Energy recycles conservation initiative

How much energy do you save by recycling old initiatives?

After weeks of news about high prices for gasoline and heating fuel, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman announced this month a new department effort to encourage consumers to save energy.

The campaign includes a series of public service announcements featuring a "spokes-villain" called the Energy Hog -- an energy waster who resides in old refrigerators and poorly insulated attics -- and a whistle-stop nationwide tour by top officials who will speak about overlooked conservation practices.

Bodman's predecessor at Energy, Spencer Abraham, 18 months ago launched a similar initiative, unveiling the same Hog and promising to travel the country touting conservation.

Even then, the Hog was not really an Energy Department project. The character was created by Energy Outreach Colorado and the Ad Council as part of a conservation awareness campaign that began in 2002, according to Energy Outreach Executive Director Skip Arnold.

Abraham unveiled the first ads in March 2004, at the same time the Ad Council unveiled an Energy Hog Web site offering video games that enlist children in the hunt for energy inefficiency in their homes. (Players shoot rolls of insulation at the Energy Hogs creeping around in the attic -- did we mention that insulation manufacturers are helping to pay for the campaign?)

And this was not the first attempt to make conservation fun. In October 2003 on The Tonight Show, the "Sears Toss Your Energy Hog Catapult Team" launched old, inefficient refrigerators across the NBC back lot.

Bodman's "Easy Ways to Save Energy" campaign includes other well-worn ideas, such as encouraging homeowners to replace incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescents and to buy new appliances that carry the federally certified "Energy Star" logo.

But efficiency advocates say that Bodman does deserve credit for a new round of radio spots urging Americans to conserve, even though one of the spots reprises President Carter's suggestion that folks turn down their thermostats.

Energy Department spokeswoman Chris Kielich said the first round of Energy Hog ads last year "sort of tested the waters," and a new and bigger round of ads will be rolled out in January. The conservation campaign was created "in response to the shortages caused by Katrina and Rita," Kielich said.