Recent research from the Rocky Mountain Institute highlights the astonishing potential for energy efficiency in the United States:
If the rest of the country achieved the level of efficiency of the top 10 states, we would save 30 percent of U.S. electricity consumption, or 1.2 million gigawatt hours.
This would translate to savings of $100 billion on electricity bills, cutting the equivalent of 60 percent of coal-fired electricity, or avoiding 779 million metric tons of carbon dioxide.
In fact, if less-efficient states matched the efficiency levels of top-performing states, we could wipe out enough carbon dioxide emissions to offset both the Netherlands' and the United Kingdom's emissions for a year!