If we are lucky, growth in the demand for energy will be moderated by continued improvements in energy efficiency that will be stimulated by higher prices and concerns about the security of oil supplies. Such improvements are certainly possible, even without new technological breakthroughs.
For example, Japan is an advanced industrial nation that uses only about one-third as much energy to produce each dollar of real output as the United States does.12 Industrializing nations such as China appear to be quite inefficient in their energy use; for example, the underdeveloped electricity grid in China has induced heavy use of inefficient diesel-powered generators.