There is some fantastic stuff in this Worldchanging interview with Amory Lovins, energy efficiency guru, and co-founder of the Rocky Mountain Institute:
The cornucopia of efficiency is real, but it's the manual model: we actually have to go turn the crank. It's not easy, but it's easier than not doing it. And if we do get serious about using energy in a way that saves money, some big problems like oil dependence, climate change, and the spread of nuclear weapons will go away, not at a cost but at a profit, because efficiency is cheaper than fuel. That's a prize worth working hard to capture.