If education is to succeed then the appropriate fundamentals must be taught in all coursework. Unfortunately, it appears that most energy-related curricula build on the wrong element. In short, the primary focus appears to be teaching energy as a commodity rather than energy as work. For example, our international economic accounts tend to dwell on such things as the price of oil, or the amount of coal that might be available. Missing in that perspective, however, is the critical role of energy as work—in effect, the necessity of using high quality energy (which some physicists and engineers refer to as "exergy") to transform matter into the production and distribution of goods and services sufficient to maintain our social and economic well-being.

The latest estimates for the United States in 2016 suggest that the U.S. economy may operate at only a 15% energy efficiency. That means, in effect, we waste perhaps 85% of all the energy now burned to support our social and economic well-being. With that magnitude of waste, the use of energy imposes an array of costs which appears, in turn, to constrain the robustness and the sustainability of the economic process.  Indeed, the hugely inefficient use of energy, which drives problems associated with environmental deterioration and greenhouse gas emissions, is also contributing to a weakening of the global economy. By one estimate resource inefficiencies, more generally, may be among the reasons for millions of fewer U.S. jobs created over the next three decades compared to historical trends. In this paper I will explore the implications of how an appropriate accounting of energy as work may impact the need for new research and development, different and more revitalized energy policies, and needed changes in the nation’s educational curriculum.