Here's something to think about: the US is the largest energy consumer in the world at about 100 quadrillion BTUs of energy a year (for the layman, that's equal to burning around 3.6 trillion tons of coal). While energy consumption is no doubt an unavoidable part of our lives, wasting energy doesn't have to be. The two largest areas of energy consumption in the US are transportation (27.8%) and electricity (40.1%). Lots has been suggested and offered as to what we can personally do to reduce our energy footprint, however, as someone with an environmental background, honest solutions are often more convoluted than we might realize.

Take, for example, the electric car. Hailed in the nineties as a potential panacea for eliminating carbon emissions, the fact is when you plug your expensive new Tesla engine into an electrical outlet, chances are you're sucking power straight from coal (as opposed to oil). A recent German study concluded that introducing 1 million electric cars in Germany would, in the best case scenario, only reduce emissions by 0.1% (if nothing was done to upgrade the electricity infrastructure or manage demand).

What the electric car really shows—is not that the idea is misguided—but that we desperately need an updated energy grid, smarter urban planning and more people on bikes! So rather than buy an electric car, get involved, use your vote and be informed. For all of us living in Jackson Hole, Jeff Noffsinger, Principal Planner with the Town of Jackson is hosting a brown bag lunch today at noon at 43 North. Jeff will be talking about his work to address housing with regulations and the comprehensive plan. What does housing have to do with energy? Encouraging more mixed use development and closer proximity from home to the grocery store will have a much greater (and long term) impact on reducing transportation needs and energy consumption.

Check out the how the US derives our energy in the 21st century:

[source: Dwell Magazine, July/Aug 2010]