No way out? The double-bind in seeking global prosperity alongside mitigated climate change

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13. Mangling Energy Efficiency Economics

http://blogs.cfr.org/levi/2010/12/14/mangling-energy-efficiency-economics/

[font face=Serif][font size=5]Mangling Energy Efficiency Economics[/font]

by Michael Levi
December 14, 2010

[font size=3]Switch to a more efficient car, and you’ll drive a bit more, since extra gasoline now costs you less. This well-known phenomenon is known as the “rebound effect”. In the case of cars, it eats up about ten percent of the fuel savings from greater fuel efficiency. But at the level of economies, many believe, it’s much worse. All the money saved through more efficient automobiles and better refrigerators doesn’t just mean more summer road trips and Sub-Zeros – it means more money pumped into the whole economy, and hence greater emissions overall.

That’s a minority view, for good reason: it’s wrong. But in a long essay in the new issue of the New Yorker, David Owen buys it hook, line, and sinker. He’s enamored of the work of 19th century British economist Stanley Jevons, and while Stanford’s Lee Schipper clearly spent oodles of time trying to explain to him why what Jevons wrote doesn’t apply to today’s economy, Owen isn’t believing him for a second.

I was planning to go through the article and pick apart every instance of silly logic, but those piled up so high that that goal became unrealistic. Instead, let me focus on two passages that capture the essence of Owen’s mistakes. …[/font][/font]