The following appeared in a memorandum from the planning department of an electric powercompany. "Several recent surveys indicate that home owners are increasingly eager to conserve energy. At the same time, manufacturers are now marketing many home appli

The planning department of an electric power company (PD) believes that the energy supply of their area has been enough for the two decades and it will be so. Hence, PD believes that no further power supply would be needed for the future. This conclusion is grounded in the trends of people that seemingly is toward lesser consumption of energy. Toward this conclusion PD has made several assumptions, with each being potentially unwarranted, the statement is untenable.

First, PD has taken for granted that the surveys are valid and they also are conformable on the people of the area the PD is serving. The methodology, the size, location, and statistics of the survey is not clear. People in the survey might be totally different than the people of our discussing area. It is possible that the pertaining area is a rural part whose people do not know anything about the methods of conserving energy.

Secondly, assuming that the survey is correct and its respondents reflect the idea of the people of the discussing area, the cost of getting these low consuming facilities might be so high that people may not afford to buy them. Although the low consuming energy in a long-term period can compensate the primary spending on the buying of such stuffs, people might prefer using the old appliances that they are used to deal with instead of changing to use new things. If that is the case, there would be no decrease in the energy usage.

Thirdly, the PD’s unspoken assumption that the only way of energy consumption is through the appliances in homes, is an oversimplification. Even if people buy these low consuming energy stuffs, the growth rate of the population might overshadow such reduction in the demands of energy. A significant influx of the population is enough that boost the demands so that the city would need to make another electric generating plant.

Furthermore, a family nowadays is using more of such electric appliances than the past. Although the consuming energy of such appliances regarding to their past predecessors is decreased, but the dependency on using them is escalating. These appliances become more frequent and people use them more constantly. Computers, laptops, smartphones, Televisions and so many other appliances are becoming quite diverse and are more constantly used, alarming that energy consumption is simultaneously rising. If this is the case, then the energy supply of the area may not be sufficient.

In short, PD has made a hasty conclusion based on several assumptions enumerated in the argument. As long as these assumptions are not supported by any firm evidence, the whole conclusion of sufficiency of power supply for the area is not tenable.