By Jon Cartwright
In his first week as US president-elect, Barack Obama has faced a barrage of recommendations into how he should run office come 20 January next year. One of those firing the rounds is the American Physical Society (APS), which on Friday scheduled meetings with his transition team to discuss ways to improve the nation’s energy efficiency.
Energy efficiency plays a key role in climate change, an issue that Obama put near the top of the list during his election campaign. He promises to reduce greenhouse emissions by 80% by 2050 — an ambitious target that he aims to meet through investment in basic research, commercialization of hybrid cars and development of green technologies.
The APS wants to give Obama a helping hand by urging him to invest also in energy efficiency. In September, the organization published a report that put forward the different areas in which this could be done: developing light cars that average 50 miles to the gallon, increasing R&D for advanced batteries and adopting “integrated” building designs that use far less energy.
The report points out that transportation and buildings account for two-thirds of US energy consumption.
