Energy : A Light At The End Of The Tunnel (1981)

the United un States is the most powerful country on Earth it has the biggest and the hungriest economy every day Jets take off and land 156,000 times energy guzzling cars speed over more than a million miles of Roads our factories and steel mills and all of our housing and commercial buildings combined to use the energy equivalent of 37 million barrels of oil every single day we are the world's greatest energy consumer I'm Robert mcneel we start with a look at the sources of energy actually available to us in the 80s we want to know if these sources can help us avoid gas lines this year next year and the year after what are the new domestic sources of energy how soon will they become available for example from such sources as photovoltaic cells they extraordinary objects thin round Wafers of impure silicon crystal they create electrical energy when the Sun hits them the 25 KW is used for running a 20 horsepower irrigation motor and pump and it's used for irrigating 80 acres of corn that'll raise about 80 180 uh bushels of corn per acre it's a marvelous Space Age idea first used in quantities to help power our space flight program they have steadily dropped in price but like many other active Solar Technologies they are not sufficiently developed to help energy production over the next few years how does Neil Sullivan assess the impact of photovoltaics in the short term for 1980s it's primarily demonstration and experimental um and in terms of the power produced would be insignificant the rock that burns that's what the early Indians called oil shale and in these Barren mountains of Utah Wyoming and Colorado there are hundreds of billions of barrels of oil this is oil shale it's being developed here by ocidental oil the nation's leader in oil shell technology their president Dr Armand Hammer we know how to get that oil out our company has worked on an underground method which we started 10 years ago called modified in situ uh the what we do is we mine some of the shale Rock in order to gain access to the ore and then we create a chamber in the mountain where the ore is and we drill holes and explode The Ore so that it forms a rubble small pieces and we light that with a gas flame roduced from the top with a little oxygen and as some of the shell burns the heat that's generated when it reaches 900° F causes the oil separate from the Rock and it falls to the bottom of this chamber and we pump it out right now we're working on a commercial project we expect it'll produce 50,000 barrels a day by the mid 1980s since our present Imports total some 8 million barrels a day these Shale oil Mountains will help to some extent in the 80s but in the latter half of the 80s here in Washington state Gulf oil has been EXP experimenting with making both oil and Clean Coal from Dirty coal the dirty coal is ground up mixed with a solvent and heated Under Pressure so that the oil is extracted and put in these storage tanks but Dr Dave schmalzer while excited by the process is clear about the speed with which it can be delivered the earliest that we feel that the commercial scale plants plants that would produce on the order of 100,000 barrels a day of volum equivalent products would be approximately 1988 to 1990 it takes time to put new technologies in place the Technologies for the traditional sources like crude oil and natural gas are still producing substantial amounts of energy but these domestic energy supplies have been steadily decreasing since 1970 at the same time the exploration for domestic oil has increased even the oil men who make money finding oil aren't optimistic about major new oil strikes Dr Hammer again I don't think we're going to find another uh Alaska in the bore Canyon or any place else the history of the bore Canyon know has been very disappointing uh but uh there'll be some oil found but it won't solve our problem I to go myself [Music] there was a time too when we thought the atom would solve the energy question once and for all the 1980s would be the decade for nuclear power but Three Mile Island sent a shiver down the backs of Americans Three Mile Island has had a strong adverse effect on the nuclear industry owners of this plant have even considered converting to coal Coal will certainly help us in the 1980s it's going to be uh one of our major sources of energy Supply because it is uh the most available other than uh oil and gas which is where our problem area is begin to be now and coal is in such plentiful amounts in the United States and reasonably easy to get to and a Coal Fired uh Steam Plant can be built quicker than anything else within 5 years you can have one of those Daniel Jurgen a professor at the Harvard Business School is the author with Robert stobo of an unlikely bestseller called Energy Future in it Jurgen who himself wrote the section on conservation sees conservation as though it were a source of oil he Compares efficient energy use in France Germany and the USA in the United States society as a whole consumes some 1,400 tons of oil to make $1 million worth of domestic product West Germany however uses only 3/4 of the same amount of oil to make the same amount of domestic product and France consumes half of the oil used in the United States to produce the same amount of product simply by being energy efficient the French can make the same amount of product and keep half the oil to start something new I think that we have to start considering conservation indeed as a source of energy that