New Releases by Karen Ehrhardt

A variety of new feedback initiatives -- including real-time Web-based or in-home feedback devices and enhanced billing approaches -- are making energy resources visible to residential consumers throughout the United States (and many other developed countries). These initiatives are opening the door to potential energy savings that, on average, have reduced individual household electricity consumption 4 to 12% across our multi-continent sample. In so doing, feedback is proving a critical first step in engaging and empowering consumers to thoughtfully manage their energy resources. On a national scale, our estimates indicate that feedback programs for the residential sector might generate electricity savings that range from as little as 0.4% to more than 6% of total residential electricity consumption. If broadly implemented throughout the United States using well-designed programs, residential sector feedback programs could provide the equivalent of 100 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity savings annually by 2030. At this scale, such tools will enable aggregate residential sector energy savings that, in turn, provide a substantial contribution to U.S. energy security and climate goals as well as consumer pocketbook savings.

Currently scholars throughout the scientific community acknowledge that our nation's ability to achieve energy security and reduce our impact on the global climate will require that we tap into multiple sources of potential energy savings. Moreover, inefficient patterns of human behavior represent a large, untapped reserve that could (according to several estimates) potentially reduce current levels of energy consumption by 20-25%, and do so in ways that save money (Gardner and Stern 2008, Laitner et al. 2009). And the time is right for mobilizing the behavioral resource: energy use is at an all time high and energy service demands are even higher; people are increasingly concerned about climate change and high energy prices; new information and communications technologies are available for providing individuals, households, and businesses with a wide variety of previously unavailable information and feedback about their energy use patterns (and those of others); and the nation has experienced a notable shift in worldviews with an unprecedented proportion recognizing the need to moderate the human impact on the environment. In short, there is a real need to change our current patterns of energy use, and the vast majority of people agree that it is the right thing to do.

In this toe-tapping jazz tribute, the traditional "This Old Man" gets a swinging makeover, and some of the era's best musicians take center stage. The tuneful text and vibrant illustrations bop, slide, and shimmy across the page as Satchmo plays one, Bojangles plays two . . . right on down the line to Charles Mingus, who plays nine, plucking strings that sound "divine." Easy on the ear and the eye, this playful introduction to nine jazz giants will teach children to count--and will give them every reason to get up and dance! Includes a brief biography of each musician.