When I was a child, it was interesting to learn about energy. It seemed to me that there was more talking done about energies like the evil eye and whether or not someone had good vibes about them or either being an old soul or a wizened elder than about what we took for granted by then, the electrons flowing through wire. The first time I read about energy that I remember was the playful bounding kind that children do. I think there was a strong motivation in many children's books to echo what children did already, so the bounding joyful energy was well-known before I understood the electric energy flow of electrons. Lightening, I suppose, made itself known to me, but to grasp that the Earth and Sky were discharging electrons came much later. I remember reading intently about hydro-power and understanding that by using turbines or water wheels, you can do work, but that sort of energy is under many more laws than the energetic fields of human organisms. Any organism for that matter.
The diagram that we all know, of the Sun in the center and elliptical orbits of the planets forgets that the Sun itself is hurling through the universe at mind-numbing speed, our orbits actually follow a path more like a corkscrew, eschewing through a time signature of far more sublime nature. Each has an energy of their own, cycling, we can be sure, in harmonics as yet un-quantified. Just because we do not have tools to detect certain energies does not mean that they are not there. Frequently, I am amazed at the time some people spend, for instance, on ghost hunting, mediums and hunting for haunted places. Perhaps it seems so normal to honor the spirits of place for me, that disembodied spirits are just not attracted to me. How we reflect and respond to energies that surround us, of time, of place, of relationship, these mediate tempo and depth that we allow our senses to bring to our attention. Have you ever noticed how much more often you lose your keys the faster you run through life. Just too busy to put them in the same place every time is just asking for trouble, especially when you heap on a busy schedule and being overbooked. Each relationship we make with the world echoes out across the fabric of time and space, often in ways that we do not understand or honor with our awareness.
How we relate to the electricity and other fossil energy that flows through our society has got to be reckoned with before our species floods coasts worldwide and makes life on Earth untenable. I used to serve on the not-for-profit board of Wisconsin's Demand-Side Demonstrations (WDSD) It was our job, as determined by the courts to spend 64 million dollars of overcharges that the public utilities had systematically charged residential rate payers in the years covered under a settlement back in the 1980's. The problem was, that the commercial rate payers whose overcharges were less than those of residential customers (because of their high use and ability to capitalize on cheap energy at night) had representatives to the board as well as the public interest groups who had representatives there. When we would convene, 42 members sat, twenty representing the public, twenty representing (of all groups), the very corporations that did the overcharging in the first place, and two from DNR, who always, when confronted by a tie, would side with industry.
We (WDSD)were able to prove that without a doubt we could eliminate several base load electric generating stations by implementing off the shelf technology for conservation. We (WDSD) funded such brainiac programs as spraying water on rooftops of commercial buildings to augment air conditioning expenses, reducing electricity costs. We funded some of the first bicycles in Wisconsin designed to demonstrate the energy required to make different lights and appliances work. I think we spent less than a million dollars on three bicycles and were able to tour them around the state for years for a few hundred thousand. I think when we got our final results, about 2.2 million of the 64 million went to what could be considered to be public programs and efficiency, whose benefits flow to the homeowner, those who were unduly burdened by the initial overcharges. About five times as much, just under 11 million, was spent on medium to large business conservation.
The argument always went back to the same thing, having the biggest bang for the buck. Picking the low hanging fruit as we frequently said. We (WDSD) gave away nearly a million dollars worth of high efficiency light bulbs, because it was easy. The though being that people would put the bulbs in right away and that some would turn up in the most used locations. After we started doing some research and tracking, we would find that one of two things happened. Because the bulbs lasted longer, people would install them in the hardest spot to change them and often, in a spot where it would be the least used, like basements and attics. Some folks took cases of CFL bulbs and stored them because to buy one at the store during that early period of their introduction would have been expensive, so they took more than the would ever install. Side note: these were frequently the same relatively wealthy opportunistic sorts of people who overcharged customers for years.
