While this first post is my personal introduction as I join the WattzOn blogging team, it is only the first of a string of introductions – the start of a thematic, serial illustration of diverse energy policy questions.

Much about energy policy remains underemphasized because it infrequently grips the imagination – somehow it seems we do not get as attached to energy-efficient appliances as we do to baby pandas and polar bears. I aspire to show that energy efficiency, industry, and technology can indeed provide fertile ground for your interest and curiosity. In the search to find items worthy of your attention, I will remain vigilant for clever, counterintuitive, or just plain unusual developments, reports, and ideas. I do not aim to provide either a news media rehash or personal commentary on current events. Instead, each post will be a small introduction, the equivalent of a short sketch, a paper impression fitted with appropriate outline and detail.

Inevitably, my “life experience” will influence the specific topics – which is another way of confessing that I will discuss some of my daily sights and sounds. However, generally speaking I plan on introducing selected issues and topics in conservation finance, banking and investment, East Asia, and energy policy. For one, I am spending the year in Beijing. I often notice industries here have an interest in reducing energy consumption that is symmetrical to their appetite for cheaper energy; demand receives as much emphasis as supply. In contrast, American public discussion centers on such questions of supply as making energy renewable or emissions-free.  Alternatively, other things just tend to catch the eye. For example, my university’s concierge staff’s living quarters are a series of Hutongs, each one with a small mountain of coal out front for fueling heating or cooking. Overall, I plan for each topic to  relate to more general concerns of energy policy – and topic suggestions are very much welcome.

Any person will tell you that a first impression happens but once. Fortunately, forming an opinion about complex questions surrounding energy is not a series of first impressions, but a prolonged process where information and ideas are assessed against each other. This implies that my posts will provide me with multiple opportunities, both to give you a good impression of current energy policy and to introduce a bit about myself.

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