47:12,440 --> 00:47:16,960
Speaker 1: regarding which systems were compliant with these specifications. Even if

713
00:47:17,000 --> 00:47:20,560
Speaker 1: they didn't know what the specifications were, they knew, oh,

714
00:47:20,960 --> 00:47:24,759
Speaker 1: this particular monitor has an Energy Star label on it,

715
00:47:24,800 --> 00:47:28,799
Speaker 1: which means it consumes less electricity. And no one was

716
00:47:28,840 --> 00:47:32,560
Speaker 1: required to do this. It was totally voluntary. But following

717
00:47:32,560 --> 00:47:35,120
Speaker 1: those specs, men a company could include that Energy Star

718
00:47:35,200 --> 00:47:39,000
Speaker 1: label and that became a marketing tool and the program

719
00:47:39,200 --> 00:47:42,359
Speaker 1: saw some early success, and before long the e PA

720
00:47:42,480 --> 00:47:46,000
Speaker 1: began to extend the Energy Star program to other types

721
00:47:46,040 --> 00:47:49,960
Speaker 1: of technology. At first, it's stuck around with office technology

722
00:47:50,200 --> 00:47:52,720
Speaker 1: and then moved on to things like like printers instead

723
00:47:52,760 --> 00:47:55,440
Speaker 1: of just computers and monitors. So the idea here was

724
00:47:55,520 --> 00:47:59,600
Speaker 1: that corporations and offices have a lot of technology and

725
00:47:59,640 --> 00:48:03,120
Speaker 1: them and it gets a lot of use, right And thus,

726
00:48:03,440 --> 00:48:05,600
Speaker 1: if you get a few big companies to make the

727
00:48:05,640 --> 00:48:12,000
Speaker 1: investment into lower energy uh consumption, high energy efficiency products,

728
00:48:12,320 --> 00:48:14,600
Speaker 1: that would have a bigger impact than trying to convince

729
00:48:14,680 --> 00:48:18,359
Speaker 1: individual consumers to follow suit. So the strategy was that

730
00:48:18,400 --> 00:48:21,359
Speaker 1: the companies would lead the way and then consumers would

731
00:48:21,360 --> 00:48:23,640
Speaker 1: also follow along. And for the most part that was

732
00:48:23,680 --> 00:48:27,719
Speaker 1: true consumers looking to save money on their electric bills

733
00:48:27,880 --> 00:48:31,440
Speaker 1: or those who are concerned about the impact that their

734
00:48:31,480 --> 00:48:34,640
Speaker 1: lifestyle was having on the environment. And to be fair,

735
00:48:34,680 --> 00:48:37,920
Speaker 1: there was some overlap with those two groups. They began

736
00:48:37,960 --> 00:48:40,520
Speaker 1: to rely on the energy Star label as one of

737
00:48:40,520 --> 00:48:43,200
Speaker 1: the factors that would matter when they start making a

738
00:48:43,280 --> 00:48:45,960
Speaker 1: purchasing decision. I mean, if you've got to go out

739
00:48:45,960 --> 00:48:48,480
Speaker 1: and buy a new fridge, it kind of makes sense

740
00:48:48,520 --> 00:48:52,239
Speaker 1: that one of the criteria you consider is how much

741
00:48:52,400 --> 00:48:54,920
Speaker 1: energy is that fridge going to require? How much is

742
00:48:54,960 --> 00:48:59,000
Speaker 1: that fridge going to cost you in electricity bills over

743
00:48:59,040 --> 00:49:02,439
Speaker 1: the course of you owning it and getting one that's

744
00:49:02,440 --> 00:49:04,960
Speaker 1: going to cost you less while having the features you want.

