IP: Good article -- power and the net

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2001 07:32:49 -0700
> From: rbryce () swbell net
> Subject: power and the net
> To: farber () cis upenn edu
> X-Mailer: Pegasus Mail for Win32 (v3.12c)
> Priority: normal
>
> Hi
> Connie G forwarded me your query re Mark Mills estimate on
> Internet power usage. You're right, Mills' estimate is way wrong.
> I'm attaching below a story I did for Interactive Week on this
> subject last December.
> best
> rb
>
>
> URL: http://www.zdnet.com/intweek/stories/news/0,4164,2665339,00.html
>
> Power Struggle
> By Robert Bryce Special To Interactive Week, Interactive Week
> December 18, 2000 5:01 AM PT
>
> In late September, while on the stump in Michigan, George W. Bush
> outlined his energy plan for
> America. More domestic oil drilling was needed, he told the crowd,
> because the country's energy
> needs far exceed its current production. We also need more renewable
> energy and more electric
> power because, he said, "today the equipment needed to power the
> Internet consumes 8 percent of
> all the electricity produced in the United States."
>
> Bush isn't the only one to use the 8 percent figure. Over the last 18
> months, that estimate - first
> published in a May 31, 1999, article in Forbes by Peter Huber and Mark
> Mills - has appeared in
> reports issued by investment banks, in energy projections issued by
> natural gas companies, and in
> numerous magazines and newspapers.
>
> But is it, in fact, an accurate reflection of reality present and future?
>
> Questions about the Internet and electricity usage gained velocity this
> fall, after tech guru George
> Gilder and the Energy Information Administration both weighed in on the
> topic. In September, Bambi
> Francisco at CBS' MarketWatch.com reported that Gilder was predicting
> the Internet would
> "eventually use as much electricity as the entire U.S. economy does
> today." In late November, the
> EIA significantly increased its projections for future electricity usage and
> named computers as a
> cause.



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