On Monday, I had one of my favorite sorts of opportunities, which was a chance to influence future energy legislation. The National Conference of State Legislators invited me to give a short presentation as part of a two-day energy efficiency workshop for interested legislators from across the country.
Given the short time frame, I couldn’t say everything I would have wanted, but fortunately, I was part of a large group of excellent presenters, so what I didn’t hit, they did. I focused on my ideas for transforming markets and tackling the many barriers to energy efficiency [PowerPoint presentation, 12MB].
Tom Konrad
Did you intend slide 14 as a joke? You cannot be serious.
Bill,
I assume you’re referring to my idea of publishing power usage on the internet.
I’m serious. I don’t think that anything other than usage (kWh and Therms/cubic feet of natural gas) be published, along with the address.
Even that would probably raise massive protest from privacy advocates, but considering I can go online to the tax assessor in many localities armed with just the address and find out who owns the property, how much they paid for it, and the size of their mortgage, I consider this to be a relatively minor invasion of privacy.
It’s drastic, but desperate times call for desperate measures. Do I think such a law could be enacted? Yes, but only in very progressive localities, at least at first.