is we ask how much energy do we get investing in the North Slope of Alaska or in a new Coal Mine how much energy do we get investing in Energy Efficiency how could Energy Efficiency really help stem the flow of imported oil let's look now at four major areas of American Life the home industry Commerce and transportation in transportation alone it's estimated that savings through through Energy Efficiency between 1975 and the year 2000 could amount to more than twice the entire reserves of the North Slope of Alaska as gasoline shoots up in price more and more people are choosing to run efficient cars and to get rid of their gas guzzlers Smoky Burns still has the name he used when he was a professional prize fighter he lives here in South Los Angeles some 10 mil from downtown and remains far more proud of his 23 3 one lost record then of his 1967 gas guzzling Cadillac I'm on my way to the Salvation Army like 55 other La residents he's about to turn his car over to the Salvation Army as a charitable gift and perhaps make a few dollars on his tax return I don't enjoy going to the gas station it ruins my day can I have your name sir yes Smoky Burns and this is a 1967 gas C in this Center alone we've had 55 cars donated this year this Ford was just donated to us last uh Tuesday these other cars that you see lined here were all donated last week this one's worth anywhere from 700 to 1,000 and the one beside it about 900 all told this year I would say close to about $30,000 so far on cars this year soon there won't be many gas guzzlers to give to Charities for disposal they'll be relics of the past back in 1975 the federal government told Detroit to make their cars more energy efficient it took six years to get to the point where we had a car that met all or most of the criteria that we had been shooting for we met with an awful lot of people within our design staff and engineering and also within our Market Planning Group we looked at the demographics we we surveyed customers to find out why they bought the cars they bought the smaller cars what they look for in a car and what they expected from ours in transportation it takes Decisions by only a few manufacturers to create significant Energy savings housing is different there are millions of homes so real Energy savings can only be achieved when millions of homeowners decide to make their houses more energy efficient that's not easy the federal government has tried tax incentives $300 for energy efficient Home Improvements but the scheme hasn't been effective yet government funded studies show there are huge benefits in making the home more energy efficient what's your air speed looking like K 6 to 8 Federal and local governments have funded numerous projects to find out how much energy is wasted in homes and how people might be persuaded to make their houses more energy efficient we went to Princeton University to look at one such project David hargy and Ken gadsby are two scientists from the Department of Environmental Studies they want to know how much heat is lost from this split level house our problem with trying to determine how much energy is lost in the house is to find out how leaky the house is and unfortunately you can't depend on the Wind so we Supply artificial wind with a blower we either pressurize the house to force the house air out through the openings and check to see what's going into the or we suck the cold air in through all the openings and find where the leaks are in the envelope of the house we physically see what's going on using two techniques One is using an infrared scanner to determine where the cold air is actually chilling down the wall surface or we can use a small smoke Tracer where we can actually see a stream of smoke either going out through one of the openings or being blown from the air coming in one of the openings we've had an overall study of housing since the early 1970s even before the energy crisis and what we saw in that housing was that we found that we could actually save 2third of the energy in a home it was here in Twin Rivers that Princeton University conducted its original retrofit project using insulation they discovered they could save a phenomenal 67% that's 2/3 of all the energy use in these homes we like to say that we're drilling for oil and gas in houses of this kind because to the extent that you can reduce the energy use in furnaces and water heaters you make that energy available for some other purpose I'm by no means convinced that the United States needs to use more energy than it presently does you can take the energy out of houses of this kind and put it into new Industries you can take it out of the commercial buildings and put it into the vehicles and we can make every sector of the American economy at least twice as energy efficient as it is today John Darley was the psychologist on the Princeton project he explored homeowners attitudes about energy and conservation sadly most of our images of conservation are images of loss of people sweating during the summer or Worse people freezing during the winter of elderly couples in northern states dying from lack of uh fuel or of people unable to drive to their jobs and losing their jobs because they can't drive there these are pretty terrifying images since it seems to me to be important that we do not cause people to be afraid and to feel helpless it seems to me that we can tell people what is slowly emerging as the truth and that's this energy will cost a great deal more than it has previously cost the