Consumption, U.S. energy

From the onset of the Depression (1929) to the beginning of World War II (1941), petroleum s share of total U.S. energy consumption continued to expand, from 24 percent to more than 34 percent (while natural gas increased its share from 8 to 11 percent). Coal continued to lose share in the nation s energy output, from 62 percent to 54 percent. Over the same period, output of motor fuel, while not matching the growth of the previous decade, nevertheless continued its upward trend, from 256.7 million barrels to 291.5 million barrels. 

Nearly twice as much commercial energy is used for processing than for production of food. About 4.8% of the total U. S. energy consumption is used for processing crops and animals into food (1976), as compared to 2.9% for production of that food (Table II). 

Cuellar and Webber (2008) estimated that manure from 95,000,000 animal units (1000 pounds of animal) in the United States could produce approximately 1% of total U.S. energy consumption. Conversion of the biogas into electricity could produce 2.4 0.6% of annual electricity consumption with reduction of 3.9 2.3% of annual GHG emissions from electricity generation in the United States. 

Each year the U.S. consumes almost 200 billion gallons of gasoline, diesel fuel and other transportation fuels for road travel. This is about 20% of total U.S. energy consumption. When travel by air, water, and rail is added, including pipelines energy, total transportation energy rises to almost 30% of U.S. energy consumption. 

Despite the fact that coal reserves in the United States are sufficient to last for hundreds of years, coal consumption in the U.S. now accounts for only 18 percent of our total energy requirements. Even more surprising is that the recent U.S. Bureau of Mines study of "Energy Through the Year 2000" predicts that coal will account for only 21 percent of the total U.S. energy consumption by the year 2000 compared with 18 percent in 1975. By the year 2000, according to the Bureau of Mines, oil and gas are expected to supply only 44 percent but nuclear power is expected to account for 28 percent of the total U.S. energy consumption by the end of this century up from about 2 percent in 1975. 

Figure 3, U.S. energy consumption in the 20th century, quadrillion Btu...

Fossil fuels, namely oil, coal, and gas, provide 85% of all the energy used in the United States. Renewable energy sources supply just 8%, most of which comes from hydropower and the burning of biomass while only 4% comes from geothermal sources. Fig. 2 shows the history and projections of the U.S. energy consumption by fuel sources for the period of 1970-2020. 

Fig. 2 U.S. energy consumption by fuel sources past, current, and future forecast. Unit used is in quadrillion BTUs. (U.S. Department of Energy,1999.) (View this art in color at www.dekker.com.)...

U.S. energy consumption slowed down in the 1970s and 1980s, as manufacturers introduced more efficient appliances. Even so, by the late 1980s, Americans consumed more petroleum than Germany, Japan, France, Italy, Canada and the United Kingdom combined. 

The mean global energy consumption rate in 1998 amounted to 12.8 TW (383 quad/year),1 of which only 10 percent was used for electricity (Figure 5.1). Oil, gas, and coal constitute almost 80 percent of this total energy consumption. The mean U.S. energy consumption rate in 1998 was 3.3 TW (99 quad/year), 15 percent of which was used to generate electricity. 

Figure 1.1 shows the U.S. energy consumption, production, and imports for 1973—1994. During this period, the lowest production was recorded in 1975 at 59.86 quadrillion Btu, whereas the highest production was realized in 1990 at 67.85 quadrillion Btu. For the same period, the U.S. consumption ranged from 70.52 (1983) to 85.57 (1994) quadrillion Btu, whereas the lowest and highest energy imports were recorded at 12.03 (1983) and 22.58 (1994) quadrillion Btu, respectively. From the statistics, one can also observe that... 

U.S. energy consumption by industry sector. (Energy Information Administration). 

U.S. energy consumption by fuel. (From USEIA, Annual Energy Outlook 2008 with Projections to 2030, U.S. Energy Information Administration, Washington, E>C, 2(X)8 www.eia.gov/oiaf/aeo/ pdf/0383(2008).pdf.)... 

Source USEIA, U.S. Energy Consumption by Energy Source, U.S. Energy Information Administration, Washington, DC, 2010 (www.eia.gov/ cneaf / alternate /page / renew energy consump / tablel. html). 

The industrial sector-which includes energy used to produce everything from jigsaw puzzles to jumbo jets-accounts for 32% of U.S. energy consumption, while the transportation sector-which includes energy used to power cars, trucks, airplanes, and other forms of transportation-accounts for 28%. The residential... 

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