Interesting quotes about energy efficiency we picked up this week.
Best
And we wonder why things go wrong. “Energy markets ‘were physically designed by reliability engineers, intellectually designed by economists, and all disputes are resolved by lawyers.’” Robert Curry Jr., a former member of the New York State Public Service Commission in the New York Times. “‘It’s the worst of all possible worlds.'”
Best Superstorm Sandy Anniversary Quote
Microgrid overload? “To be a bit heretical… I think the public has perhaps been too quick to leap at the prospect of little self-contained islands that can ride out any storm, when in fact the best future for all of us lies in remembering the collective goods that a well-maintained central system can deliver. There will be many decentralized elements of that. But I don’t want to give up the benefits of the big grid either.” Ralph Cavanagh, co-director for the energy program at the Natural Resources Defense Council, speaking at the The National Summit on Integrating Energy Efficiency and Smart Grid.
The Other Best Superstorm Sandy Anniversary Quote
Not so smart energy “There is not enough money for everything, and a lot of the response to Sandy seems to be grid hardening, not what I would classify as resiliency. You are putting a substation on stilts so the water can go underneath. That’s our major modernization of the system. I think there is a lost opportunity here.” Dan Delurey, executive director of the Association for Demand Response and Smart Grid at The National Summit on Integrating Energy Efficiency and Smart Grid
Biggest Ouch
“I think the important policies need to happen at a state rather than a federal level. With modest exceptions, our federal energy policy is really a large trough arranged by the hogs for their convenience,” Amory Lovins, co-founder of the Rocky Mountain Institute, told to Mother Jones.