The industry reps on the board reminded us that the public, miraculously, would be served by reducing emissions from coal burning facilities, so by applying what we knew would work, as far as conservation should be put on at the largest users facilities to make the most of the 64 million, but the homeowners took it in the shorts when the high efficiency motor standards for home appliances were discussed. I remember an argument from an industry rep who said that because homeowners only use their appliances occasionally, making them high efficiency would barely make a difference, whereas, the industrial user would gain much more because they ran their motors pretty much continually. This is true, but why did the public fund benefits for the corporations, rather than their own quality or standard of living? Because We the People did not know until it was too late to stop the madness of letting the very corporations who had to pay 64 million dollars if fines be represented on the board that decided how to spend those dollars. "It is too hard to give it (the 64 million) back to the rate payers, they have all moved away..." is what the electric service providers said. I remember looking at some of the last documents as my involvement wound down, over half would be spent on long term studies of all the projects we funded. Over half the money would be spent studying the effects of the programs we funded and the lion's share of what remained went to overhead and staff.
Anyone who tries to tell you that the energy giants (or even the little guys) are not subsidized, laugh in their face. This was exactly the same scheme as we have seen throughout the "economic recovery". there has been a systematic shift of money, power, control and influence up the socioeconomic ladder. The higher roller you are, the more privileges you enjoy. Even as the public side representatives worked to get the best programs for citizens generally, our efforts were stifled and when push came to shove, we were nearly always overruled. "What?" they would say, "You can't require a higher SEER air conditioner for the entire state of Wisconsin, that would be the end of smaller companies that can't afford it", "but our friend who has eight acres of hot roof that he has to air condition could save as much energy as your program at less than half the cost." These guys were dealing from the Devil's deck from the start. They would let you talk, listen, understand what you were proposing. Occasionally they would agree with the public side representatives, but in the end, when the votes would be cast, the suits would all heave together and do what, I assume old rich white men will always do, vote together to screw the rest of us, especially if it means that it will favor themselves.
Far removed from the bucolic imagery of Richard Scary's What Do People Do All Day, things are not as simple as a hydro-electric dam where everything is clean and bright and beautiful. In the world of fossil energy, there are some pretty dark, and remote places. Geographically, psychologically, economically, culturally, etc. Each of those has an energy as well. For instance, the centuries of geologic heat and pressure required to make coal cannot be honored nor sanctified when it is flowing by on conveyor belt, or trainload. likewise the photons and energy that fed and nourished the organic matter making the coal or oil, or natural gas cannot be understood until we realize that it is a geologic battery, storing energy from before humans even became a unique species. Perhaps our very existence requires leaving that in the ground. We have options, what we lack is will.
The diagram that we all know, of the Sun in the center and elliptical orbits of the planets forgets that the Sun itself is hurling through the universe at mind-numbing speed, our orbits actually follow a path more like a corkscrew, eschewing through a time signature of far more sublime nature. Each has an energy of their own, cycling, we can be sure, in harmonics as yet un-quantified. Just because we do not have tools to detect certain energies does not mean that they are not there. Frequently, I am amazed at the time some people spend, for instance, on ghost hunting, mediums and hunting for haunted places. Perhaps it seems so normal to honor the spirits of place for me, that disembodied spirits are just not attracted to me. How we reflect and respond to energies that surround us, of time, of place, of relationship, these mediate tempo and depth that we allow our senses to bring to our attention. Have you ever noticed how much more often you lose your keys the faster you run through life. Just too busy to put them in the same place every time is just asking for trouble, especially when you heap on a busy schedule and being overbooked. Each relationship we make with the world echoes out across the fabric of time and space, often in ways that we do not understand or honor with our awareness.
How we relate to the electricity and other fossil energy that flows through our society has got to be reckoned with before our species floods coasts worldwide and makes life on Earth untenable. I used to serve on the not-for-profit board of Wisconsin's Demand-Side Demonstrations (WDSD) It was our job, as determined by the courts to spend 64 million dollars of overcharges that the public utilities had systematically charged residential rate payers in the years covered under a settlement back in the 1980's. The problem was, that the commercial rate payers whose overcharges were less than those of residential customers (because of their high use and ability to capitalize on cheap energy at night) had representatives to the board as well as the public interest groups who had representatives there. When we would convene, 42 members sat, twenty representing the public, twenty representing (of all groups), the very corporations that did the overcharging in the first place, and two from DNR, who always, when confronted by a tie, would side with industry.
