Word: using
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Everyone knows we use too much energy. Our addiction to fossil fuels is torching the planet, empowering hostile petro-states and straining our wallets. Meanwhile, studies by scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and elsewhere suggest that more than half of our energy is lost through inefficiencies, calculations that don't even include the energy we fritter away through wasteful behavior like leaving lights on or idling cars. We're on course to increase electricity usage an extra 30% by 2030, which could require trillions of dollars' worth of new emissions-belching power plants, so it would be much...
...contrast, not everyone realizes that we use too much health care; most of us assume that more treatment is better, that the best doctors are the ones who do the most to us, that our health costs are the world's highest because our health care is the world's most thorough. But a slew of research by the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice has found that as much as 30% of our annual $2 trillion-plus medical bill may be wasted on unnecessary care, mostly run-of-the-mill diagnostic tests, office visits, hospital stays, minor...
Obama has already taken several whacks at waste in energy and health care. His stimulus had more than $20 billion for energy-efficiency measures designed to slash electricity use in low-income homes, on military bases and in all kinds of government buildings, while his fuel-efficiency standards for vehicles are expected to save billions of gallons of gasoline; he's also providing government financing for electric cars, and his cash-for-clunkers program is another assault on gas guzzlers. The stimulus also included $19 billion for computerizing the medical industry, which could reduce duplicative tests and office visits, plus...
...expect government intervention on the demand side - through education campaigns, tax incentives or targeted subsidies - to rein in our cravings. But in the energy arena, several states have already proved that rationalizing incentives on the supply side can transform the landscape. In most of the country, per capita electricity use has increased about 50% during the past three decades - despite conservation programs, efficiency incentives and the general rise of green. But in California and the Pacific Northwest, where state legislatures decoupled utility profits from sales volumes, electricity use has been flat. Instead of an incentive to sell more power...
Ultimately, the survival of our planet and the solvency of our country will depend on cultural changes that persuade enough of us to use less energy and less health care. The spread of eco-consciousness has helped with energy, but utilities have helped more, and only doctors can lead the way toward a similar less-is-more mentality in medicine. If Washington can change the incentives, the culture will follow the money...