Policies have to be designed to be part of a consistent framework, with the aim of improving vehicle fleet efficiency, encouraging efficient vehicle use, enouraging shifts and low-carbon transport modes and reduce the overall travel demand.
But successive governments managed to be convinced that power companies should be in charge of energy efficiency, encouraging consumers to use less gas and electricity.
The Obama White House accomplished quite a bit without legislative help during the first term, imposing some big new regulations on automobile fuel efficiency, encouraging the production of biofuels and creating new standards on home appliances.
Since previous bills focusing exclusively on capping emissions have gone nowhere, the two seasoned politicians behind this one — Representatives Henry Waxman of California and Edward Markey of Massachusetts — are offering other provisions aimed at increasing energy efficiency, encouraging cleaner energy sources and providing subsidies for industries that produce them.
For instance, Mr Fama's conclusions about market efficiency have encouraged the emergence of so-called index funds in financial markets.
CERA's Peter Jackson points out that the price signals that would surely foreshadow any "peak" would encourage efficiency, promote new oil discoveries and speed investments in alternatives to oil.
This can mean technical efficiency, but also includes building efficiency through encouraging an improved worker-management dialogue, ensuring that any resultant gains are shared in an equitable way with those workers in the supply chain.
One of the smaller programs, meant to raise fuel efficiency by encouraging automakers to produce cars capable of using ethanol, has relied on incentives that allow them to sell more gas-guzzlers.
In the best case, the resulting efficiency can encourage a company to take a flier on a daring design, since the risk is reasonable even if the vehicle winds up selling in low volumes of, say, 30,000 a year.
The new emphasis on quality and efficiency may encourage even more consolidation among hospitals bigger hospitals can spread risk across patients, invest in information technology and create standardised procedures that can easily be replicated.
