Decarbonization

Cutting emissions across all sectors through efficient electrification.

Electrification—meeting energy needs with clean electricity instead of fossil fuels—is an essential strategy for reducing climate pollution. The United States can electrify about 90% of its energy use using existing technologies. In many cases, electrification alone will reduce total costs, upfront and over time. As this transition accelerates, policymakers should ensure that households struggling to afford energy are not stuck paying rising costs for aging fossil fuel infrastructure.

ACEEE advances efficient electrification solutions across all sectors of the economy. This includes transportation, with a focus on both light-duty vehicles and heavy-duty freight electrification; buildings, where heat pumps can cut both energy bills and pollution for most heating and cooling needs; industry, where electrification of process heating can eliminate a substantial portion of industrial pollution; and utility system planning, including a focus on neighborhood-scale investments in electrification to accelerate a more equitable and cost-effective transition off of gas distribution networks.

Electrification may not be the most cost-effective solution for roughly 10% of the remaining fossil fuel use, much of it in long-distance freight transportation or for very high-temperature industrial heating and petrochemical feedstocks. ACEEE also works to identify and scale technology solutions to address these sector-specific use cases, such as increasing demand for lower-embodied-carbon materials or prioritizing renewable fuels and green hydrogen for select transportation and high-temperature heating.