Is Energy Education Grounded in Reality? New Research Suggests Otherwise

What students are taught matters. This is especially true for energy—an input fundamental to every activity, product, or service in society. Yet a new survey of top U.S. university curricula reveals that energy education is heavily focused on climate aspirations rather than energy realities.

We examined more than 1,400 energy courses across the top 50 U.S. universities. The results are unambiguous: most courses are focused on of energy policies directed at abandoning fossil fuels to reduce CO2 emissions—not to understand the nature and role of the existing energy systems that power the economy.

Seventy-one percent of courses have a climate-centered objective. Wind, solar, and geothermal dominate the course descriptions. Fossil fuel technologies—responsible for more than 80% of global energy—are entirely absent from the top ten energy technologies across all the courses. Yet, oil, gas, and coal, are the backbone of modern civilization.

This isn’t just an academic issue. It has real-world consequences. Students are graduating with deep gaps in understanding how energy is produced, delivered, and used leaving them unprepared to make sound decisions whether in business or government domains.

If we want serious solutions to our energy and environmental challenges, we need to start with facts.

Education is meant to equip people with both knowledge and tools to operate in the real world. Ignoring the central role of fossil fuels in global energy doesn’t prepare students—it misleads them and fuels a kind of energy illiteracy. It’s good to have aspirations. It’s important to have knowledge too.

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