745
00:49:05,080 --> 00:49:09,080
Speaker 1: Just makes sense. So the e p A expanded beyond

746
00:49:09,200 --> 00:49:13,400
Speaker 1: consumer products with its Energy Star program, and in it

747
00:49:13,480 --> 00:49:17,400
Speaker 1: extended the program to evaluate homes so that people looking

748
00:49:17,440 --> 00:49:19,839
Speaker 1: to buy a house could look for homes that meet

749
00:49:20,000 --> 00:49:24,840
Speaker 1: Energy Star specifications. So stuff like insulation and energy efficient

750
00:49:24,920 --> 00:49:27,480
Speaker 1: doors and windows and all this kind of stuff would

751
00:49:27,480 --> 00:49:31,080
Speaker 1: all count towards an Energy Star designation, which would tell

752
00:49:31,120 --> 00:49:33,400
Speaker 1: the consumer, Hey, I'm gonna have to spend less to

753
00:49:33,600 --> 00:49:37,840
Speaker 1: heat or cool this house because of that label, and

754
00:49:37,960 --> 00:49:41,080
Speaker 1: I have the good feeling of knowing that it meets

755
00:49:41,120 --> 00:49:44,000
Speaker 1: these requirements, and I'm going to be less wasteful and

756
00:49:44,040 --> 00:49:47,480
Speaker 1: thus have less of a negative impact on the environment. Now,

757
00:49:47,520 --> 00:49:49,440
Speaker 1: I think a big thing to take away from the

758
00:49:49,560 --> 00:49:53,080
Speaker 1: Energy Star program was how it helped create a market

759
00:49:53,120 --> 00:49:57,200
Speaker 1: based solution for energy efficiency. By creating a designation that

760
00:49:57,239 --> 00:50:01,080
Speaker 1: gives consumers an idea of the impact of in particular product,

761
00:50:01,400 --> 00:50:03,759
Speaker 1: the e p A created a way from manufacturers to

762
00:50:03,800 --> 00:50:07,480
Speaker 1: try and stand out against the competition, and then that

763
00:50:07,560 --> 00:50:11,000
Speaker 1: created a market pressure that meant other companies needed to

764
00:50:11,040 --> 00:50:14,640
Speaker 1: follow suit or else get left behind. If your products

765
00:50:14,680 --> 00:50:18,920
Speaker 1: do not meet those Energy Star standards and your competitors do,

766
00:50:19,760 --> 00:50:22,759
Speaker 1: then you might see a negative impact in sales, and

767
00:50:22,800 --> 00:50:26,040
Speaker 1: so Energy Star in that sense was a really big success.

768
00:50:26,080 --> 00:50:30,960
Speaker 1: It pushed companies to create more energy efficient products. Meanwhile,

769
00:50:31,239 --> 00:50:34,080
Speaker 1: we saw both the federal government and some states but

770
00:50:34,239 --> 00:50:38,480
Speaker 1: into place tougher energy consumption standards. So in two thousand

771
00:50:38,520 --> 00:50:41,280
Speaker 1: five of the U. S. Government passed the Energy Policy Act.

772
00:50:41,520 --> 00:50:45,919
Speaker 1: That legislation set new appliance energy standards, also created new

773
00:50:45,960 --> 00:50:49,680
Speaker 1: tax incentives designed to encourage more efficient use of energy

774
00:50:49,760 --> 00:50:54,480
Speaker 1: and lower energy consumption in general. Growing energy prices prompted

775
00:50:54,560 --> 00:50:57,760
Speaker 1: another law in two thousand seven that was the Energy

776
00:50:57,840 --> 00:51:02,080
Speaker 1: Independence and Security Act. This again increased standards in various

777
00:51:02,080 --> 00:51:06,000
Speaker 1: areas regarding energy consumption, and as the name suggests, the

778
00:51:06,040 --> 00:51:09,280
Speaker 1: goal is to find an equilibrium or or better case

779
00:51:09,640 --> 00:51:12,759
Speaker 1: in which the United States energy needs are met by

780
00:51:13,000 --> 00:51:17,120
Speaker 1: the United States energy production, making it unnecessary to import

781
00:51:17,200 --> 00:51:20,560
Speaker 1: stuff like oil from other countries. This was a big

782
00:51:20,600 --> 00:51:24,400
Speaker 1: focus of the proposed hydrogen economy, the idea being that

783
00:51:24,480 --> 00:51:27,240
Speaker 1: the United States could transition from a fossil fuel based

784
00:51:27,239 --> 00:51:30,319
Speaker 1: economy to one based on hydrogen, we would have no

785
00:51:30,440 --> 00:51:34,080
Speaker 1: need to import oil from foreign sources. Of course, the

786
00:51:34,120 --> 00:51:38,360
Speaker 1: problem there is that switching to anything besides fossil fuels

787
00:51:38,840 --> 00:51:44,080
Speaker 1: is big and expensive and hard. We've got an infrastructure

788
00:51:44,080 --> 00:51:47,400
Speaker 1: for fossil fuels that dates back more than a century.

