Americans Using More Energy Than Ever — Energy Use In The US Still Growing Rapidly

[unhappycamper]

http://cleantechnica.com/2014/04/08/americans-using-energy-ever-energy-use-us-still-growing-rapidly/

Americans Using More Energy Than Ever — Energy Use In The US Still Growing Rapidly


Americans are using more and more energy every year, according to the most recent energy flow charts released by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Across the board, more energy of every type — everything from renewables, to fossil fuels, to nuclear — is being used. In 2013, Americans used over 2.3 quadrillion thermal units more than in 2012.



That is some very notable growth in energy usage — something that is a real problem when you consider the fact that regardless of any technological improvements that may occur (or may not) in the near-future, energy use will have to decrease to some degree or other with the increasing scarcity of economically recoverable fossil fuels. Also, switching to renewable sources of energy isn’t enough on it’s own to limit carbon emissions to a large enough degree to mitigate severe climate change — decreased energy use would be a requirement — so to see energy use of all types is not decreasing, but actually increasing, is a worrying (though not at all surprising) trend.

The Laboratory has also provided a companion chart that illustrates the nation’s growing energy-related carbon dioxide emissions — carbon dioxide emissions in 2013 in America rose to over 5,390 million metric tons, the first increase since 2010.

[cantbeserious]

1. Not Related To Vehicles - Vehicle Miles Traveled Still Flat - Marginal Growth

eom

[Yo_Mama]

2. I doubt it, really

Except for the spike caused by the coldest weather in about 100 years this last winter, electric/gas utility consumption has been essentially flat for years:
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/IPUTIL

Total petroleum use is down, more comparable to that of the mid 1990s:
http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=WRPUPUS2&f=W

We produce more, but we export more. That includes kerosene, jet fuel, diesel, gasoline, etc.

The average US household just can't afford to use energy like it used to do. That's a very pretty graph, but I can't find the missing energy it says we are consuming in the economy.

[GliderGuider]

3. Fossil-fuel substitution is going to be a slow process.

Last edited Thu Apr 10, 2014, 11:07 AM - Edit history (2)

About 60% of the world's end-use energy is from fossil fuels that are used in applications that can't readily be substituted by electricity (transportation, space heating, industrial uses).

This means that even if we magically switched all possible end-use energy from fossil fuels to to low-carbon electricity today, we would still be generating 15 gigatonnes of CO2 annually. That's the same amount as in 1970, when we were already in trouble.

Of course we won't do that. The world's need for energy to sustain economic output is simply too crucial to permit the abandonment of fossil fuels in the short term. That means that low-carbon electricity will be added to fossil-fuel electricity for some period of time, rather than displacing it. Once the gradual abandonment of fossil-fuel electricity becomes both economically and politically practical on a global scale (say by 2040), we could be burning twice the amount fossil fuels we do today.

It's time to come to terms with the idea that CO2 levels in the atmosphere could double before we do anything significant about slowing their growth. Our desperate desire to maintain the world's economy, capital infrastructure and standards of living mandate the consumption of ever-increasing amounts of energy, much of which will inevitably come from fossil fuels over the short and medium term.

Despite the best efforts of the renewable power industry, 500 pm CO2 seems entirely probable by 2050 - even without counting other GHGs, let alone methane feedbacks. CO2e levels of 600 ppm are likely when other GHGs are included, and methane feedbacks could add another 100 to 200 ppmv equivalent. We could be blowing over 750 ppmv of CO2e within 35 years.