John Gardner: Winds of change? A mixed year on the energy front

From the standpoint of moving toward a more sustainable energy future, 2011 was a year of ups and downs.

On the national scene, 2011 saw the first increase in the CAFE standards (federal standards for automotive efficiency) in over two decades.

The law that is intended to encourage innovation in the automotive industry (which, coupled with clean air standards, drove the nearly universal adoption of fuel injection to replace wasteful and dirty carburetors) is finally getting an upgrade. Long overdue in my opinion.

Interestingly, 2011 was also the year in which the typical American household spent the highest percentage of its income on gasoline since 1981 (8.4 percent).

I wonder if the picture would have been better if Congress had allowed the CAFE standards to slowly rise over the last 20 years instead of caving in to the automotive industry, which wanted to protect its high-profit-margin SUVs.

Come to think of it, if the car companies had been motivated to be a bit more innovative in their model mix, they might not have been pushed to the brink of bankruptcy when the bottom fell out and people decided to be more circumspect in their purchasing decisions.

It was also the year when two major automakers widely released electric vehicles. The Chevy Volt (actually a plug-in hybrid) and the Nissan Leaf (100 percent electric) have not sold as well as the industry had hoped, but it?s early going.

The trend toward electrification of our transportation fleet is a mixed bag. On one hand, it helps us become less dependent on petroleum (foreign and domestic) thus easing the geopolitical and environmental problems that seem inextricably tied to oil.

On the other hand, widespread adoption of electric vehicles has the potential to disrupt an already stressed electrical grid.

But this also represents a terrific opportunity through the smart grid to help balance the unruly impacts of wind and solar generation.

Time will tell if we successfully link the two.

Closer to home, 2011 was not particularly kind to Idaho?s nascent renewable energy industry, but it could have been worse. In a session with mixed results, the Legislature allowed a sales tax rebate on renewable energy equipment to expire and then chose not to impose a statewide moratorium on the wind industry. It tells you just how tough the wind industry has it in Idaho if its core business is nearly outlawed, and it can call it a victory.

I found the debate around the moratorium to be particularly interesting. This is a legislative body that had consistently resisted statewide oversight of the placement of generating facilities (something many other states closely manage) with the argument that local control should trump the state on these issues.

In light of this sentiment, it?s amazing that the moratorium (which I would characterize as ultimate state control) got as much traction as it did before it was ultimately defeated.

Which leads me to local option taxes as a means of funding much-needed public transit, but let?s hold off on that for later in the year.

Speaking of state control of renewable energy projects, this was the year when the Public Utilities Commission passed down a controversial ruling that makes it impossible for wind developers to take advantage of the provisions of a 1978 federal law that is intended to open up energy markets to those very developers.

While a contrary ruling from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in October led to a partial reprieve, I suspect that damage has been done. For better or worse, I predict that 2012 will see the last major wind projects being constructed in Idaho for the foreseeable future.

But in spite of the set-backs, I am fundamentally optimistic that we?ll figure it out in the long run and that 2012 will be a better year.

I?m also immensely grateful that I live in a country where we can have these kinds of discussions, that my family is happy and healthy, that I have a job (which I happen to love) and that every time I flip the switch, the light goes on. I constantly strive to remember that not everyone is so lucky.

John Gardner is a professor of mechanical and biomedical engineering at Boise State University and director of the CAES Energy Efficiency Research Institute.

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