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I disagree with your analysis. By not charging the ratepayers for the external costs, you reduce the incentive to conserve. Thereby driving the cost up for everyone. Here in southern California we have tiered rates for residential electric consumption to encourage conservation.I get really tired of this one as well--(and the percentage is falling quickly as China rapidly moving to become king of the energy use hill). Our energy use per person is about the same as Canada and Australia. Not too far above Germany. Big, developed nations, use energy. Its why they are developed. The larger the physical size of the country, the more energy necessary to move people and goods. The more industry that resides within the country, and the more that raw materials are mined, processed, and used within a country, the higher the energy use. Switzerland seems to use no energy--but it lives off the energy burned in France, Germany and Italy. You also have population density and (more to your point) life-style differences. If all Americans would put their family of four into a 1000 square foot apartment, with that apartment stacked on top of and surrounded on all sides by other such apartments--sure the energy usage would drop.
US energy policies have led to profligate consumption of energy. We have about 5% of the world's population, yet we consume 25% of the world's energy resources.