Cato versus Save the Watts Guy

Before I start, here is a cool quote I found. In 1998, Microsoft’s Bill Gates said about the Wright brothers’ invention in a speech he gave at Time Magazine’s 75th anniversary celebration of the airplane that, “We have to understand that engineering breakthroughs are not just mechanical or scientific, they are liberating forces that can continually improve people’s lives.”

The dog in the photo on my blog is Cato. He is a Jack Russell terrier. For those who aren't familiar with Jack Russell's, they are killing machines (click to see video). I didn't know that when we got him. He was just this adorable little puppy. He is still adorable but must be kept under close control.

I guess Cato symbolizes my philosophy of how we should approach the need and opportunity for energy efficiency because he is focused, ferocious, and relentless. That's the kind of symbol that we need for the energy efficiency fight, not some dufus like Save the Watt Guy. Do you know Save the Watt guy? He is Progress Energy's spokesperson for energy efficiency. They run commercials in the Raleigh-Durham market with him talking about saving energy. Did I say dufus? I am being kind. Here he is: http://www.progress-energy.com/shared/stw/car/main.html See what you think.

To me, what Save a Watt guy symbolizes is why utilities should not be in charge of this country's energy efficiency efforts. There have been some utilities that have been pretty good at promoting energy efficiency but most are culturally unable to adapt and grow the skill sets necessary to achieve the broad scale energy efficiency market penetration we need. Lets face it, their regulatory incentives are to build power plants and produce power. Their skill sets are to manage those power plant and electricity distribution assets and manage the regulators.

I know this because I consulted for many years with utilities looking to transform themselves into 21st century retail energy services providers. But it was like trying to turn the Titanic. These companies have been built a certain way for a certain purpose and have operated in this way for probably 75 years. As one of my consulting colleagues, a marketing guru, told me, "When it comes to marketing, these companies aren't the brightest bulbs in the box."

When I worked at XENERGY, we referred to the power generating side of the utilities as the "dark side". I am not saying there weren't some very enlightened people in the industry. There were lots of them at New England Electric -- now ?, Irene Stillings at NYSEG -- now ?, etc., but it was a smattering here and there, not a quorum.

Unless something has radically changed in the past couple of years, I very much hope that no one will be looking to the utility industry to take the leadership role in implementing energy efficiency, particularly when it comes to opportunities in the stimulus package. I would like to see some more groups like 1BOG involved.