Idea of the Day: Improve Efficiency in Energy Generation, Transmission, and Consumption

July 22, 2008

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Energy efficiency is the cheapest, fastest way to reduce the carbon intensity of our economy. The United States currently uses nearly twice as much energy per dollar of GNP than other industrialized countries, so there is much we can do to reduce the inefficiencies of our energy generation, transmission, and consumption. To this end, we propose a National Energy Efficient Resource Standard to require electricity and natural gas distributors to meet a 10 percent energy savings threshold through efficiency upgrades by 2020, and a major upgrade of the U.S. electricity grid to increase energy and national security, encourage distributed generation, and increase the efficiency of transmission. Additional significant gains in efficiency can be made by requiring efficiency upgrades for our appliances and private, commercial, and federal buildings.

For more information on this topic, please see:

• Capturing the Energy Opportunity: Creating a Low-Carbon Economy by John Podesta, Todd Stern, and Kit Batten