Innovative Financing: Banks and Energy Conservation

Although this document was written more than 30 years ago, many of its suggestions are shockingly similar to those found in the news today. In essence, this report outlines a plan to restructure the nation's financial institutions to provide consumers with cash incentives to encourage energy conservation. It suggests that "banks might develop energy conservation programs as... a way to reduce energy-related loan losses," as well as "forestall increased government involvement in bank operations."

This is one of dozens of documents produced by the Department of Energy in the late 1970s to promote energy conservation, and while much of the data are now outdated, many of the lessons dealing with encouraging participation in these reports are just as valid today as they were in the last century. Items like these can serve as a great jumping off point for a research project comparing government action and public participation across the decades, as well as the evolution of energy conservation techniques.

This report is in the Strozier Documents Collection, E1.28:SAN/W1201-01