New Jersey Department of energy in downtown New York has been trying to make effective plans to encourage efficiency in the home at first the results were great in the early days you went out believing there'd be this Great Patriotic response and there was some uh and that telling people that uh based on a nice uh Financial formula uh they will save money um you expected a response and didn't get it now we're going back and and doing the simple things the immediate response the immediate savings uh also uh I think at the beginning people were frightened that conservation meant uh deprivation uh now we tell them it doesn't it means efficiency uh you can retain your lifestyle uh but it has to be done in an efficient manner just remember if you get two surveys done don't complete 30 to3 aside from its other programs involving industry and transportation the state of New Jersey has been working with the Eagleton Institute here at ruter University to discover what New Jersey home owners think about conservation The Institute is conducting an opinion poll by phone you added weather stripping or sealed windows or cracks in your home when was the last time your furnace was served do you feel you have as much information about the results of the survey suggest that people still don't take the energy crisis seriously while people are turning down their thermostats there is only a small percentage of homeowners who have made significant changes to their houses any of these in the past two years at 3:00 in the dead of night a plane is flying over Westchester County in New York state these infrared photographs taken from a height of 500 ft show heat loss from Individual homes it's early spring temperature is 35° but the snow has melted the white spots indicate loss of heat these are infrared rays that were taken at night last March and the plane flew at 1500 ft and it actually senses heat loss from the building but you can actually see the heat loss the ceiling car Edison the local utility company took these photos to interest owners of these homes in Energy Efficiency this evening they succeeded yeah you can see the pool water retains a lot of heat some 1500 people showed up twice as many as expected and many were being urged to pay $10 for a home energy audit this scheme worked better than including notices in customers bills we have three different type of energy audits that you can have conducted on your home it's well worth it they charge you $10 for an outside age would charge you about 175 to come to your house to go through your house through your attic to show you around the windows where you can C and where you can improve the safey in spite of the efforts of some utility companies scientists pollsters and government officials people are still skeptical about the energy crisis this attitude affects the rate at which people decide to insulate their homes later we'll show you how this problem has been solved in a more comprehensive fashion first let's look at Energy Efficiency in the two other major sectors of the economy industry and commerce together they account for more than 50% of the nation's entire energy use here the picture is full of conflict there have been some spectacular success stories side by side with the Dismal news that some energy intensive Industries are using even more fuel than before but perhaps the most positive sign of the increased awareness of the value of Energy Efficiency in both industry and commerce is the growth of energy newspapers like this weekly Journal directed at the nation's energy managers its growth from a zero base in 1976 to some 14,000 readers today reflects a growing concern for Energy Efficiency Bob Butler is the editor I believe that we can save in the Industrial and Commercial sectors alone two to three million barrels of oil per day and from the businessman's point of view every dollar saved by Saving energy goes straight into his bottom line Bob Butler wants to see more education about the benefits of Energy Efficiency he also wants to see the federal government provide even bigger incentives like investment tax credits to promote conservation like others Butler argues that a barrel of oil from conservation is a real source of energy for the nation it makes no difference whether we buy a barrel of oil from Saudi Arabia or we save a barrel of oil in an industrial plant consequently energy conservation is an immediate source of energy in a very real sense it can be done now and it can be done on a reasonably large scale Portland Oregon is the first large city in the United States to implement an energy plan there they researched planned costed and voted in a comprehensive energy policy today their goal is to save onethird of all the energy used by the City by approaching the problem on a local political level the people of Portland evolve to plan based specifically on Portland's own needs and its own Resources Portland is a city of almost 400,000 people the local economy includes both heavy and Light Industry as well as large commercial operations it's a pretty city they spend thousands of on roses although energy in Portland is cheap it is limited so when the first energy crisis hit in 1973 they were forced to set about developing a practical method to cope with their energy needs Marian Hemphill well we did it as a result of the 1973 74 energy crisis the Pacific Northwest was hit not only with the oil embargo but a low water year in our Hydro System um we just didn't have enough rain and snow and consequently we didn't