Jimmy Carter was the first world statesman to select energy conservation as one of his absolutely key policy priorities

In his January column for Energy in Buildings and Industry, Andrew Warren, Chairman of the British Energy Efficiency Federation, explains how important the late Jimmy Carter was to highlight energy conservation as a key element in our long-term energy policies.

A True Champion of Energy Conservation

My New  Year’s celebrations were cut short by some sad, if not entirely unexpected, news of the death of a 100 year old American.

Jimmy Carter  stepped down from being the US President over 45 years ago. He can truly be lauded as the statesman who first  put the requirement to have a purposeful energy saving policy firmly onto the world map.

When publishing his White House diaries, he wrote in their introduction: “As is evident from my diary, I felt at the time that I had a firm grip on my presidential duties – and was presenting a clear picture of what I wanted to accomplish in foreign and domestic affairs.

“The three large themes of my presidency were peace, human rights … and energy conservation.”

But, he added, “In retrospect, though, my elaboration of these themes were not as clear to others, as to me and my White House staff.”

He both preached and lived that imperative of eliminating wasteful energy usage. Jimmy Carter memorably encapsulated  his convictions by stating, when he urged concentrating upon saving energy by   eliminating fuel profligacy, it was because  it had an importance that  offered “the Moral Equivalent Of War.”

Fossil fuel lobbyists seized upon the unfortunate acronym this aphorism created, mocking him by making pussy cat noises wherever he went. A puerility of approach that exposes only their own shallowness and mendacity.

In an era where no politicians would ever appear in public without wearing a three piece suit with  matching tie and handkerchief, Carter would frequently  address the nation in casual clothes and without a necktie. But always wearing a, distinctly symbolic, thick jersey.

Conservation Trumps Generation

He was directly responsible for introducing a maximum speed limit on all US roads of 55 m.p.h., intended to maximise engine efficiency. Inspired by Carter, and his experiences as a nuclear engineer,  energy regulators in  the vast majority of the 50 states introduced mandatory requirements for electricity and natural gas providers always to do the sums as to whether it was cheaper for their customers for the utility to build new power stations, or to help their customers reduce consumption.

So often pursuing the latter course proved to be the most cost-effective societal option. Conservation trumped generation.

Such was the impact Carter had that, in the early 1980s when I was its’(youthful) CEO, the UK Association for the Conservation of Energy issued six separate publications entitled “Lessons From America”. Each detailed initiatives taken both federally and in individual States which were delivering vast improvements in energy efficiency. Practically every one of these was later copied with effect all around Europe.

Thatcher Mimics Carter

Both UK Prime Ministers who coincided with the Carter Presidency  (Jim Callaghan and Margaret Thatcher) introduced grant schemes  paying for residential  insulation, set up  incentives for energy saving in industry, and upped mandatory building standards for new and refurbished buildings.

The first ever UK regulator of the privatised UK gas industry, Sir James  McKinnon, commissioned a study from my Association, setting out how gas companies could mimic American practice, to deliver energy efficiency measures to their customers. He then implemented our recommendations.

The entire concept of  imposing an  Energy Company Obligation upon electricity suppliers, mandating installation of energy saving measures into buildings, was swiftly  taken up by the then separate electricity regulator, Professor Stephen Littlechild. And eventually became the law of the land when united as OFGEM.

Ex-Presidents are supposed to gently retire. Make a life of lucrative speeches, or stay home and paint. But Jimmy Carter  refused to fade away. He physically helped build 4,390 private homes for the Habitat for Humanity initiative. At 99, he was still spending most weekends in his Georgia hometown, preaching wise and powerful sermons.

Flags At Half Mast For Trump’s Inauguration Ceremony

Following Carter’s death, President Joe Biden ordered flags to fly at half-mast throughout January (deplored as “Unamericanly Depressing” by President-elect Trump), scheduling his state funeral in Washington on January 9 to be a National Day of Mourning.

Most presidents are buried with a grand memorial or national shrine.  But Jimmy Carter has been buried close by the  modest ranch house in Plains, Georgia, where he returned to live after losing his 1980 re-election bid. And where, just down the road in his former high school, a replica of the Nobel Peace Prize he was awarded  is displayed.

At various times in his life, he acquired the skills of a farmer, naval officer, electrician, sonar technologist, nuclear engineer, businessman, equipment designer, agronomist, master woodworker, Sunday School teacher, land-use planner, legislator, door-to-door missionary, governor, long-shot presidential candidate, U.S. president, diplomat, fly-fisherman, bird dog trainer, arrowhead collector, home builder, painter, professor, memoirist, poet, novelist, a children’s book author — and quintessentially an energy conservationist.

Above all, though, Jimmy Carter was the first world statesman to select energy conservation as one of his absolutely key policy priorities.  Aspiring to realise that goal was part of the deep morality he espoused. Delivering its effectiveness has indeed proved to be the “Moral Equivalent Of War”. A war for which he was our very finest Field Marshall.

James Earl Carter, RIP.

Andrew