Take These Steps to Cut Your Energy Use in Half To curb the climate crisis, increase national security, and avoid economic disaster as peak oil looms, it's time to accelerate energy efficiency. Green America's simple, doable proposition is this:  Let's each cut our energy use by 50 percent in the next five years -- just ten percent per year. Sound ambitious? The city of Juneau, AK, nearly reached that threshold in just four weeks. When an avalanche knocked out the hydroelectric power system that provided relatively cheap energy to Juneau in 2008, energy costs skyrocketed when the city switched to a backup diesel system. Using recommendations from Berkeley Lab scientist Alan Meier (author of  How to Save Energy in a Hurry ) residents quickly brought their costs under control. Within a month, the entire city had cut its overall energy use by 40 percent. You can too. Check out our recommendations of the ten easiest ways to bring your own costs under control (and check out more ideas below).