Long-Term Energy Efficiency Potential
Americans must take a broader view of energy efficiency in the U.S. or risk constraining an economy that has struggled to wrest itself from the Great Recession, according to thought leaders at the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.
That’s the key finding of a new report from the organization that urges Americans to think bigger when it comes to energy efficiency.
With attention focused on individual consumer efforts — such as purchases — and risky, expensive bids to develop new energy sources, the country overlooks the benefits of a systems approach to energy efficient.
Major strategic energy efficiency investments can yield consumer energy savings that could reach as much as $400 billion a year, while cutting energy consumption by more than 50 percent and adding almost two million jobs to the economy by 2050, the report said.
The report also warns that “the evidence suggests that without a greater emphasis on the more efficient use of our energy resources, there may be as many as three jokers in the deck that will constrain the robustness of our nation’s future economy. These include the many uncertainties surrounding the availability of conventional and relatively inexpensive energy supplies, a slowing rate of energy and therefore economic productivity, and a variety of pending climate constraints that may create further economic impacts of their own.”
The report, titled “The Long-Term Energy Efficiency Potential: What the Evidence Suggests,” is available for free download with registration from ACEEE at http://aceee.org/research-report/E121.
