2006 News Coverage

February 2006

Even Wal-Mart and the Pentagon are Warming to Energy Conservation
(www.aspentimes.com/article/20060225/
ASPENWEEKLY/102260027): Compact fluorescent light bulbs and hybrid cars were seen as quirky five years ago, weird 10 years ago and nearly unheard of before that. The only people advocating energy-saving technologies such as hybrid cars and green building design 30 years ago were thinking way ahead. Not these days. During Super Bowl XL this year, both Toyota and Ford paid big bucks to advertise their new fuel-efficient hybrid models. And energy-saving compact fluorescent light bulbs doubled their share of the market between 1999 and 2006. As energy-efficiency first gained a toehold in the U.S., Rocky Mountain Institute in Old Snowmass has been in the forefront, advocating market-based, conservation-minded changes. But only recently have so many of RMI's solutions reached the mainstream. It doesn't stop at consumer choices. President George W. Bush's 2006 State of the Union speech sounded like parts could have been lifted straight from a book by RMI's co-founder, Amory Lovins.
By Joel Stonington for Aspen Times Weekly (25 February 2006).

The Energizer
(www.discover.com/issues/feb-06/features/energizer): Amory Lovins has a vision: The U.S. economy keeps going and going and going — without any oil. "I think hydrogen will be an important if not dominant energy carrier by 2050," says Amory Lovins. "In Winning the Oil Endgame (www.oilendgame.com), the comprehensive strategy we've developed at Rocky Mountain Institute for ending oil dependence, we see hydrogen as an optional add-on. It would be the most profitable and efficient way to use and save natural gas. But it's not necessary to get the country off oil at a profit; it's just icing on the cake." Many automakers are starting to understand that whoever goes ultralight first will take the lead in the hydrogen fuel-cell race. The winning strategy will be improving the physics of the car. They still need to make a cheap, durable fuel cell. But if they can reduce the fuel cell and the hydrogen storage volume by three times, the cost reduces threefold.
By Cal Fussman for Discover Magazine (February 2006).

India and China Dominate Davos Agenda: A Man With a Mission
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4645746.stm): The Davos agenda is packed. Too packed for many. Amory Lovins runs the Rocky Mountain Institute, an environmental research lab. He pulls out two large pieces of paper, tightly printed in small font to list the talks he has to give, sessions he hopes to attend, and the numerous events he would really love to go to but is unlikely to be able to squeeze in. He dives into his backpack, pulls out a bowl and bangs it hard with a metal stick without making a dent. "I'll give a speech to a meeting of the chief executives of all the world's top car makers this week," he says. "I'll show them this new light-weight carbon fiber thermo plastic composite material", which is lighter than steel or aluminum, just as tough and will do wonders for fuel efficiency.
By Tim Weber, Business Editor, BBC News website, for BBC News (25 January 2006).

Analysis: And Along Came Lovins
(www.electricity-daily.com/FDC/Daily/TED/TOC.htm#ARTICLE:Analysis: And Along Came Lovins): Thirty years ago, as the U.S. was engaged in a policy debate about the future of nuclear power, a debate that ultimately resulted (with the help of Three Mile Island) in the collapse of the nuclear industry, a new figure appeared. An obscure academic named Amory Lovins published an article in the prestigious journal Foreign Affairs, advocating what he called the "soft energy path." Lovins' notion was that small, green, and friendly technologies, plus increased energy efficiency, could better do the job of providing increased energy resources than the traditional, hard technologies such as nukes and fossil-fueled central station generators. Regardless of the technical merits of his arguments, Lovins proved to be correct about the big picture. Thirty years later, to the year, there is much talk of a nuclear renaissance. This time, it is the environment that is giving momentum to the nukes, specifically greenhouse gases. It looks highly unlikely that significant carbon dioxide reductions are available from the power sector without new nukes. And onto the scene once again comes Amory Lovins, writing this time in the less well-known journal Nuclear Engineering International. His message is much the same.
By Staff for The Electricity Daily; Volume 26, Number 15 (23 January 2006).

A Green Dream In Texas
(www.nytimes.com/2006/01/18/opinion/18friedman.html): "Green building is not necessarily about producing your own power with windmills and solar panels. It's about addressing the consumption side with really creative design and engineering to eliminate waste and reduce energyusage — it's the next industrial revolution," said Paul Westbrook, who oversees sustainable design for Texas Instruments and helped turn T.I. leaders on to green building by taking them to his solar-powered home. "Green building added some cost, but over all we built a green building for 30 percent less per square foot than our previous conventional facility." This is expected to cut utility costs by 20 percent and water usage by 35 percent.
By Thomas Friedman for The New York Times (18 January 2006).