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Archived Book Review

Casten, T.R.  1998.  Turning Off the Heat: Why America Must Double Energy Efficiency to Save Money and Reduce Global Warming.  Prometheus Books, Amherst, NY.

This most interesting book explores the potential for the United States to drastically reduce CO2 emissions by means of fostering competition among various types of electricity producers.  Its basic thesis is that U.S. electricity generation and supply systems have enjoyed government-sponsored monopoly protection for so many years that these enterprises are now embarrassingly inefficient, which suggests that the deregulation of the industry and the removal of all barriers to electricity production and distribution could well double the country's overall energy efficiency and more than meet the most stringent calls for post-Koyoto CO2 emission reductions, while at the same time saving tons of money and reducing air pollution.

With so much going for it, one would think that the program's intrinsic value would be all that would be needed to sell it to the American public.  Not so, apparently, for as indicated by its subtitle, the author of the book feels compelled to use the powerful political lever, i.e., threat, of potential CO2-induced global warming to give his theory the lift that he feels it must need to prod people to action.  In this regard, he recommends at the outset "Ross Gelbspan's excellent book" (p.2), thereby making a major mistake in his choice of scientific underpinnings (See our review of The Heat is On), although he also refers to the IPCC report that concludes that "the balance of evidence suggests a discernible human influence on global climate" (p.17), which has come to serve as a justification for almost every plan that has subsequently been devised to interfere with human activities that release CO2 to the atmosphere.

It is a pity that the author felt compelled to base his call for deregulation of the nation's electricity and power generating industry on such a flimsy foundation; for he truly makes many good points in his arguments for free market forces being able to operate unimpeded in the energy sector of our economy when he touts the virtues of "an absolutely unencumbered market for energy" (p.212).  Even here, however, he reveals an important inconsistency; for he pushes for a Fossil Fuel Efficiency Standard that would be mandated (p.213).  Clearly, any program that stipulates that "power producers would have to meet the standard" (p.214) is not one that I would classify as being compatible with "an absolutely unencumbered market for energy."

In this context, it is interesting to consider the background of the author.  Thomas Casten is cofounder, president and CEO of Trigen Energy Corporation, "the leading developer, owner, and operator of urban and industrial energy systems" (book jacket, inside back cover), whose combined heat and power plants have an energy generation efficiency approximately twice as great as average U.S. electric-only generating stations (Fig. 9, p.51).  His company, obviously, would have no problem in meeting the new standard; while many of its competitors would be in a world of hurt.

What puzzles me is this: if free market forces are as great as Casten repeatedly claims in this book (and I tend to agree with him), and if so much money could be saved by opening up the energy generation industry to unfettered competition (which I also tend to believe would occur), why must the program be mandated?  "Eliminate monopoly rules and entrepreneurs will revolutionize the power industry," he says on p.219; but on p.227 he admits to "calling for a new government intervention in the economy," which - and perhaps not incidentally - would put the services of his company at a great advantage over those of many others.

When pressed on this point, Casten admits that the mandatory aspect of his world view on the subject derives from the great need "to solve the climate problem" (p.227), as well as his "belief that government has an essential role to play in helping society avoid the excesses of self-interest" (p.227).

In the end, then, the excesses of self-interest that the government would save us from, in Casten's view, are the environmental consequences of the ongoing rise in the air's CO2 concentration, which are overwhelmingly positive in the biological realm, as we demonstrate profusely throughout our website, and which are lacking of proof in the climatological realm, as is also clearly demonstrated on our website.  Hence, Casten is ultimately revealed to be no different from all the rest of the voices that are trying to use the bogus threat of rising atmospheric CO2 concentrations as a lever to impose their wishes on the world.

In conclusion, Casten does make some very good points relative to electricity production.  In fact, if he had said nothing about CO2 and potential global warming, I would have recommended his book as essential reading for everyone in the business; and since nearly everyone uses electricity, that would have been, well, nearly everyone.  However, Casten's warnings about potential CO2-induced global warming, and his attempt to use that bogeyman as the rational for forcing his ideas upon the American public, go much too far for me to give his book an unqualified endorsement.  For the discerning reader who can keep his facts and fallacies straight, one can learn something of value from it; I know I did.  Nevertheless, that which is faulty - his acceptance of the view that increases in atmospheric CO2 concentration are dangerous to the environment - serves to undermine his own most cherished hopes for the future.

Reviewer: Dr. Craig D. Idso, President


Last updated 15 November 1999