Pretending to be powerless

The headline and opening paragraph to the CP's article on a new study on energy consumption sound ominous. But once one gets into the meat of the article, it's clear that the study's supposed conclusion that electricity use can't be reduced much through conservation is based purely on a set of assumptions designed to reach that end:

Government efforts to promote conservation could cut energy demand by only about 10 per cent by 2025 compared with business as usual, says the study commissioned by the Canadian Electricity Association and the Canadian Gas Association. That is far less than projected by environmentalists who see energy efficiency as a key strategy for cutting greenhouse emissions and smog...

Mike Cleland, president of the Canadian Gas Association, said the study is based on measures considered to be politically feasible, but admitted they do not include such proposals as charging the true cost of electricity...

If governments were to take all the measures that are technically possible the savings could be 50 per cent, he said. But those measures would be highly unpopular.

In other words, the conclusion that electricity consumption can't be reduced is based only on the premise that people don't care enough about the issue to permit anything approaching a full range of actions. But while that may offer a convenient excuse for inaction as long as citizens are willing to buy the argument that massive nuclear or coal investments are more "feasible", it does nothing to demonstrate that contined growth in consumption is either necessary or a positive policy choice.