Reply #9: The topic we've been on has three components [View All]

[kristopher]

1) How much energy is used; 2) the lifestyle that people are accustomed to having, and 3) the relationship between 1 & 2 as efficiency and conservation measures are implemented.

Since lifestyle is closely related to not only habits but the ability of a nation's infrastructure to produce the goods and services that support a given lifestyle, the energy efficiency number can give a good idea (when looked at with care) of how much a country might actually be able to lower it's energy consumption while maintaining a certain lifestyle.

In this case, even though the geographic diversity of Europe and the US is similar, our level of energy intensity is 30% or so higher. That is an indication that we can make an improvement of that much without "suffering" in the lifestyle department.