EU Energy Policy Blog

California has been leading the rest of the US in many areas, but the one area the policymakers are most proud of is that the state has managed to keep its per capita electricity consumption virtually flat for 30 years – a feat that is the envy of the rest of the country.

How does California do it?

There are many explanations for this including the fact that:

(i) California’s electricity rates are significantly higher than the national average encouraging conservation and investment in energy efficiency;
(ii) Most Californians live in temperate coastal zones where the need for heating and cooling is minimal – a pattern that is beginning to shift as population growth takes place in central valleys; and
(iii) California has little heavy industry, which helps keep the per capita electricity consumption low.

Ask for an explanation from the energy policymakers at the California Energy Commission (CEC) or the regulators at the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and they are likely to point to other reasons: strong support for energy efficiency measures, stringent building codes and appliance energy efficiency standards. The truth, as always, is somewhere in between.

Continuing the trend to set new standards, which are usually adopted by other states and the federal government later on, CEC has proposed to tighten the screws on one of the most energy guzzling devices to appear on the scene in many years, giant flat screen TVs. These gadgets, which come in sizes that barely fit through the house’s front door, have a voracious appetite for electricity. Making matters worse, Californians have been buying them in large numbers, an estimated 4 million per year. Many homes have multiple TVs, which are left on for hours at a time.

CEC figures that the big TVs and their peripherals – digital video recorders, DVD players and cable boxes – now account for 10% of the power usage in typical homes. CEC intends to impose energy efficiency standards that would, on the average, shave off 33% from consumption starting in 2011, with tougher standards to follow beginning in 2013.

The Consumer Electronics Association, representing manufacturers and sales channels, said it was “disappointed” that the CEC was “rushing forward” with new standards. Resorting to standard scare tactic used by all lobbying groups opposed to any change in anything, it claimed that, “Millions (of dollars) in tax revenues and thousands of jobs are at stake.”

Calmer heads at the CEC, who have heard such arguments before, dismissed them as they have in the past. The CEC responded, “California has been an energy pioneer for more than 30 years,” implying there was no reason to stop now.

This post is extracted from EEnergy Informer, November 2009 issue.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 9th, 2009 at 11:52 am and is filed under Climate Change. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.