Energy efficiency and energy conservation are often thought to be the same. They are not, according to Herbert Inhaber. Only when less total energy is consumed by all users will energy actually be saved. Energy efficiency schemes do not accomplish this goal of conservation: when one person or nation conserves energy, there is just more of it for others to use elsewhere.

This is the first book to answer, comprehensively and objectively, the question: Do government energy conservation programs hinder or help the nation?

Says Inhaber, "the fact that billions of dollars have been spent on energy conservation programs, without giving them a searching look at what has been accomplished, is a national scandal. " Clear, concise, and with numerous useful graphs and tables, this book is an important first step toward making us all aware of what energy conservation actually is - and is not - and how it can and should be implemented.