The following five Friday facts come via Rocky Mountain Institute’s Reinventing Fire pamphlet.

• Despite new technologies, codes, and design strategies, the U.S. building stock is not much more energy efficient than it was twenty-five years ago – it uses 70 percent of the U.S. electricity, half of which is made from coal.
• Transportation uses 70 percent of U.S. oil.
• Between 1950 and 2009, consumption of petroleum fuels increased by 65 percent, and although gasoline demand in the U.S. has lately declined, the sector is still about 98% dependent on fossil fuels.
• Coal fueled 41 percent of the growth in U.S. electricity generation during 1990-2004 (along with 36 percent from natural gas and 23 percent from running existing nuclear plants harder).
• Industrial processes use 31 percent of U.S. energy. Chemical industries, paper, metals, materials and resources, and oil refining – powered by coal (electricity), oil, and natural gas, and a small amount of biomass – are 83 percent of this use (according to USEIA).

For more information on Reinventing Fire, watch the video below:

[Image source: Metropolitan Museum of Art]