The United States ranked ninth out of 12 major industrial powers in overall energy efficiency, according to a new survey released Thursday.
The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy’s International Energy-Efficiency Scorecard ranked the world’s 12 largest economies based on 27 measures, including energy use in buildings, fuel-efficiency standards, and spending on manufacturing research and development. The United Kingdom ranked highest, with an overall score of 67 out of 100, while the U.S. scored 47.
“It means energy efficiency has got to be the front and center of our policies,” Robert Ichord, deputy assistant secretary in the State Department’s Bureau of Energy Resources, said Thursday at a Washington news conference at which the results were released.
Only Brazil, Canada and Russia scored lower than the U.S. The U.K. was closely followed by Germany, with countries such as France, Australia and China further down on the list.
The U.S. ranked fourth behind China, Australia and the European Union in the “buildings” category, one of the four major grouping of the survey’s criteria, which also included transportation, industry and “national efforts.”
The “buildings” category covered such measures as energy use in buildings, building codes, appliance and equipment standards, and energy-efficiency labeling requirements.
However, the U.S. came in last in the transportation section, which included total miles traveled, fuel economy, use of public transit and energy efficiency in freight shipping. American ranked sixth in energy efficiency in its industry and ninth in efforts by the federal government to promote energy efficiency.
“The best countries are clearly doing a lot more, but all countries have room for improvement,” said Steven Nadel, executive director of ACEEE.
The ACEEE, a nonprofit organization founded in 1980, conducts studies and advises on policy on energy efficiency and releases a similar scorecard for each state in the U.S.
This report comes as energy policy is becoming a focus in the presidential campaigns.
The two candidates spent the week firing off shots at each other about President Obama’s economic-stimulus plan, which Mr. Romney accused of pouring millions into “green energy” companies that sent jobs overseas, a claim Democrats called exaggerated.
Sir Peter Westmacott, Britain’s ambassador to the U.S., attributed the nation’s top placement largely to the nation’s Green Deal, a series of measures aimed at reducing carbon emissions from buildings.
He also credited European transportation rules, including stricter fuel-mileage standards in cars.
Mr. Ichord acknowledged that the U.S. had room to improve, especially in transportation, but was skeptical about some of the comparisons.
“The U.S. is a huge country, and its transportation system is gigantic compared to the U.K.,” he said. “Therefore, there are obviously some aspects that are not captured in these metrics to explain why some countries are more efficient.”
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