have enough electricity the mayor and the governor got together to put together a short-term plan on how to cope with that and we did manage to make it over that crisis obviously but it was realized that we had no ongoing tools to deal with that problem in the future and so consequently the mayor went out and solicited uh the US Department of Housing and Urban Development to fund uh the first study of its kind in the nation on how a municipality can plan for its energy future and we engaged in a a technical study at that time when this 16 volume technical study was completed the mayor formed a steering committee consisting of local citizens they were charged with the task of formulating a comprehensive energy policy for the entire city the policy is a comprehensive strategy for increasing the Energy Efficiency of a city it includes how to make buildings more efficient land use transportation system systems Peter C Portland's transport Chief we're very much aware of the energy conservation plan we have supported it and within it there are a number of things that we have committed that we will be doing to help it for instance uh we are going into a massive carpool program in fact in the last 3 months we've had almost 100% increase in the demand for carpools that carpool program not only is a is a savings in terms of energy but we worked out with the city that the people who get car car pools and are licensed as car poool operators receive a 50% discount in parking downtown some warnings it's not quite as bad as this but uh other days this is uh just about where it is and we got to stop fast hang on one of the other advantages car pulling is you get the use of the uh HOV lane over here and a lot of times it's just as you see and I feel bad for the people over the side it must be kind of frustrating seeing us go by like this but you know there's advantages to be gained and this is one of them this and the uh Portland's ability to have that $15 parking ticket saves me tremendous amount of money I've driven in I've ridden the bus and I've taken a carpol and as far as I'm concerned this is the only way to go and it's just logical there's nothing else about it that is for uh the meter maids they come buy and we don't have to put any money in the meter we can't see any reason not to do it we split it four ways uh about 5 years ago we started a project at a downtown mall it was finished about 3 years ago we are now operating on it it is uh basically for buses one way in each Direction with limited car uh uh entrance to it and it has done a tremendous job for both us as a transit district and the downtown area in a central square mile area downtown bus trips are free and the bus routes have been organized into zones for ease of travel there are even computer terminals in the malls to help people plan their bus rides we're at very close to 100% load Factor on the buses now in the peak and we need to carry more people how do we do that we do it by taking some seats out and reconfiguring the interior of the bus to a Subway we have in the works now a major Light Rail Project which is U I would say about 90% completed in terms of the authorization and funding we're hoping to start break ground for that in the next year and completion in 1984 the light rail will use less energy than carrying those same number of people on buses but more important Light Rail will be able to provide a nucleus for a trans A system that will enable us to carry a lot more people more efficiently than we have in the past which means that at least some people who previously made some trips by car will now be able to make them by transit and you'll develop a an urban area that is more Transit supportive and more efficient more energy efficient bicycle riding is encouraged in some parts of the country but not much in Portland nevertheless Mike schmir a Portland lawyer saves nearly 250 gallons of gasoline a year by cycling to and from work it's fun it's a lot of fun that's why I do it and I do it because it's fun I don't use a car very much I don't have any uh parking expense I will take a car downtown if I'm going to have to use it in the course of the day but that does not happen very often so I do save energy I would have to say that the authorities in Portland would be willing to save energy by using using bicycles if they thought that it would work but frankly I do not believe most of the people really think that it would work in Portland's energy plan considerable attention was paid to the commercial sector of the local economy Bill Griffith primarily the uh policy addresses a requirement that they do an energy audit uh the philosophy that we developed along that lines was that a business if shown where they can conserve and uh cuts to their bottom line profit for sure uh they will take the initiative themselves to uh Implement these different uh conservation measures this building is relatively new it's uh been in existence approximately 5 years the association uh does own the building and we have put a computer within the basement that does control all the electrical or lighting the heating systems uh which adjust to outside temperatures and it can uh close the system down if uh one side of the building starts to heat up through solar it can reduce the amount of heat generated through the plants the industrial sector of the economy was another crucial Target of the plan Esco the local steel mill is one of the biggest energy consumers in Portland [Music] Esco Steel has become so committed to efficiency