789
00:51:47,440 --> 00:51:50,920
Speaker 1: There's a lot of inertia that's built up there. Further well,

790
00:51:51,000 --> 00:51:54,759
Speaker 1: hydrogen is the most abundant element in our universe. It's

791
00:51:54,800 --> 00:51:57,760
Speaker 1: also the type of element that bonds with other stuff.

792
00:51:57,880 --> 00:52:00,319
Speaker 1: So in order for us to get hydrogen so that

793
00:52:00,360 --> 00:52:02,880
Speaker 1: we can make use of it for the purposes of energy,

794
00:52:03,000 --> 00:52:06,000
Speaker 1: we first have to exert some energy in order to

795
00:52:06,000 --> 00:52:09,600
Speaker 1: break those chemical bonds and free up hydrogen. So unless

796
00:52:09,640 --> 00:52:11,560
Speaker 1: we do that in a way where the energy and

797
00:52:11,560 --> 00:52:14,440
Speaker 1: the hydrogen is greater than whatever energy we had to

798
00:52:14,440 --> 00:52:17,200
Speaker 1: pour into the system in order to get the hydrogen,

799
00:52:17,600 --> 00:52:21,440
Speaker 1: you're at a losing proposition. But the hydrogen economy is

800
00:52:21,480 --> 00:52:24,000
Speaker 1: really a matter for another episode, and in fact I

801
00:52:24,080 --> 00:52:28,680
Speaker 1: have covered it in the past. Generally speaking, energy efficiency

802
00:52:28,920 --> 00:52:32,200
Speaker 1: remains a pretty big topic. I would say that most

803
00:52:32,239 --> 00:52:34,880
Speaker 1: of the time we see this conversation revolve around the

804
00:52:35,000 --> 00:52:39,000
Speaker 1: environmental impact of fossil fuels and the issue of climate change,

805
00:52:39,200 --> 00:52:43,879
Speaker 1: and these are undeniably important and big and real concerns,

806
00:52:44,320 --> 00:52:48,680
Speaker 1: and energy consumption definitely plays a part here, as electricity

807
00:52:48,680 --> 00:52:52,400
Speaker 1: production makes up one quarter of total greenhouse gas emissions

808
00:52:52,400 --> 00:52:57,440
Speaker 1: in the United States and transportation is twenty nine so

809
00:52:57,520 --> 00:53:00,239
Speaker 1: even more than electricity, at least according to the e

810
00:53:00,320 --> 00:53:05,000
Speaker 1: p A. So energy efficiency standards really matter here. They

811
00:53:05,000 --> 00:53:08,480
Speaker 1: can make a huge difference. And as we move forward

812
00:53:08,719 --> 00:53:12,920
Speaker 1: with an increased emphasis on switching to alternative energy sources

813
00:53:13,320 --> 00:53:16,200
Speaker 1: and moving away from fossil fuels as well as pushed

814
00:53:16,200 --> 00:53:20,560
Speaker 1: towards electrifying the fleet of vehicles out there, energy efficiency

815
00:53:20,600 --> 00:53:23,040
Speaker 1: will continue to be a critical part of our strategy.

