How do we plan for a future with more blackouts?
Think for a moment about how many more electronic devices we all use these days even for tasks — from brushing our teeth to reading books and magazines — that we used to do without electricity. And yet, nonetheless, we're still seeing steady declines in residential electricity consumption, down now to the 2001 level of an average of 10,819 kilowatt-hours per household. It's a remarkable and indisputable achievement that is saving you money and lowering the nation's carbon emissions. The story is, to a large extent, a direct result of government energy-efficiency standards.
At the time of this writing, hundreds of thousands of people are without power right now in Pennsylvania. The whole Northeast has been going through cold like we haven't felt for years. If anyone ever needed a lesson in why we should stop building glass towers and why we should be building to far higher standards of insulation, this has been it. The people who are living in Passive Houses are sitting pretty while everyone might freeze in the dark.