Greenies push lower quality of life, less efficiency
Image by Getty Images via @daylifeFor the sake of a cleaner planet, should Americans wear dirtier clothes?We are already asked to put up with dirty dishes to please the greeneies. Are they going to take Oxycleen next? I guess I am of an age where I have less patients for those who want to lower our standard of living and our quality of life. I frankly would rather live on a warm planet that is clean.
This is not a simple question, but then, nothing about dirty laundry is simple anymore. We’ve come far since the carefree days of 1996, when Consumer Reports tested some midpriced top-loaders and reported that “any washing machine will get clothes clean.”
In this year’s report, no top-loading machine got top marks for cleaning. The best performers were front-loaders costing on average more than $1,000. Even after adjusting for inflation, that’s still $350 more than the top-loaders of 1996.
What happened to yesterday’s top-loaders? To comply with federal energy-efficiency requirements, manufacturers made changes like reducing the quantity of hot water. The result was a bunch of what Consumer Reports called “washday wash-outs,” which left some clothes “nearly as stained after washing as they were when we put them in.”
Now, you might think that dirtier clothes are a small price to pay to save the planet. Energy-efficiency standards have been embraced by politicians of both parties as one of the easiest ways to combat global warming. Making appliances, cars, buildings and factories more efficient is called the “low-hanging fruit” of strategies to cut greenhouse emissions.
But a growing number of economists say that the environmental benefits of energy efficiency have been oversold. Paradoxically, there could even be more emissions as a result of some improvements in energy efficiency, these economists say.
The problem is known as the energy rebound effect. While there’s no doubt that fuel-efficient cars burn less gasoline per mile, the lower cost at the pump tends to encourage extra driving. There’s also an indirect rebound effect as drivers use the money they save on gasoline to buy other things that produce greenhouse emissions, like new electronic gadgets or vacation trips on fuel-burning planes.
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While I do not consider myself a clean freak, and the Prairie wife can attest to that, I do have certain standards below which my tolerance levels are fully plumbed.
While I am being grumpy about greenies, their push for inefficient energy is also ridiculous. They are making the mistake of pushing for a less efficient product that costs more. If they are going to push alternative energy they should find one that is better as a starting point. If they can't meet that challenge, they are going to meet with increasing resistance.
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