An overview of the energy efficiency potential

Abstract The global economy is not particularly energy-efficient. At current levels of consumption the U.S. economy, for example, is an anemic 14% efficient – which means that the United States wastes about 86% of the energy now burned to maintain its economy. Most recently, Laitner et al. (2012) documented an array of untapped cost-effective energy efficiency resources roughly equivalent to 250 billion barrels of oil. That is a sufficient scale that would enable the U.S. to cut total energy needs in half compared to business-as-usual projections for the year 2050, and still maintain a robust economy.