Opower has New Study on Energy Efficiency and Voting Behavior, Hurricane Sandy Underscores Climte Issues and Energy Security
Opower has an absolutely fascinating piece on electricity efficiency and voting behavior. Using their warehouse which has access to 50 million households which they linked to election data, they found that Americans who vote more often use 7-10% less electricity. Using a western state and an eastern state and zeroing in on 137 households whocse electricity consumption data they matched with publically available voting rec ords , , they found that each ballot that a voter cast between 2004-2010 is associated with an amazing incremental 66 kilowatt hour reduction in the voter's average annual household electricity usage.
Hurricane Sandy inevitably brings up the issue of climate change. Former President Bill Clinton, had the best comment. Taking a swipe at at Mitt Romney's position on climate change in the aftermath of Sandy, President said that Romney " ridiculed the president - ridiculed the president for his efforts to fight global warming in economically beneficial ways. He said 'Oh, you're going to turn back the seas,'' Clinton said. 'In my part of America, we would like it if someone could've done that yesterday.'
Speaking of Hurricane Sandy, President Obama had a conference call with top utility executives to "underscore that restoring power to the millions of Americans who lost electricity during Sandy is a top priority." Also on the call were Energy Secretary Stephen Chu and FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate.