Energy Efficiency - DOE As I Say...

The Times reports the results of an internal Department of Energy audit - despite their public exhortations, the DOE has not made much headway in actually switching to higher-efficiency lighting sources:

Nationally, the department has 9,000 buildings and a huge electric bill, $190 million a year, of which about $76 million goes to lighting, the report said. The auditors said more efficient lighting would save American taxpayers $2.2 million a year and free up enough electricity to meet the needs of 3,200 homes.

The latest report makes a bookend to last year's audit, which found that the DOE has a really hard time remembering to dial back the air conditioning or heat at night:

With nearly $300 million in annual utility costs, the Department could realize significant savings by using setbacks in its buildings. We estimate that the Department could save over $11.5 million in annual utility costs.

With the money they could save, they could hire even more PR experts to help get the message out to the rest of us.

Comments

[Old Lurker]

Welcome to the world of Other People's Money.

As a landlord, I know of not a single tenant or other landlord - all of whom spend real money of their own - who did not adopt those easy things years ago. The payback periods were measured in nanoseconds.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Surprise.

[Danube of Thought]

I suppose there are limits to what a Nobel Laureate can do.

[MayBee]

Because the Feds can't figure out how to set back the thermostat, they will invest billions of dollars in "smart grids" so our home electricity can be turned off from a central location.

[Neo]

Think of those poor polar bears ... no air conditioning in federal buildings

[Captain Hate]

Sooooo the Feds can't comply with their own directives? There's a shocker. I used to work in the Federal building in Cleveland where people would pass out because the a/c was so goddamn ineffective and the windows couldn't be opened. Too bad we couldn't sic OSHA on 'em.

[Danube of Thought]

I used to work in the Federal building in Cleveland

The most depressing statement I've read in a while. Thank God you escaped.

[Captain Hate]

DoT, it was a mind-numbingly stultifying experience. Every day was like walking into an asylum. There were lots of good people there; unfortunately they'd had almost all their life leached out of them.

[matt]

one of the most perverse cases of utter incompetence involved an acquaintance who was a litigator at the EPA. She ended up having medical problems because of "sick building syndrome" and suing her employer. She is now on full disability at the age of 50 or so courtesy of John Q. Taxpayer.

[Captain Hate]

Wasn't the plant that supplies power for the Capitol building one of the biggest polluters around (**caveat** that might be an old story). When Cleveland Public Power (then Muny Light) had its shitpot of a generating plant running before all the bearings seized up (the POS that Kucinich made his bones protesting in favor of) rendering it completely useless, it was a giant pollution producer, subject to no EPA regs.

[Pagar]

One needs to be very careful when reading info about DOE. One could end up laughing too hard at these incompetents, fall out of your chair and substain a serious injury.

22 Feb 2009 ... "In a sign that the appointment of Steven Chu means that the DOE will not be taking a business-as-usual approach" ...

If the DOE was disbanded, how long would it take to undo the damage it has caused since the day Steven Chu was appointed to run it?

[jimmyk]

Hey, I have an idea--let's just close down the DOE. Can anyone name a single socially useful thing it does? The only shocker in the story is 9,000 buildings. If you'd asked me if the DOE has 9, 90, 900, or 9,000 buildings I night have guessed 9, might have believed 90. 9000? WTF?

[DrJ]

Can anyone name a single socially useful thing it does?

DOE supports some valuable research. That of course could be moved, but much of the work they support is quite good.

[jimmyk]

DOE supports some valuable research.

That's it for 9,000 buildings? And as you suggest, we have a National Science Foundation already. Close it down.

[DrJ]

DOE funds seven times the research of NSF. Of course that includes the national labs for DOE.

[jimmyk]

Still doesn't merit a cabinet level department. And on the face of it, that sounds excessive. (I'm not disputing the fact, I'm expressing a strong suspicion that it's too high relative to the NSF.)

And does any of that include the ridiculous "Energy Star" program, which apparently is a complete sham? According to a report that I saw, companies can self-report that they qualify, and the DOE rubber stamps it.

[DrJ]

Fundamentally I don't disagree with you about DOE. It could be a useful agency since energy policy is of critical importance, but really it is not as it has worked out.

And the research monies could always be moved. It was never clear to me why DOE needed a piece of sequencing of the human genome, for example.

FWIW, in straight research funding, DOE is about twice the size of NSF. But NSF is a pretty small agency in the research funding area. NIH is five times the size. DOD is larger than all of them.

[Pagar]

"I night have guessed 9, might have believed 90. 9000? WTF?"

We now know what the REAL mission of NASA is, and how grateful the Muslims are since we gave up our space efforts on their behalf; but does anyone have a clue what the REAL mission of DOE might be? Other than eliminating any usage of oil, coal,or nuclear to provide energy for use in the US.

What happens with the results of the research, they so willingly fund, with taxpayer money?

[DrJ]

What happens with the results of the research, they so willingly fund, with taxpayer money?

Most of it is published, though some of it has been used to generate IP that is spinning off companies. Sorry that I can't be more specific but I don't really know DOE that well.

[hit and run]

Posted by: Pagar | July 08, 2010 at 01:28 PM

Good to see you,Pagar. You've been missed.

[JM Hanes]

Ed Morrisey picked up this energy gem today:

As the Wall Street Journal notes, the plan called for the Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) program to coordinate loans from states and local municipalities on special tax assessments to pay for expensive improvements on energy use (solar panels, for example) over a period of 15-20 years, and the state or local government sells bonds to cover the debt.

Who'd a thunk it? The Administration wants state and local folks to take over the borrowing and the taxing that subsidizing home greenery will require. Can't imagine why.

Pass the buck, shift the burden, hide the decline, fudge the federal numbers.... It's all good.

[Dave (in MA)]

">http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/Toyota_RAV4_003.JPG"> ">http://www.smartcockpit.com/site/plane/gulfstream/G550/G550.jpg">
(L) My ride, and (R) the Sex-crazed Poodle's ride. My conscience is clear on energy use. As the link currently up on Insty says, “How desperate could the planet’s plight be if the people who present themselves as most concerned about it consider flying first-class commercial an unacceptable sacrifice?”

[Pagar]

Thanks Hit and Run!
Can you believe I would have much rather been commenting on JOM.

My tip for anyone needing a double knee replacement.

a.Lose every pound possible before the operation.

On Another Topic, using the hotel's internet connection, I now get messages like this in Hotmail spam.

Email --""From Bank of Africa--Did you authorize ______Blank from West Virginia to receive your payments?""

Needless to say, I am not due anything from anyone in Africa.