An overview of the energy efficiency potential

• Economy-wide energy efficiency for the U.S. is no more than 14%.
• Cost-effective energy efficiency options are sufficient to cut total energy needs of the U.S. in half.
• Capturing this energy efficiency resource could generate from 1.3 to 1.9 million jobs.
• It would save residential and business consumers $400 billion annually, equivalent to $2600 per household (2010 dollars).

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.