UK Receives Top Score in Energy Efficiency
Congratulations to Aedan Kernan (2GreenEnergy contributor) and our other friends in the UK. Your fine country received top honors in terms of energy efficiency rankings — #1 out of the 12 nations considered.
American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), a Washington DC-based non-profit just published its first-ever International Energy Efficiency Scorecard. The report places the U.S. 9th on the list and notes: “(the U.S. has made) limited or little progress toward greater efficiency at the national level.”
As long as Americans can have electricity at 11 cents per kWh and there’s lots of cold beer at the grocery store, the sad truth is that the bulk of us really don’t care. The issue, of course, is that, when one adds in the externalities of generating that electricity, the costs are huge – to every living thing on the planet.
If the UK scores top for energy efficiency, I hate to think how bad things are in the other 11 countries! Whilst the UK has been making some effort in this area, from my own experience, there is still a very long way to go!
I could go into almost any business in the UK, and in an hour or so, could identify at least one significant energy efficiency measure with a reasonable rate of return – justifiable to the company’s accountants.
With a really serious energy efficiency program, national energy consumption in the UK could be dramatically reduced at no net cost (savings more than cover loan repayments.)