Very encouraging. Steven Chu, the next Secretary of Energy in the US, on energy efficiency in the New Yorker:
"the manufacturers had to assign the job to the engineers, instead of to the lobbyists." ... the size of the average American refrigerator has increased by more than ten per cent, while the price, in inflation-adjusted dollars, has been cut in half. Meanwhile, energy use has dropped by two-thirds.
The transition to more efficient fridges, Chu pointed out, has saved the equivalent of all the energy generated in the United States by wind turbines and solar cells. "I cannot impress upon you how important energy efficiency is," he said.