The answer to your question is "no", but it misses the point. Of course it's not possible to create economic value without using energy, because living require

The answer to your question is "no", but it misses the point. Of course it's not possible to create economic value without using energy, because living requires energy, and dead people don't spend money, except on cemetery plots. However, "haggling over efficiency" is the entire economy. Basically all of the interesting questions are about trade-offs needed to produce goods & services more efficiently.