US lags in energy efficiency

The need for innovation and conservation continues to grow as the US GDP lags the rest of the world. Industrial applications still hos the energy resources, but consumers buy many of those products. For example: refigerators and air conditioners in both industrial and residential locations are still highly inefficient. Maybe sweat isn't as bad as we were led to believe! :-)
Even after three decades of progress, an average American still consumes six times more energy than the average person in the rest of the world.

CNN reports that the US is behind in energy conservation.

Since the 1970s, per capita U.S. gross domestic product has grown far more quickly than energy use. "We're roughly half of where we were 30 years ago, in terms of BTUs per dollar of GDP," says Bill Prindle, deputy director of the Washington-based American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE), a non-profit group.

Refrigerators are three times as efficient as comparable 1980 models. Air conditioners are twice as efficient. Compact fluorescent light bulbs save money and electricity, too.

Of course, another big factor has helped as well - the shift from a manufacturing to a service economy. Making software requires less energy than making steel.

Yet the rest of the developed world is much more efficient than we are, according to a UN report that attempts to measure energy efficiency across different economies. The U.S generated 4.4 units of GDP for each kilogram of oil, behind Australia (4.8 GDP units) Germany (6.2), Japan (6.4) and the UK (6.6). Ahead of them all is tiny, frugal Denmark (8.1)

The EU's 25 nations managed to generate about $12.1 trillion in GDP in 2004, more than the U.S.'s $11.6 trillion, while using 22 percent less energy, according to the World Resources Institute's Earth Trends project.