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Trivia Tidbit Of The Day: Part 481 - Energy Intensity.

America Is Actually Pretty Energy Efficient-

People tend to complain about America's environmental record, but few of those same people are willing to acknowledge that America is actually quite a bit more energy efficient than it was many years ago. Instead, we hear that the environment is constantly getting worse in every way, that we are consuming perpetually more energy with no end in sight, and that we ought to be ashamed for civilization itself.

Relative to 1910, though, the picture gives us reason for optimism:

America produces more energy with less carbon dioxide. Meanwhile, our economy has far outpaced both energy production and carbon dioxide production. America is not some terrible laggard:

...the United States is currently outperforming Europe in reducing energy intensity (the amount of energy used per unit of economic output) and greenhouse gases. According to the Department of Energy's latest annual report on the subject, U.S. greenhouse gas emissions fell by 1.5 percent in 2006, the first time they have fallen in a nonrecessionary year. It is likely that the United States is the only industrialized nation whose greenhouse gas emissions fell in 2006.

This also helps to explain why, despite truly record oil and gas prices (even adjusted for inflation), our economy has hung in there as well as it has. We're simply less energy intensive than we used to be, and most of these improvements can be chalked up to consumer and business preferences and behavior, not government mandates. In this era, strong economies no longer mean environmental distress; today, strong economies are closely associated with environmental protection.

Previous Trivia Tidbit: Mugabe's Zimbabwe.

Posted by Will Franklin · 26 March 2008 07:23 PM

Comments

Posted by: Chief RZ at March 29, 2008 08:53 AM