Arthur Rosenfeld, Efficiency Pioneer, Retires from California Energy Commission

Nuclear physicist Arthur Rosenfeld, who helped convince California to enact efficiency standards starting in the 1970s, is retiring. 

Rosenfeld can take a lot of credit for the fact that the California’s citizens use about the same amount of energy per capita that they did back then, despite the many new appliances and electronics that have been added to homes.

Rosenfeld advocated efficiency because he believed promoting conservation was more economical than producing increasing quantities of power to meet demand.

Thanks to his efforts, efficient buildings and appliances were made the rule in California, and utilities were compelled to encourage conservation among their customers. According to some estimates, as much as $30 billion annually has been saved.  In addition air pollution, equivalent to taking 100 million cars off the road, has been avoided.

Born in Alabama, Rosenfeld spent time in Egypt as a child, where he was exposed to the more energy-conscious habits of his Egyptian and European classmates.

He earned his bachelor’s degree in industrial physics from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and after a stint instructing navy radar operators went on to study particle physics under the renowned physicist Enrico Fermi at the University of Chicago.

Rosenfeld then joined researchers at UC Berkeley at what would become the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

But it was not with nuclear physics that Rosenfeld would make his mark. During the 1973 oil embargo, he began a quest to persuade people in government that efficiency should be made a legislative priority.

Despite opposition from industry, would-be power producers and manufacturers, Rosenfeld persuaded then-governor Jerry Brown to direct the California’s Energy Commission to implement efficiency standards for buildings and appliances.

Rosenfeld has twice been appointed to the Energy Commission, by governors Gray Davis in 2000 and Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2005.

Following his retirement from the commission, Rosenfeld plans to work at Lawrence Berkeley Lab on a project to promote the use of light-colored roofs, which he believes would save on heating and air conditioning costs as well as help cool the planet.

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