Aldo Leopold Legacy Center
The Global Paybacks of Energy Conservation
Flip on the light switch in Baraboo, Wisconsin. A coal-fired power plant on the east end of the Baraboo Range goes on rumbling, providing electricity for thousands of area homes and businesses. A pair of diesel-electric locomotives chug west, trailing a mile-long train of 100 empty coal cars, spent after just one day of burning coal at the plant. Near the train’s destination in the Powder River Basin of northeastern Wyoming, a handful of energy conglomerates eye more of the coal seams buried below the High Plains; home for now to ranchers, pronghorn, sage grouse, and other grassland inhabitants that thrive despite little rain and harsh seasons.
No matter which utility we belong to, and whether we are purchasing electricity or heating fuel, that product depends upon a vast network of transmission lines, power plants, railroads, and pipelines, with fossil fuels at its foundation. We are becoming more aware that flipping the light switch means we are burning fossil fuels and emitting carbon dioxide, which is an action with global consequences. But it is more difficult to realize that the light bulb and the gas furnace are extracting fossil fuels—they are among the catalysts for mining and drilling in more and more places across the American West, the Appalachians, the Gulf of Mexico, and Alaska.
Energy conservation can easily demonstrate cost savings and short- or long-term financial paybacks. Less obvious benefits to the community have not been documented as thoroughly, but using less energy would mean less stress on our few remaining wild places and many rural landscapes and communities, less danger of polluting fresh water and the oceans, as well as the atmosphere. These benefits will accrue to society and future generations in the form of healthier lands, which provide not only space for wild things but the foundation of prosperous and sustainable communities.