In a recent editorial, "Energy-efficiency promotes energy use,"
the Daily Mail implies that today's policies for energy
efficiency are backfiring. The underlying message is that energy
efficiency and related policies aren't working, laughing in the
face of anyone promoting the environmental benefits of energy
efficiency. The Jevons paradox is the concept that increased
energy efficiency leads to increased energy use, not the use of
less energy. In 1865, William Jevons, a British economist, wrote
about his concern for unlimited growth in the realm of finite
resources - worried that industrial advancements would quickly
use up all the coal available to the nation. The Jevons paradox,
however, should not be conflated with small "rebound" effects
found by Robert Michaels in local-scale energy efficiency. The
Daily Mail looked at an isolated incident in Mexico, but we
might look within our own country for an example of energy
efficiency policy that works. California embarked on aggressive
energy efficiency policy