Google & Nokia pause brewing rivalry, sign energy letter to Obama

Google and Nokia are both vying for dominance in the mobile operating system world and while both of them have plans in motion to accomplish that goal, they’ve both paused a moment to sign an energy letter to Obama. That letter spells out several specific suggestions for the President which essentially make it easier for consumers and businesses to monitor their energy usage.

The letter describes how blind most energy consumers currently are because they have no idea how individual devices are affecting their bill every month. The only thing they can easily discern is the dollar amount due.

Google gave a shout out to the letter on its blog and indicated that the group of companies will continue to offer ideas on how the government can make energy usage easier in the home and in businesses. Energy “. . . savings could be substantial when added up: if all U.S. households saved 15% on their energy use by 2020, for example, the greenhouse gas savings would be equivalent to taking 35 million cars off the road and would save consumers $46 billion on their energy bills, or $360 per customer each year,” according to the letter.

That statistic will vary widely depending on the scale of the home or business. A one bedroom apartment with an electric bill of $60 per month would probably see a minimal difference even with monitoring installed. That scenario already has built in energy efficiencies because of its close proximity to neighbors and centralized community resource planning.

Essentially the letter urges Obama to act as a facilitator of information between companies and to establish standards that communicate to energy consumers how much energy a device will require. Admittedly, sending a letter to Obama on efficient energy usage generates a plenty of positive buzz by itself, so that’s just icing on the cake.