Mainstream economic education often treats energy as a static variable rather than a volatile driver of systemic risk. The government’s insistence on maintaining “calm markets” masks the reality that inefficiency is an invisible tax on the poorest households. In the classroom, we need to stop teaching energy consumption as a purely linear demand curve.
By integrating “Exergy” (the quality of energy) into standard economic models, we can teach students to see wasted heat as a loss of national wealth. Reframing efficiency as a matter of fiscal conservatism, rather than just environmentalism, is the key to breaking the political deadlock on building regulations.