National Energy Foundation

National Survey Question of the Week!

🚧 Before any digging project, underground utility lines need to be marked. Who do you call?

The answer is 811.

In NEF's 2025 National Energy Literacy Survey, many high school seniors didn't know this. Some guessed 911. Some guessed the local utility. Some had no idea.

It seems like a small thing until it isn't. A missed call to 811 can cause gas leaks, power outages, serious injuries, even fatalities. It's one of the simplest, most life-protective pieces of energy safety literacy a person can have.

NEF's Energy Safe Kids program covers exactly this kind of practical, real-world safety knowledge with students from the earliest grades. Habits start early.

Full survey: nef1.org/dashboard-2025

National Survey Question of the Week!

❓ Quick: which of these is NOT something a smart meter can do?

a) Show detailed electricity-use patterns
b) Help consumers manage use remotely
c) Help utilities better manage supply
d) Save energy without any behavioral action

The answer is (d). Smart meters don't save energy on their own. They give people the information to make better decisions, but the savings only show up when behavior changes.

This was one of the trickier questions on NEF's 2025 National Energy Literacy Survey, and it's a great example of how technology literacy and energy literacy overlap. Tools don't change outcomes. People do.

NEF programs help students see that connection clearly.

Full survey: nef1.org/dashboard-2025

National Survey Question of the Week!

🤔 Try this on a high school senior: "Define energy."

The textbook definition: the ability to do work.

In NEF's 2025 National Energy Literacy Survey, plenty of students mixed it up with electricity, fossil fuels, or just "power." Those answers aren't wrong in casual conversation, but they suggest energy is being learned as a word, not as a concept.

That distinction matters. Once a student understands energy as the ability to do work, every related idea (efficiency, conservation, transformation, sources, careers) starts to make more sense. That's the foundation NEF programs are built on.

Full survey: nef1.org/dashboard-2025

National Survey Question of the Week!

📊 NEF's 2025 National Energy Literacy Survey identified four student engagement profiles. Only 24% of students fall into the "Agent of Change" category: engaged, knowledgeable, and ready to act.

The other three groups break down like this:
• 25% see energy as important but aren't sure what to do
• 19% talk about energy but won't change their behavior
• 31% are neutral, disconnected, or unengaged

That's a sizeable gap between attitude and action. The good news: when students get real, applied education early, the engaged group grows. That's what NEF programs are designed to do.

Full survey: nef1.org/dashboard-2025'

Heading into the long weekend, a quick fact worth knowing.

Roughly a quarter of all U.S. energy consumption goes to transportation. Every road trip, every cookout drive, every fireworks-display logistics run. Energy is what makes the long weekend possible.

It's also why understanding energy isn't optional anymore. The students in K-12 classrooms today will spend their adult lives making decisions about how that quarter of the energy pie gets used, sourced, and shared.

Energy literacy isn't equally distributed.

NEF's 2025 National Energy Literacy Survey found that students from lower-income households consistently score lower on energy knowledge and have experienced slower recovery from pandemic-era learning gaps. That gap shows up later as fewer career opportunities, fewer informed energy decisions, and less confidence to engage with the issues shaping every community's future.

Closing it takes intention: strong school partnerships, programs designed for the communities that need them most, and industry partners who invest in equitable access, not just visibility.

NEF works with schools and partners to bring high-quality energy education to all students, including those most often left behind.