816
00:53:23,600 --> 00:53:26,080
Speaker 1: You want to be efficient, you want to have lower

817
00:53:26,160 --> 00:53:28,760
Speaker 1: energy consumption. That's going to be important for all sorts

818
00:53:28,760 --> 00:53:31,440
Speaker 1: of things with electric vehicles. It will be important for

819
00:53:31,480 --> 00:53:35,000
Speaker 1: the you know, the purposes of how much driving range

820
00:53:35,040 --> 00:53:37,200
Speaker 1: do you get with this car? Because we can only

821
00:53:37,239 --> 00:53:40,640
Speaker 1: make batteries up to a certain size. Before that starts

822
00:53:40,680 --> 00:53:44,640
Speaker 1: to become an issue too, you start seeing issues like

823
00:53:44,760 --> 00:53:48,400
Speaker 1: weight and safety and other things play a part. So

824
00:53:48,480 --> 00:53:50,680
Speaker 1: you have to say, well, if we can make more

825
00:53:50,719 --> 00:53:54,600
Speaker 1: efficient use of electricity, then a charge on this battery

826
00:53:54,760 --> 00:53:57,640
Speaker 1: will allow this card to go much further than if

827
00:53:57,680 --> 00:54:00,680
Speaker 1: we're not careful. Right, So they're a lot of reasons

828
00:54:00,760 --> 00:54:04,520
Speaker 1: to be careful with energy consumption. Even should we make

829
00:54:04,560 --> 00:54:09,279
Speaker 1: the move away from fossil fuels. So that I think

830
00:54:09,640 --> 00:54:14,080
Speaker 1: is a good encapsulation of the concept of energy efficiency

831
00:54:14,200 --> 00:54:18,319
Speaker 1: and energy consumption and why it's important to have these

832
00:54:18,320 --> 00:54:21,439
Speaker 1: regulations and standards in place, and that it is more

833
00:54:21,480 --> 00:54:24,320
Speaker 1: than the climate. Like if you're the type of person

834
00:54:24,760 --> 00:54:28,040
Speaker 1: who doesn't see the big deal about climate issues, well

835
00:54:28,120 --> 00:54:30,439
Speaker 1: I I don't understand that. But even if you are,

836
00:54:30,960 --> 00:54:33,080
Speaker 1: there's still the matter of the fact that it just

837
00:54:33,200 --> 00:54:36,759
Speaker 1: makes more economic sense to be more efficient with your

838
00:54:36,880 --> 00:54:41,160
Speaker 1: energy usage. And if money doesn't matter to you and

839
00:54:41,200 --> 00:54:44,480
Speaker 1: the climate doesn't matter to you, I'm wondering how you

840
00:54:44,560 --> 00:54:46,680
Speaker 1: ended up getting equipment to be able to listen to

841
00:54:46,719 --> 00:54:51,680
Speaker 1: a podcast. But anyway, that's it for this episode. I

842
00:54:51,719 --> 00:54:54,319
Speaker 1: hope you learned something. I hope you enjoyed it. Like

843
00:54:54,360 --> 00:54:56,960
Speaker 1: I said, there are a lot of complicated parts of

844
00:54:56,960 --> 00:54:59,879
Speaker 1: this story that I hope are being covered in other

845
00:55:00,040 --> 00:55:04,240
Speaker 1: podcasts because I would also love to hear them. Uh,

846
00:55:04,280 --> 00:55:07,399
Speaker 1: And they are important for us to have an understanding

847
00:55:07,400 --> 00:55:11,000
Speaker 1: of how we got to where we are and helps

848
00:55:11,040 --> 00:55:13,360
Speaker 1: inform us of the decisions we need to make to

849
00:55:13,520 --> 00:55:16,600
Speaker 1: get to where we want to be. All of that's

850
00:55:16,640 --> 00:55:19,880
Speaker 1: really important. If you have suggestions for topics that I

851
00:55:19,880 --> 00:55:23,080
Speaker 1: should cover in future episodes of tech Stuff. I welcome

852
00:55:23,120 --> 00:55:25,160
Speaker 1: you to reach out to me and let me know.

853
00:55:25,560 --> 00:55:27,560
Speaker 1: The best way to do that is on Twitter. The

854
00:55:27,600 --> 00:55:30,480
Speaker 1: handle for the show is text Stuff H s W

855
00:55:31,360 --> 00:55:39,880
Speaker 1: and I'll talk to you again really soon. Text Stuff

856
00:55:39,960 --> 00:55:43,120
Speaker 1: is an I Heart Radio production. For more podcasts from

857
00:55:43,160 --> 00:55:46,920
Speaker 1: my Heart Radio, visit the i Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

858
00:55:47,040 --> 00:55:49,040
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.