Please have your dessert before your veggies

Bobby Kennedy Jr. recently made his way to Ft. Collins, Colorado to give a talk about the green energy future. While I did not attend, I got a report of him saying that you need to "eat your veggies before your dessert." He was referring to installing solar electric panels as being your dessert, and creating an energy efficient building as your vegetable. This logic did not quite sit right with me. I know his commitment to a new natural capital economy is pure but his take on the energy efficiency vs. renewable energy debate is a little cloudy.
Here is my way of thinking (and in the spirit of Mr. Kennedy, let me use analogies). Energy is the glue of civilization. Without it we will quickly fall apart. The environment is the bank account of civilization. You cannot over draw without severe penalties, and the interest on debt is compounded. So to resolve the toxic effects of the glue we need to create new formulations that do not withdrawal nearly so much from the environment. We are simply attempting to replace one glue formula with another. Mined carbon with solar and other renewables. This is environmentally important, but certainly not a dessert, we are just replacing one electron with another as the end user.
Energy efficiency is the other hand to renewable energy if you want applause for a natural economy (to throw another analogy into the conversation of course). Without efficiency we are never going to achieve a balance in our closed loop environment. While energy efficiency may be Kennedy’s vegetable, to me it is the dessert. When it comes to building for instance, nothing is sweeter than a well designed and built shelter that is comfortable, naturally lit and ventilated, and affordable to run. While your solar panels are sitting on the roof making some electrons, you efficiency efforts are rewarding you with comfort and financial stability. The solar panels are more like an appliance, or in this conversation, the vegetable.
So with all respect to Mr. Kennedy and the tremendous work and leadership he is displaying with his involvement in the new “green” economy, I would ask him to reconsider his view of energy efficiency.