An Efficient Phone Call? A Little Story for Our Times

After the American Century

The story I am about to tell is representative of a larger trend. Over and over, administrators proclaim that they are going to become "more efficient" and save money. Who can be against that? But in practice, becoming more efficient means just the opposite. 

Once upon a time, if I needed to make a conference call, I pushed one button on my phone, reached the operator, gave the numbers of the other parties, and then waited at most two minutes before our telephone meeting began. Clearly, my university found this terribly inefficient, I found out yesterday. I called the operator in the usual way and was told that now I am to arrange conference calls directly. To do so, I needed a set of instructions, which were emailed to me. After printing them out (3 pages) there were several points that were unclear. So I called the operator again for a discussion, focusing particularly on what my customer code number might be. That was something only the Department Secretary knew. Being hellbent on efficiency, I left my office immediately and found the Secretary, who was on the phone herself. After ten minutes I was back in the office with the code.

I was then ready to call the phone company. I listened to an automatic answering machine recite a list of options, managed to select the right one, and within another minute was talking with an operator in a faraway place who had never heard of my university. I gave him my name (would I spell that please?), my email, my department's name, the three phone numbers to be linked with, plus my phone number, plus the secret code number. The gentleman then promised to send me an email confirming the arrangement, with all the phone numbers listed so I could check them. Several minutes later the email came, with an attachment. I opened it, printed it out, and read it over. The numbers were correct. Time ellapsed: 45 minutes.  Time saved: minus 43 minutes (so far).

I still have not had that phone conference, which I ordered for later today. But I am proud of having mastered this new efficient system.

[I had imagined the call would be dialed automatically, but in fact an operator called me and then linked up to the others who were to take part in the meeting. All the preparation time was completely unnecessary.]

Ranking the States on Energy Efficiency

After the American Century

Energy is a central part of the announced Obama program, so it is useful to know which states (and their representatives in Congress) are most disposed to support him. A new report from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy rates all 50 states, not in terms of their energy use per capita, but in terms of their utility regulations, transportation legislation, building codes and other laws that require or at least encourage better energy practices. The most conscientious states turn out to be those that Obama won, led by California and Oregon, and including New York, New Jersey, the New England States, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. These are quintessential "blue states" in other words, and they all receive scores of at least 25 out of a possible 50, California being the highest with 40.5.

And those at the bottom? All are "red states" with the worst score going to Dick Cheney's Wyoming, a perfectly dreaful 0. But there are remarkably low scores also for Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Oklahoma, and so on. To make the symmetry rather complete, swing states are in the middle, with higher scores if they are in the North and lower if they are further south. Thus Missouri had an anemic score of only 4, and was 45th in the nation. The most northern swing state, New Hampshire, had the highest score among them, with 16.5, and came in 18th. Another northern swing state, Ohio, scored scored 16 and came in 19th.

These are not merely statistics. The states spent just under $3 billion on energy efficiency in 2007, almost four times what George Bush budgeted for it. In short, the states that supported Obama most strongly are also those most prepared to take advantage of any new energy programs.

There is one interesting exception to these generalizations, the State of Michigan. It ranks just 38th overall, in contrast to its more environmentally conscientious neighbors in the northern tier of the US. Center of the American car industry, Michigan seems wedded to energy profligracy.