Energy Matters: The ABCs of reducing your need for transportation

Tom Grundy is the author of Energy Matters, a feature of the Nevada City Advocate.

Is it really necessary to carry 2,000 pounds of steel around with you just to pick up 20 pounds of groceries from the store a few blocks away? Does that make any sense? All the fancy technology in the world won't make a 2,000-pound car more efficient than a bicycle or a pair of sneakers.

In first-aid class we learn a new version of the ABCs: Airway, Breathing, Circulation. In general, it's a stop-and-fix list and sequence is key. You don't worry about B until A is working; don't worry about C until B is working.

The same idea of a stop-and-fix list, in sequence, is often lost when we think about how we use energy.

So, welcome to the first in a series of Energy Checklists.  This month: Transportation.

In general, it's All 'Bout Conservation. In the case of transportation, however, we need to put the acronyms aside:

A)                           Reduce your need for transportation

B)                           Reduce your “parasitic weight”

C)                           Everything else, a.k.a. “Hollywood”

What does “reduce your need for transportation” mean exactly?  It means making your home close to where you work, play and live and encouraging smart land-use patterns from your local government. The advent of suburbia and sprawl has led to the Car Culture and complete dependence on cheap fuel. When new development does happen, can we really afford more sprawl? Can we afford to keep building ourselves into a corner?

Next up: “reduce your parasitic weight.”  How much does your car weigh?  2,000 pounds?  3,000?  Is it really necessary to carry 2,000 pounds of steel around with you just to pick up 20 pounds of groceries from the store a few blocks away?  Does that make any sense?  All the fancy technology in the world won't make a 2,000-pound car more efficient than a bicycle or a pair of sneakers. Maybe there are trips where you need a car or truck – but don't forget to keep an eye out for the trips where a car is just too much!

Lastly, it's time to look at everything else: hybrids, electric cars, the mythical Hydrogen Highway, you name it. If you might see it in a Hollywood movie star's driveway, beware!  These glitzy techno-fixes are the sexiest and the most interesting of the ABCs so they get the most attention. For some, these might be the best options even after considering the whole ABC list in order. But this category is last for a reason: the solutions here are expensive with long payback periods and are still energy- and resource-intensive to manufacture, use and maintain.

Tom Grundy is the author of Energy Matters and the president of Alliance for a Post-Petroleum Local Economy of Nevada County. He can be reached at tom@apple-nc.org.