America was an energy-rich nation and its citizens lapped up the chance to buy every new convenience. As you move upscale you get a bigger house. And in a big house you have two refrigerators, one in the kitchen and one in the playroom for the soft drinks. You wouldn't find that in the European flat. Status-seeking drives consumerism at least as much as the need for comfort, said Willett Kempton, an anthropology professor at the University of Delaware who has studied why some people consume more energy than others.
People look at what their neighbors have and they want it.
Schwartz sees the country's two biggest energy decisions as the Federal Housing Administration's home-loan program in the 1940s and 1950s that allowed huge numbers of Americans to afford suburban homes and the Interstate Highway Act in the 1950s that created the freeway culture. Once those choices were made, the nation was set on a course of consumption that's hard to change, he said. While it might be possible to tighten standards for manufacturers and builders, individuals are already living in energy-eating suburban homes and commuting long distances. Industry and commercial transportation amounted to about two-thirds of all energy consumption in the United States in 1997, with residential and commercial uses constituting the rest. We've pushed large consumption. . . .