Ten Surprising Facts About Our Energy Landscape

The document outlines the current state of U.S. energy use across transportation, buildings, and industry, while projecting the economic and efficiency gains possible by 2050 through a transition to renewable energy and increased efficiency.

• The U.S. transportation sector consumes 13 million barrels of oil daily, with half being imported, costing $2 billion. In 2009, personal transportation was the second largest consumer cost in America after housing, accounting for $740 billion and an average of 17.6% of household spending.
• Buildings are the largest energy-consuming sector in the U.S., with 120 million buildings using 42% of the nation's energy. The annual cost to heat and power these buildings exceeds $400 billion, which is more than government spending on Medicare.
• U.S. industry accounts for roughly one-fourth of annual national energy use, despite employing nearly 131 million people and generating over 40% of the U.S. GDP.
• By 2050, the U.S. could achieve significant economic and energy gains by eliminating coal, oil, and nuclear energy. Specifically, combining efficiency efforts with a shift to renewables and a one-third reduction in natural gas could save a net $5 trillion and support a U.S. economy 158% larger.
• Projections for 2050 indicate that buildings could be 40–60% more efficient despite a 70% increase in floorspace, and industry could increase output by 84% while using 9–13% less energy without requiring mandates or innovation breakthroughs.

APA

RMI (2011). Ten Surprising Facts About Our Energy Landscape. https://rmi.org/resources/tenfactsaboutourenergylandscape/

Chicago

RMI. Ten Surprising Facts About Our Energy Landscape. 2011. https://rmi.org/resources/tenfactsaboutourenergylandscape/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=RMI |title=Ten Surprising Facts About Our Energy Landscape |date=6 September 2011 |url=https://rmi.org/resources/tenfactsaboutourenergylandscape/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rmi2011ten, author = {{RMI}}, title = {{Ten Surprising Facts About Our Energy Landscape}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2011}, month = sep, url = {https://rmi.org/resources/tenfactsaboutourenergylandscape/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }