Digital SAT Reading and Writing Practice Question #641

English economist William Stanley Jevons argued in the 19th century that technological improvements that increase the efficiency of resource use tend to increase—rather than decrease—the rate of consumption of that resource. For example, more fuel-efficient steam engines led to greater total coal use because coal became a dramatically more cost-effective energy source for a much wider array of industries. Modern environmentalists often worry that a similar paradox will undermine efforts to reduce global energy consumption through the development of highly efficient household appliances. Which finding, if true, would most strongly suggest that the Jevons paradox will NOT fully apply to modern household energy consumption?