Waste

A good friend from California from time to time bemoans what he believes to be others' wasteful lifestyles. Waste is, well, waste, and most of us with limited personal resources waste not, so that we want not. Much of his complaint focuses on wasteful energy use, which he also believes contributes to climate change, a topic for another post. This post will not change my friend's energy sensibilities. Rather, it adds specifics to broaden one's view of U.S. energy consumption.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, beginning back in the early 1970s the price of a barrel of crude oil (after adjustment for currency depreciation) was about $12 in 2005 dollars. For comparison, in 2005 the price was about $51 a barrel and rising. Today the price is about five times that early 1970s price, after adjusting for inflating. The reasons for that historically high price might be the subject of another post. For the moment, we'll stick to my friend's notion of a wasteful energy consumer.

First, let's look at how much energy each American uses in a year. The DOE's Energy Information Administration tabulates that in 1950 each of us (in our homes, transportation and jobs) used some 220 billion BTUs per person. Energy consumption increased rapidly during the 1960s and into the late 1970s to near 360 billion BTUs per person. Since then, over 30 years, annual energy consumption has fallen to 340 billion BTUs per person, even as we built many new homes, bought many new cars, and with the use of air conditioning and massive water infrastructure built large cities in once barren U.S. deserts to accommodate strong population growth as well as migration from east to west.

How was this seemingly contradictory event possible? Many factors contributed, including the rising real cost of energy as the world's energy politics complicated energy supply among more bidders in a rapidly developing world. That historical development continues, to the great improvement of the human condition virtually everywhere on the planet. For example, the number of families cooking their breakfast over a fire fueled with dried dung decreases every day.

The increased price of energy was a large factor in falling U.S. energy consumption as energy consumers found ways to make their energy dollar go further. For example, citizens and businesses began to employ more capital to build better processes and things that used less energy. The extra capital cost was offset by energy savings. Indeed, the U.S. has been so successful in reducing its consumption of energy that we consume just 8 thousand BTUs to make a dollar of Gross National Product, down from 18 thousand BTUs per dollar in 1970, and 20 thousand BTUs in 1950. For comparison, a gallon of heating oil contains about 140,000 BTU. And that decreasing trend continues today, driven largely by energy costs.

Is my friend right to be concerned about energy waste? Of course. However, and despite our energy-rich lifestyles, each citizen uses less energy today than the citizen of the 1970s, and our growing population and its capital continue to foster an unprecedented decrease in the personal consequences of energy waste.