To the Editor:
Re “This Old Wasteful House” (Op-Ed, April 6):
Richard Moe’s advice on making homes more energy efficient is well meaning, but it’s a little like telling the children to eat their spinach.
Americans are not interested—or as Steven Chu, the energy secretary, said last year when agreeing that spending $1,000 on energy efficiency was a good idea, “But the American consumer would rather have a granite countertop.”
Improving insulation is a good example. It’s Mr. Moe’s first suggestion, and the best. You get the greatest improvement for the least expense. Yet it’s invasive, dirty and time-consuming work, and in the end the buyer has nothing to show for it (that is, it’s in the walls) the way he would with his beautiful new countertop.
The only way to get Americans to pay attention to energy efficiency is to make the cost of energy so high they can’t ignore it.
Barry Rehfeld
New York, April 6, 2009
The writer is the editor of Zero Energy Intelligence.com.
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 