Rising gas prices, which hits many squarely in the wallet, has many in our country turning their attention to fuel efficiency in cars. Brad Templeton of the EFF reminds that there are some other huge targets if you take into account the entirety of the U.S. energy budget.

He explains:

The rest of the energy budget is split 32% industrial (including making cars,) 18% commercial and 21% residential. But 70% of residential energy, 78% of commercial energy and 34% of industrial energy comes from electricity. (Just .3% of transportation energy does, but that will change if we move to electric cars.)

All these energy uses are quite diverse. There are many targets to attack, all worthy within their own scope but there’s only one truly big target, and that’s electricity generation. In the USA that’s currently 50% coal and 20% natural gas. So if you’re working to fix this — with renewable energy or nuclear — then you’re working on one of the big problems. Right now hydro and nuclear are the largest non-fossil power generators. All the other renewables are currently in the noise.

Catch more of his insightful Going Green posts here.

Thanks Alex!