The Energy Rebound Battle
The research of a resource economist, Harry Saunders, is the focus of this article and how it shows that energy efficiency is an important contributor to human progress, even though it cannot prevent climate change. Saunders began his research in the early 1990's, and his thinking is based on what's known as the rebound effect - when the cost of something goes does, its consumption tends to go up. Even though Saunders initially assumed that energy efficiency would result in lower energy consumption, he created a model of the economic productivity of energy, and it surprised him to find that increased energy productivity resulted in increased energy consumption. While he went on to tweak the model so that it more accurately reflected the real world, his views were not popular among those who had advocated energy efficiency as a costless fix for the U.S.'s energy problems. Rebound was considered by efficiency advocates to be as mythical as the Loch Ness Monster, in that its existence could never be confirmed. As concern about climate change has increased, rebound effects have garnered increased attention, with little agreement as to how they may be calculated. Saunders went on to publish further results in 2008 and 2013 with an econometric model to test the results empirically. While the debate continues, it can be agreed that energy efficiency results in a wealthier economy that is better suited to deal with the effects of climate change.
- Record URL:
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Availability:
- Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/07485492
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Authors:
- Nordhaus, Ted
- Publication Date: 2017
Language
- English
Media Info
- Media Type: Web
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Serial:
- Issues in Science and Technology
- Volume: 33
- Issue Number: 4
- Publisher: University of Texas at Dallas
- ISSN: 0748-5492
- Serial URL: http://www.issues.org/
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Climate change; Costs; Econometrics; Energy consumption
- Uncontrolled Terms: Controversy; Rebound effect
- Subject Areas: Economics; Energy; Transportation (General);
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01646856
- Record Type: Publication
- Files: TRIS
- Created Date: Sep 27 2017 10:17AM