The “Snackwell Effect” gets its name from the low-calorie snack food. People on diets were found to eat a lot of low-calorie foods, which in aggregate ends up being many more calories than what’s found in a regular snack.
The same holds true for all of this “going green” energy efficient nonsense. People who buy energy efficient appliances, such as washing machines typically end up with an energy bill after they install the appliance, which is equal to, if not greater than their bill prior to installing the appliance.
How can this be? After all, its rated to be energy efficient so they shouldn’t see a higher energy bill right? Well, in theory, yes this is true. But because of the Snackwell Effect, people are using these appliances much more than they would use their regular “non-energy efficient” appliances, and ending up using more energy in the process.
This isn’t a new phenomenon either. Back in the 1800’s, the introduction of steam engines produced a new, more efficient way of producing energy. This, in turn drove demand and cost for coal down. With lower coal prices, more people began to be able to afford to use coal, and this ultimately ended up driving the demand for coal back up.
In my opinion, the vast majority of people who are pro-green energy, are not really in it for the environmental impact. They’re into this because they’re cheap.
Think about it this way. When people replace all their old appliances with energy efficient ones, where do the old appliances end up? People don’t stop to think about this. Usually when someone comes to install the new appliance and takes away the old one, it ends up in the dump. It doesn’t get recycled, or anything like that. As a matter of fact, there’s nothing “green” about the whole process. At the end of the day the owners of the new energy efficient appliance feel that they’re doing something good for the environment, simply because it might save them a few dollars.
The bottom line: America has the energy munchies. Put the cookie down. You don’t need it!
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