America can reduce our overall energy use 40 to 60 percent below current levels by midcentury by using better technologies and eliminating waste. This shouldn’t be surprising when you consider that, in 2018, more than two-thirds of the energy we produced went to waste.

Even if we used polluting and dangerous fuels more efficiently, damage from activities such as drilling, mining, pipeline construction, coal trains and the discharge of radioactive waste still do tremendous harm to our world. But when you consider the tremendous amount that is wasted in the production and use of energy, it only makes matters worse.