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Last updated:
August 18, 2011



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Wisconsin Style: New Approaches to Regulatory Innovation

Bringing power to the people: a journalist's view

By John Morgan
For Multi-State Working Group

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“The needlessly filthy and inefficient way we use energy is the single most destructive thing we do to the environment,” writes Vijay Vaitheeswaran in the introduction to his acclaimed book, Power to the People How the Coming Energy Revolution Will Transform an Industry, Change Our Lives, and Maybe Even Save the Planet (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003).

“With enough clean energy, most environmental problems — not just air pollution or global warming but also chemical waste and recycling and water scarcity — can be tackled, and future economic growth can be made much more sustainable,” he continues.

Vaitheeswaran brought his stern criticism of the present status and hopeful message for the future of energy to the 2005 MSWG Annual Workshop in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

And in speaking about his book and its message, he acknowledged that in a market already saturated with books on the subject that just another book was not needed. Instead, after years of writing about energy and the environment for The Economist, Vaitheeswaran observed that the world is at a tipping point when it comes to the environment and a book that attacked the flaws of energy and offered solutions was critical.

“And indeed I became convinced that we are at an energy crossroads, an extraordinary moment,” he said. “For the decisions that we need to take in the next decade or so will decide our pathway for the next century. If you’re concerned about human misery, if you think about human welfare, you would put it at the top of our list of things to care about.”

Vaitheeswaran’s discussion of the issue is neither a surface-level one nor one steeped in temper and accusation. Instead, his knowledge of energy is informed by a deep knowledge of relevant peer-reviewed literature on the subject and his decision to jump toward a solution to world energy solutions is not a leap of faith as much as it is a highly informed, well-supported bombardment.

Of particular note is his emphasis on emerging major players in the world energy market — China , in particular. In his opinion how these countries approach their own manufacture and use of energy will be a critical determining factor in the sustainable development of the world. He said that developing counties are being very progressive and aggressive in their role as major players in the energy market.

“There are environmental movements. They are connected by the Internet. They are savvy. They’re aware of environmental regulations and they’re in touch with people like you in this room, and they are quite aware of best practice in other parts of the world,” Vaitheeswaran said. “And it’s not an accident that China has a higher fuel economy law as of this year than America does.”

Vaitheeswaran, who has met with top energy industry executives, cited as a major flaw in the current energy system its inherent disregard for innovation. It is set up to fail, he said.

The electric power industry alone, he noted, spends less than one-half of 1 percent of earnings on research and development. He compared this number to innovative fields such as information technology, pharmaceuticals and media, which spend more than 10 percent on development. It is this disregard for the future of energy that has led to what he terms the “Great Hydrogen Hoax” and both the conventional mindset that hydrogen isn’t a viable solution and the more progressive mindset that it will be the energy savior.

Yet, Vaitheeswaran is cautiously optimistic—cautious because he said he feels that the time to act is dwindling and optimistic because he knows that the problems are solvable.

“Why am I optimistic then? Well the good news is, things are changing,” he said, citing the liberalization of free markets, market-based environmentalism and innovation.

He conceded that there is an almost dizzying array of environmental problems that need solving. But he said “lots of other things that seem to have nothing to do with energy could be much more easily solved if you tackle energy, which is a critical enabler to solving many other environmental issues. Until you solve energy, you really can’t make headway on those other things that we think of as part of sustainable development — the great paradigm of the 21st century.”

 

Reportage from MSWG's annual workshop

Building bridges across ocean's: China's role in a sustainable world

Environmentalism: death or rebirth? The debate rages on

Pushing the paradigm limits: metagovernance and the environmental movement