but I'm going to focus on one thing for now.

I previously wrote:

"Increased efficiency produces enormous savings in electricity use and overall cost. More-efficient air conditioners, lighting, and appliances can pay for themselves in electricity saved *and* reduce/eliminate the need for more generation/transmission capacity."

To which came the reply:

"Which do we need? More power or less power?"

That depends on how much efficiency improvement is put into place. A lot more could be done than is being done.

"Conserving our way to prosperity is as productive as taxing our way to prosperity. Increased efficiency, though often a broadly-helpful cost savings, is a crutch for our growing shortage of cheap power."

No, it isn't. It's just good engineering and good common sense. Waste and inefficiency have never been a path to prosperity; somebody always has to clean up the mess, and the inefficient systems become unsustainable.

"Use your CFLs in your own self-interest -- but don't beleive better power efficiency somehow justifies $3/KW costs of solar."

Three dollars per kilowatt is pretty cheap capital cost. Did you mean $3 per kilowatt-hour?

And since you mention CFLs, let's look at some numbers:

Say I have two porch lights that are on 2000 hours per year, and I put 75 watt incandescents in the sockets. Those two lamps will use 150 kWh per year. At 15 cents per kWh, that's $22.50 worth of electricity.

If the incandescent bulbs cost 25 cents each, and last 1000 hours, the bulb cost per year will be $1. So I have a total cost of $23.50 for those two incandescent porch lights.

Now suppose I replace those two porch lights that are on 2000 hours per year with 23 watt CFLs. Those two lamps will use 46 kWh per year. At 15 cents per kWh, that's $6.90 worth of electricity.

If the CFLs cost $2.50 cents each, and last 2000 hours, the bulb cost per year will be $5. So I have a total cost of $11.90 for those two incandescent porch lights. That's a savings of $11.60 over the incandescents, plus I don't have to change the burned out bulbs as often.

In real life, the CFLs will probably last a lot longer than 2000 hours, increasing the bulb-cost savings even more.

By changing just those two lamps I eliminated the need for 106 kWh of electricity per year. Which means the utilities don't need to generate it nor deliver it, regardless of the technology used.

Of course CFLs can't be used for all applications, but they do work in many. LEDs are beginning to appear, and their efficiency and life expectancy is even better.

A couple of things to remember:

- Engineering is doing for a penny what any fool can do for a pound.

- A penny saved is a penny earned.

But the article writer said it better.

He just didn't go far enough. The situation is far worse than he states. There's also the transfer-of-wealth-through-disaster factor.

Back before A/C was common, Americans were more connected to the cycles of Nature. Northerners' character was shaped by dealing with the bitter winters, making them frugal, patient, tough, and with a long-term focus. Southerners' character was similarly shaped by the hot humid summers, making them also frugal, patient, tough, and with a long-term focus - but in a different way from Northerners. (Southerners knew the summer would end, Northerners knew the winter would end).

People who couldn't take a Northern winter/snow/ice/blizzards moved south. People who couldn't take a Southern summer/humidity/hurricanes moved north.

The hot dry Southwest had its own similar situation. People who expected things like greenery and water moved away.

The result was that people made allowances for things like "the weather". Washington DC before air conditioning was so awful in the summer that the federal govt. all but shut down for a couple of months. Summer was for some things, winter was for other things, and almost nothing was year-round, regardless of where you were. People lived, dressed, ate and set their expectations in sync with the weather. And they became acclimatized to the seasons. They also built in harmony with the climate.

But the widespread use of A/C insulated people from Nature. Americans lost connection with the reality of Nature and expect everything to be available and operating at full speed 24/7/365. Millions moved directly into the path of drought, hurricanes and earthquakes (let's not forget California). Every place was supposed to be just like everywhere else, and totally under human control.

To which Nature has repeatedly responded: "HAH!"

The evidence is all around us.

People build fragile wood-frame buildings right next to the beach and are upset when a hurricane blows them away or floods them. They build similar structures in the dry southwestern wooded hills and then get all upset when a brush fire burns them. They put tall structures right next to each other and then are surprised when an earthquake makes them fall down.

And we keep right on doing it. A city with inadequate levees that failed when most needed, which is below sea level, and is sinking, gets rebuilt right in the same place.

The result is that Nature comes through every so often and makes a mess, which everyone (including folks back in the Rust Belt) wind up paying to clean up.

Think about it. When's the last time anywhere in the Northeast was declared a major disaster area due to a weather event and got billions of dollars of aid to fix it?