USA -Europe energy efficiency

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The European and American response to the oil crisis of the 1970’s and to the current crisis has evoked different responses. In the 70’s when oil prices went from US$ 2 a barrel to US $ 20, only the developed countries got affected badly. The poorer nations had a different fuel mix and the growth of industry may have been hampered but agriculture was largely unaffected.

America and Europe started exploring alternative sources of energy and looked at every other option to replace fossil fuels with renewable sources of energy. But this search was discontinued as the real price of crude oil stabilised. The interest in renewable energy starts gaining ground whenever the price of oil crosses US $ 60 a barrel. Once oil prices cross US $ 100 a barrel (and does not seem to come down) we can expect global investment into all alternative energy sources to go up.

Because America has its population dependent on fossil fueled automobiles they get hit the hardest. Europeans use public transport for commuting to work unlike Americans. However Europe has been looking for ways to improve energy use efficiencies across all sectors. Some of the European nations like Sweden have built national plans to be completely free of crude oil (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Making_Sweden_an_Oil-Free_Society).

Between 1990 and 2008 the population of America grew by 55 million people and Europe grew by 26 million however the energy use in USA increased by 20% in the same period while Europe energy use increased by 7%.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_energy_consumption)

In America the hope is that some invention will come along and make the energy problem go away. America is on a per capita basis the highest consumer of energy in the world. They have not yet found ways to reduce their consumption or implemented energy conservation measures of any kind. They are looking to meet the same level of energy consumption while searching for alternate energy sources. Europe has undertaken a 2 pronged strategy to reduce energy consumption by improving energy efficiencies and by investing into renewable energy.

What is India’s plan? It will be good to remember that an energy crisis in India will largely affect the urban population and not so much the rural population.