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Still, widespread electrification faces huge obstacles. “If you ask, ‘How on Earth are we going to power the modern economy cleanly,’ nothing else makes sense,” said Saul Griffith, founder and chief scientist of Rewiring America, an advocacy group. But for many activities, the most straightforward solution is to go electric. Other options include clean hydrogen fuels, biofuels or technologies that capture pollution from the air, smokestacks or machines.

Plugging in isn’t the only way to cut emissions. A new climate law is providing billions of dollars in subsidies to hasten the transition. Electric heat pumps outsold gas furnaces for the first time last year. Sales of electric vehicles broke records last year, accounting for 5.8 percent of new cars sold, and the administration has proposed regulations to ensure they make up two-thirds of sales by 2032. There are signs the United States is already moving in a more plugged-in direction. An electric car uses about 80 percent of its energy.īy 2050, electricity would play a much bigger role: For example, a gasoline-powered car uses only about 30 percent of the energy in its fuel to move its wheels, with most of the rest wasted as heat.

The country would also use less energy overall, since electric devices are often more efficient than ones that burn fossil fuels. In this future, far more of America’s energy would come from electricity. The New York Times used data from Evolved Energy Research, an energy modeling firm, to visualize what the nation’s energy use might look like in 2050 if the United States were able to meet the president’s climate change goals, using technology available today or just over the horizon, while minimizing costs. Transforming the economy so that more things run on clean electricity is a cornerstone of President Biden’s plan to slash emissions to nearly zero by 2050. Electricity as a percent of total energy consumed in 2021 Here’s how much of that energy comes from electricity.