Please read the following quoted remark from Ausubel (1996) very carefully:

Segments of the energy economy have advanced impressively toward local ceilings of 100 percent efficiency. However, modern economies still work far from the limit of system efficiency because system efficiency is multiplicative, not additive. In fact, if we define efficiency as the ratio of the theoretical minimum to the actual energy consumption for the same goods and services, modern economies probably run at less than 5 percent efficiency for the full chain from extracting primary energy to delivery of the service to the final user. So, far from a ceiling the United States has averaged about 1 percent less energy to produce a good or service each year since about 1800. At that pace of advance, total efficiency will still approach only 15 percent by 2100 . Because of some losses difficult to avoid in each link of the chain, the thermodynamic efficiency of the total system in practice could probably never exceed 50 percent. Still, in 1995 we are early in the game.

Ausubel is clearly indicating the tremendous potential for energy saving that the US economy should expect to have from advances in technology in the future Given what you have learned about the second law of thermodynamics, are you at ease with Ausubel's optimistic assessment of the energy availability in the US? Explain.