Carbon dioxide emissions dropped significantly in the US in 2009. The economy played an obvious role; not so obvious was the influence of power generation and its increasing efficiency.

CO2 emissions have been trending down for the last decade by about 0.9%.  But the 2009 drop was far more dramatic — 7% — the largest decline since the Energy Information Administration began keeping energy data more than 60 years ago.

As John McDonald tells it, smart grid needs GOLD. And he’s not talking money.

GOLD stands for Graduates of the Last Decade, the technology savvy, risk-taking engineers and technicians who may be among the greatest benefactors of the new smart grid movement. While most recent college graduates face dismal employment prospects, for the GOLD kids, the job market is, well, golden.

The energy world is about to turn upside down. With the coming of smart grid, the electricity consumer becomes the electricity seller; the passive home appliance becomes the active energy manager; the grid repairman becomes the grid itself.

Such an upheaval means that the energy world needs to start thinking about a new business model, says a recent report by IBM Global Business Services Energy and Utilities.

It’s been a heady time for the energy efficiency businesses, with the federal government last year announcing financial support never before seen by the industry. But months after the initial hoopla many of the smaller companies – which make up a large swath of the marketplace – say they still have not seen dollars come their way.

That’s changing now, according to the National Association of Energy Service Companies, which held a recent workshop in Washington, DC to discuss federal energy efficiency initiatives. Donald Gilligan, NAESCO president, and James Dixon, NAESCO, vice chairman, took a few minutes away from the action to talk to me about their view of the marketplace.

Americans do many things well.  These things do not include sacrifice of creature comforts.

So it came as a surprise to see US Rep. Brian Baird (D-Wash) suggest we can avert 20% of our energy use if we take short “military showers” over 20 weeks. http://content.usatoday.com/communities/greenhouse/post/2010/03/can-behavioral-changes-save-enough-energy-to-save-earth/1. Who the heck is going to do that?

Much of today’s economic debate boils down to these questions: How did we get in this mess?  And how do we get out? Two recent studies implicate the energy industry as a cause and a solution.

While our economic tumble is clearly linked to an inflated housing market and overly-hedged financial products, we cannot discount pressure from high energy prices.

What’s the shelf life of today’s support for energy efficiency technologies? The industry has seen an unprecedented boom over the last several years. But all booms eventually bust.

A recent souring of public opinion about global warming science has some industry insiders bracing for impact. Will American enthusiasm for clean energy come to a halt? Only if it was global warming that spurred the enthusiasm in the first place – and I suspect it was not.