The term Energy Accounting refers to a system of resource allocation proposed by Technocracy Incorporated in the U.S. The system has its basis within the thermodynamic interpretation of economics. All human economic activity requires energy. All this energy can be accounted for when we wish to produce goods or monitor resources. In an energy accounting system, the amount of energy needed to produce an item is counted. Thus, the production capacity can be defined in terms of energy and its relation to available resources.
With the sum total of all the energy needed to produce goods known, it is then possible to allocate an equal share of the production capacity to each citizen. In the original proposal put forward by Technocracy Inc, each citizen would receive paper certificates which they could be used to allocate production capacity to produce goods they desire, within an ecologically sustainable context. In a more modern system, the certificates could be replaced by a computer accounting system where each person’s allocation is refer to as energy credits.