Save Energy, Skip the Insanity

In the states, there are four primary uses of energy via fossil fuels:

1. Transportation (includes commercial and personal) - maybe 40% of total
2. Space heating and other building needs (includes commercial/industrial and personal) - maybe 30% of total
3. Industrial (maybe 15% of needs)
4. Electrical generation (maybe 15% of needs)

All of the four areas of usage may be effected by looking at/and changing social energy use through five lenses:

1. Improve technology (Example, drive a vehicle that realizes double the mileage per fuel)
2. Improve social utilization (Example, drive on average twice the number of passengers)
3. Change the geographic scale (Example, drive half the distance to work)
4. Change the physical scale (Example, live in a home that is 1/2 the cubic volume)
5. Simplify and/or use public assets

The effects are multiplicative (both positively and negatively), define a methodology for changes in individual behavior (ie choice of car to drive or where to work), innovation in enterprise (electric vehicles or collective transit), and public policy (policies that effect land use patterns, investment in public infrastructure).

With determination, my personal sense is that modern society can reduce its consumption of fossil fuels by 80% over a thirty year period, while maintaining the same (or better) quality of life.