San Diego Union Tribune
06-25-06
Lightening our load
By Peter Rowe
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
BEIJING – The United States, South Korea and China all have energypolicies.
Why don't you?
Last month, during a whirlwind trip sponsored by Honolulu's East-West Center, I and 11 other reportersexplored the challenges facing three of the world's great energy consumers. In Houston, Seoul and Beijing, experts issued glum predictions:
Ruthless competition for oil and natural gas, the fuels that provide nearly twothirds of the world'senergy needs.
Higher – yes, even higher – prices at the gas pump.
Revived interest in nuclear power; coal, “clean” or otherwise; and renewable resources, such as solar, wind and geothermal.
Clearly, nations need energy policies. Yet nations don't pay $100 to fill up the
SUV. People do.
So why not adopt a personal energy policy, one tailored to meet your specific goals? Patriots may wishto reduce America's reliance onimported oil.
Environmentalists may strive to spew out less pollution.Everyone is eager to save money.
In fact, Americans have pioneered a host of gas-saving tactics in the last 20 years. Without these moves, scientists at Lawrence BerkeleyNational Laboratory estimate, our national energy consumption would be about 50 percent higher.
Beyond those successes, though, there's room for improvement in your home, car and workplace. Experts advanced solutions in three broad categories: simple steps that are a snap to accomplish; complex strategies that are worth thinking about; and iffy breakthroughs that, today at least, seem like a stretch.
Home
It's a success: Green leaves and appliances.
Americans are great planters of trees, whose shady branches can lower

temperatures
– and the cost of air conditioning – in adjacent homes and office buildings. Moreover, the leaves can absorb up to 15 percent of greenhouse gas emissions.
This is a love the world should share. “Can this be replicated in India and other countries? Sure,” noted Jayant Sathaye, a scientist at Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory.
The United States is also a leader in setting national standards for power-stingy household appliances, awarding qualifying products with the “EnergyStar” label – a move that South Korea has imitated.
It's a snap: The Easy Saver.
Actually, this would be a snap, if the gizmo was available in The States. It's not, yet, although it's needed here. Around the world, in fact, TVs, computers and other household devices suck up electricity even when they are turned off.
“These are 'power vampires,'” said Eun-Koo Lee of the Korea Energy
Management Corporation.
Easy Saver, then, acts like a garlic clove, a mirror and a crucifix. Slip this little gizmo between the wall socket and your appliances. When you turn off your TV or computer, the energy no longer flows.
While this cuts household electricity consumption by about 11 percent, Lee argues the product could be easier to use. “It's very inconvenient to have to plug it into the wall,” he said. “The goal is to have it built into the devices.”
It's a thought: Food miles.
Matthew R. Simmons is a Houston-based banker to the oil industry and an adviser to President Bush. So it's a shock to hear his Al Gore-like message of looming oil shortages and the need for creative conservation techniques.
One of the most creative: chart your “food miles” and buy local produce, meats and dairy products.
This is a global issue. This summer, Simmons notes, 80 percent of the apples in
British markets will come from New Zealand.
“That's 22,000 miles of travel,” he said.
But Americans, in particular, are accustomed to supermarkets stocked with
Chilean nectarines, South African grapes, Mexican tomatoes, Australian wines.
What one scholar calls “the journey from field to fork” consumes growing

amounts of fuel
– a 50 percent increase between 1977 and 1999.
Outside of a few bureaucrats and academics, though, few people seemed concerned. Until last year, that is, when Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated the Gulf Coast and demonstrated how quickly a region can be left to its own resources.
“I used to get a call a week,” said
Rich Pirog, who studies food miles for Iowa
Sta te University's Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture. “I get about two a day now.”
Pirog and Andrew Benjamin, an Iowa State student, discuss food miles in a paper that is posted online: www.leopold.iastate.edu/pubs/staff/files/food_travel072103.pdf.