We (WDSD)were able to prove that without a doubt we could eliminate several base load electric generating stations by implementing off the shelf technology for conservation. We (WDSD) funded such brainiac programs as spraying water on rooftops of commercial buildings to augment air conditioning expenses, reducing electricity costs. We funded some of the first bicycles in Wisconsin designed to demonstrate the energy required to make different lights and appliances work. I think we spent less than a million dollars on three bicycles and were able to tour them around the state for years for a few hundred thousand. I think when we got our final results, about 2.2 million of the 64 million went to what could be considered to be public programs and efficiency, whose benefits flow to the homeowner, those who were unduly burdened by the initial overcharges. About five times as much, just under 11 million, was spent on medium to large business conservation.
The argument always went back to the same thing, having the biggest bang for the buck. Picking the low hanging fruit as we frequently said. We (WDSD) gave away nearly a million dollars worth of high efficiency light bulbs, because it was easy. The though being that people would put the bulbs in right away and that some would turn up in the most used locations. After we started doing some research and tracking, we would find that one of two things happened. Because the bulbs lasted longer, people would install them in the hardest spot to change them and often, in a spot where it would be the least used, like basements and attics. Some folks took cases of CFL bulbs and stored them because to buy one at the store during that early period of their introduction would have been expensive, so they took more than the would ever install. Side note: these were frequently the same relatively wealthy opportunistic sorts of people who overcharged customers for years.
The industry reps on the board reminded us that the public, miraculously, would be served by reducing emissions from coal burning facilities, so by applying what we knew would work, as far as conservation should be put on at the largest users facilities to make the most of the 64 million, but the homeowners took it in the shorts when the high efficiency motor standards for home appliances were discussed. I remember an argument from an industry rep who said that because homeowners only use their appliances occasionally, making them high efficiency would barely make a difference, whereas, the industrial user would gain much more because they ran their motors pretty much continually. This is true, but why did the public fund benefits for the corporations, rather than their own quality or standard of living? Because We the People did not know until it was too late to stop the madness of letting the very corporations who had to pay 64 million dollars if fines be represented on the board that decided how to spend those dollars. "It is too hard to give it (the 64 million) back to the rate payers, they have all moved away..." is what the electric service providers said. I remember looking at some of the last documents as my involvement wound down, over half would be spent on long term studies of all the projects we funded. Over half the money would be spent studying the effects of the programs we funded and the lion's share of what remained went to overhead and staff.
Anyone who tries to tell you that the energy giants (or even the little guys) are not subsidized, laugh in their face. This was exactly the same scheme as we have seen throughout the "economic recovery". there has been a systematic shift of money, power, control and influence up the socioeconomic ladder. The higher roller you are, the more privileges you enjoy. Even as the public side representatives worked to get the best programs for citizens generally, our efforts were stifled and when push came to shove, we were nearly always overruled. "What?" they would say, "You can't require a higher SEER air conditioner for the entire state of Wisconsin, that would be the end of smaller companies that can't afford it", "but our friend who has eight acres of hot roof that he has to air condition could save as much energy as your program at less than half the cost." These guys were dealing from the Devil's deck from the start. They would let you talk, listen, understand what you were proposing. Occasionally they would agree with the public side representatives, but in the end, when the votes would be cast, the suits would all heave together and do what, I assume old rich white men will always do, vote together to screw the rest of us, especially if it means that it will favor themselves.
Far removed from the bucolic imagery of Richard Scary's What Do People Do All Day, things are not as simple as a hydro-electric dam where everything is clean and bright and beautiful. In the world of fossil energy, there are some pretty dark, and remote places. Geographically, psychologically, economically, culturally, etc. Each of those has an energy as well. For instance, the centuries of geologic heat and pressure required to make coal cannot be honored nor sanctified when it is flowing by on conveyor belt, or trainload. likewise the photons and energy that fed and nourished the organic matter making the coal or oil, or natural gas cannot be understood until we realize that it is a geologic battery, storing energy from before humans even became a unique species. Perhaps our very existence requires leaving that in the ground. We have options, what we lack is will.
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