The Very Hungry City: Urban Energy Efficiency and the Economic Fate of Cities [Tapa dura]

Very Hungry City is an excellent account of the inter-relationship between urban areas and energy, and it explains the key issues that determine the energy usage of a city--its form, modes of transportation, infrastructure, climate, etc. In doing so, Very Hungry City provides an interesting (and entertaining) analysis of the potential effectiveness of many of the tools that are currently used (or proposed) to reduce urban energy consumption and to improve quality of life in cities. The author's analysis is clear and his conclusions are straightforward and thoughtful. The conclusions of Very Hungry City portray an energy picture that is more complicated and nuanced than typically found in the mainstream media. This characteristic of Very Hungry City sets it apart from much of the information (including other books) on environmental issues and makes it a valuable read for those interested in environmental issues and for the government officials and policymakers currently deciding how best to invest the tremendous amount of resources directed towards climate change, air pollution, urban congestion, etc.

This book arrived in good condition. It wasn't in perfect condition, but I wasn't expecting to receive it that way, so I'm very happy with my purchase. Also, the book itself (it's content) is great. I've enjoyed reading about how U.S. cities came to be organized the way that they are and the European (and U.S.) examples that have been offered thus far of what future cities in the U.S. could look like have been inspiring and also legitimately insightful. I'd recommend that anyone interested in learning how today's cities, particularly in relation to their transportation and fuel / energy use, evolved to what they are today and what they could potentially (and hopefully) become read this book.

Austin Troy explores the economic competitiveness of cities in the light of what he calls their urban energy metabolism, i.e., the different rates at which cities consume energy. The drivers of this urban energy metabolism are for example climate, access to water, the quality of buildings, industrial use, and transportation/urban development. Too many American cities are car-dependent, sprawling agglomerations. Think for example about Atlanta, Dallas, and Los Angeles. In European and Asian cities, ownership of a car is far more a liability than an asset.

Mr. Troy rightly warns his audience against complacency. Energy prices are not guaranteed to remain low forever. The author calls for both improving energy efficiency and developing new clean energy generation capacity. Mr. Troy usually explores the pros and cons of the different energy sources with objectivity in what he calls "interlude." However, the author is clearly too pessimistic about nuclear power, by far the leading U.S. electricity source which does not emit greenhouse gases. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission recently approved the Westinghouse Advanced Passive 1000 nuclear power plant design and the construction and operating license for the two-reactor Plant Vogtle expansion in Georgia. Nonetheless, Mr. Troy rightly lambastes the incoherent U.S. policy for the management, reprocessing, and/or disposal of spent fuel from commercial nuclear reactors.

Mr. Troy looks at a wide variety of cities such as Bangkok, Copenhagen, Denver, Houston, London, New York, São Paulo, and Stockholm, to identify the best practices for improving a city's energy metabolism. The author comes to the conclusion that regionalism is at the heart of a coherent urban policy in the U.S. Local planning too often leads to urban inefficiencies among competing local jurisdictions, whose costs are born heavily by the U.S. federal government. Mr. Troy notes that contrary to popular perception, regionalism is not un-American. The U.S. federal government is already involved in many aspects of community building such as transportation and infrastructure funding, environmental protection, natural hazards protection, and housing policy. The author calls for a much more effective regionalism at the U.S. federal level. Think for example about a revised conceptualization and funding of federal transportation projects, locally relevant environmental policies, changes to sprawl-inducing federal housing finance and credit policies, and urban revitalization. However, U.S. local, county, regional, and state governments also have a key role to play in improving urban energy metabolism. Cities such as Baltimore, Denver, Los Angeles, and New York have taken steps to reduce their energy footprint in the names of quality of life, economic development, or energy efficiency.

In summary, Mr. Troy calls for changes to how cities operate in the name of energy efficiency before the eventual advent of significantly higher energy prices.