that they've set up this special Energy Group run by Bill Olen eso's energy manager it meets once a month to monitor the company's performance our electricity this year I think we're doing very well considering the fact that we've added through the last two years several thousand horsepower we're essentially at zero growth in natural gas I think if we're careful we're going to have another record year over $100,000 has been saved here as a result of introducing various energy efficient practices a Company vice president was appointed to represent industry on the city's ing committee Dar Johnson industry uh was required in the mandatory part to have an audit there was no mandatory requirement put on industry or Commerce or commercial businesses to um take action everyone felt that the businessman if shown how to save some money showing how a move in energy would be uh cost effective the businessman would do it in his own self-interest finally the city decided to force homeowners to make their houses energy efficient mayor Connie mccre most count veral part is this retrofitting of existing buildings I'll be doing a heat loss of your house and coming up with recommendations on how you can weatherize your home this is a little bit about rundown of our 0% interest loan and this will give you a rundown of it and pretty much what I want to do now is I'd like to check your water heater to see well to see how hot your water is if I could do that now what we recommend if you have a dishwasher is that you keep it at 140° and if you don't have a dishwasher keep it at [Music] 120 okay now what I'd like to do is check your attic access and your crawl space access okay okay come right this way okay I R my flashlight okay it looks like you have an R11 instulation and we recommend an R38 the cost to retrofit this would be probably around $1,100 to $1,500 72 in okay now what we need to do is get the measurement of the kitchen window the savings would be around $160 and this has to take into account their lifestyle now with a new child Helen greo just bought this handsome four apartment house in Portland she decided to fix it up as soon as possible I heard there was a waiting line and it took about 2 months and they came over and uh they went through the building and uh gave me recommendations as to what improvements they thought would be cost effective the most cost effective thing is insulating the attic and we expect to save about $600 a year just from that one Improvement the other things they recommended were weather stripping and that to save about $80 a year the um uh basement insulation um I think saves uh about 200 a year and then the storm windows also save about 200 a year Portland's energy policy is not an isolated example this is Davis California and it is probably the most energy efficient city in the country unlike Portland it is small not large its climate is hot and dry not mild and wet and it's a younger City still in development Davis the seat of the State University's agricultural School began its energy plans well before the 1973 energy crisis Gloria McGregor the plan in Davis was a originated before the 73 oil embargo so we were not pressured into it by that we were just looking at all the aspects that a rational group would look at in terms of conservation it means that you can ride from anywhere in Davis to city center on your bicycle in about 10 to 15 minutes on a carefully protected bicycle system it means that if you want to go grocery shopping you can go to a store within half a mile of your house and on your bicycle or even walking if you wish it means that all of the parking lots in Davis are designed so they'll be shaded during the summer which when you get in your car it's not hot so you don't have to turn on the air conditioning in your car instantly it means that when you buy a house in Davis you can expect that it will use 50% less energy than an exactly similar house that you would have bought 10 years ago it means that you will have your house sighted so that if you happen to want to go into solar it's all set up to do that there's nothing in the way of it because it has been carefully planned to uh provide solar access this is basically what they call a passive solar system essentially we have a north south orientation with overhangs in the South so we can catch the winter sun and we keep the Summer Sun out essentially and then we have some interesting features we have these panels up here which will open during the winter days and summer nights in Winter the sun will come from the panels and hit the tanks which are not finished yet as you can see It'll hit those tanks which are uh store water will heat up the water and the water will then at night uh radiate out the Heat and help heat the house that along with the wood burning stove will supply most of our heat for the winter people tell me that our energy cost is going to average 15 maybe $20 a month they claim that you can save about 50% uh in Davis I think the beautiful part about conservation and the kinds of things we're doing in Davis is that they can be done at the local level it's a matter of getting together and deciding what your priorities are in your particular community so two American cities quite different in character have each found a way to tackle the energy problem little Decisions by millions of Americans to use energy more efficiently could give the United States more freedom more room for maneuver in the 80s than all the federal plans for alternative fuels put together la