Electrify: An Optimist's Playbook for Our Clean Energy Future

by Saul Griffith

Same Comfort, Same Conveniences, Half the Energy When we add up all of those savings, we find we only need ~42% of the primary energy we use today. Well, that is pretty remarkable. America can reduce its energy use by more than half by introducing no efficiency measures other than electrification. No thermostats were turned down, no vehicles were downsized, no homes were shrunk. Not only that, but electrification is a “no-regrets” option—we can also deploy other strategies like behavior change and the things we typically call efficiency, and see even further gains. That’s why electrification is the only real strategy for decarbonization—and why it will release us from a paralysis of “what to do?” and provide us with an immune-response to those who seek to confuse the public with stories of the role of fossil fuels in our future.