| Contents Notes |
1. Defossilizing fuels : -- The true cost of oil addiction ; Oil and insecurity ; Coal's hidden costs ; Turning the supertanker ; Lighting the new fire ; No miracles required -- 2. Transportation : fitter vehicles, smarter use : -- Designing and building autos differently ; Using autos more productively ; The rest of the story : beyond automobiles ; Powering vehicles with cleaner energy ; Conclusion: Better mobility at lower cost without oil -- 3. Buildings : designs for better living : -- Understanding today's building quagmire ; The efficiency revolution : what's profitable and what's possible ; The conundrum and the challenge ; Solving the efficiency puzzle ; Conclusion: More comfort, more productivity, less energy, stronger economics -- 4. Industry : remaking how we make things : -- How the industrial jungle drives U.S. energy demand ; Viewing industry through the efficiency lens ; How much more productive can industry become? ; Transforming the industrial jungle ; Conclusion: Competitiveness through radical energy productivity -- 5. Electricity : repowering prosperity : -- Imagining the next electricity system ; Maintain : the elusiveness of "business-as-usual" ; Migrate : the conventional approach to "carbon-free" electricity ; Renew : tapping nature's inexhaustible energy sources ; Transform : a seismic shift in scale ; Four cases, one broad direction ; How do we get there from here? ; Conclusion: The path forward -- 6. Many choices, one future : -- Looking back from 2050 ; How can reinventing fire evolve smoothly? ; How do we seize the 2050 prize? ; Kindling the new fire. Oil and coal have built our civilisation, created our wealth and enriched the lives of billions. Yet their rising costs to our security, economy, health and environment are starting to outweigh their benefits. Moreover, the tipping point where alternatives work better and compete purely on cost is not decades in the future - it is here and now. And that tipping point has become the fulcrum of economic transformation. In Reinventing Fire, Amory Lovins and the Rocky Mountain Institute offer a new vision to revitalise business models and win the clean energy race - not forced by public policy but led by business for long-term advantage. This independent and rigorous account offers market-based solutions integrating transportation, buildings, industry and electricity. It maps pathways for running a 158%-bigger US economy in 2050 but needing no oil, no coal, no nuclear energy, one-third less natural gas and no new inventions. This transition would cost $5 trillion less than business-as-usual - without counting fossil fuels' huge hidden costs. Whether you care most about profits and jobs, or national security, or environmental stewardship, climate, and health, Reinventing Fire makes sense. It's a story of astounding opportunities for creating the new energy era. -- Publisher description Imagine fuel without fear. No climate change. No oil spills, no dead coalminers, no dirty air, no devastated lands, no lost wildlife. No energy poverty. No oil-fed wars, tyrannies, or terrorists. No leaking nuclear wastes or spreading nuclear weapons. Nothing to run out. Nothing to cut off. Nothing to worry about. Just energy abundance, benign and affordable, for all, forever. That richer, fairer, cooler, safer world is possible, practical, even profitable-because saving and replacing fossil fuels now works better and costs no more than buying and burning them. Reinventing Fireshows how business-motivated by profit, supported by civil society, sped by smart policy-can get the US completely off oil and coal by 2050, and later beyond natural gas as well. Authored by a world leader on energy and innovation, the book maps a robust path for integrating real, here-and-now, comprehensive energy solutions in four industries-transportation, buildings, electricity, and manufacturing-melding radically efficient energy use with reliable, secure, renewable energy supplies. Popular in tone and rooted in applied hope, Reinventing Fireshows how smart businesses are creating a potent, global, market-driven, and explosively growing movement to defossilize fuels. It points readers to trillions in savings over the next 40 years, and trillions more in new business opportunities. Whether you care most about national security, or jobs and competitive advantage, or climate and environment, this major contribution by world leaders in energy innovation offers startling innovations will support your values, inspire your support, and transform your sense of possibility.Pragmatic citizens today are more interested in outcomes than motives. Reinventing Fireanswers this trans-ideological call. Whether you care most about national security, or jobs and competitive advantage, or climate and environment, its startling innovations will support your values, inspire your support, and transform your sense of possibility. -- Publisher description |
