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Energy Efficiency Information Energy Efficiency for Your Community  Now that you've learned how much energy your community can save each year, you might be wondering how to get started on your community's energy efficiency projects. The links on the left will help you learn more.Energy Efficiency Is Not Just For Experts! Improving how we use energy may seem like an "experts only" issue, to be handled by utility planners, the federal government, and various energy professionals. But the good news is that there are no experts when it comes to implementing sustainable energy practices. Citizens and businesses don't have to wait for anyone else to lead the way. You can start right now in your community to put energy efficiency to work. Homes, neighborhoods, workplaces, shopping centers, schools, transportation systems, and public buildings are all full of energy-saving opportunities. Some people in your community may have already independently tapped such opportunities in their homes and businesses and reaped the rewards. Asking New Questions Communities can save billions of dollars by asking new questions about the way they meet energy needs. The conventional approach was to ask: "How do we get more barrels of oil? How do we generate more kilowatt-hours of electricity?" Yet nobody wants barrels of sticky black goo or raw kilowatt hours for their own sake. What we are really after are the hot showers and cold beer, lighting, productivity, mobility, comfort, and the other "end-use" services that energy provides. Instead, we could ask: "How can we provide these hot showers and cold beer in the cheapest and most efficient way, counting all financial, social, and environmental costs?" Answering this question opens up a wealth of win-win environmental and economic opportunities. Taking advantage of these opportunities is also much more profitable than developing expensive new energy sources. This "end-use/least-cost" approach can cost-effectively reduce energy use, typically by at least a third and up to 90 percent in some cases, with the same or improved quality of service. Thanks to the use of more efficient automobiles, buildings, computers, appliances, and factories, the United States has already reduced energy expenditures by more than $150 billion a year from 1973 levels. While part of this energy bill reduction is attributable to the economy shifting from manufacturing to services, at least 75 percent of these savings are due to increased energy efficiency. As impressive as these improvements are, far greater savings remain untapped. A transition to efficiency and renewables would result in billions of dollars freed up for domestic investment, over a million new jobs created by 2010, new export opportunities, a healthier environment, and greater comfort and productivity. All this from asking a few new questions about how best to meet our energy needs! |
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