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United States energy history in two charts

February 20, 2023

One striking feature of the nation’s energy use is the substantial increase in the quantity consumed, from about 0.3 exajoules (EJ) in 1780 to about 100 EJ in 2007. Energy use in 2000 was nearly ten times as great as it was in 1900, and in 1900 it was eighteen times as great as it was in 1800. The secular increase in energy use was driven by increases in population, economic growth, affluence, and technology. The impacts of major geopolitical and economic events are clearly visible: the Great Depression, major recessions, world wars, the oil price shocks of the 1970s and 1980s, and the COVID-19 pandemic.

What is the relationship between energy use and economic output?

November 10, 2022

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) measures the dollar value of the final goods and services produced in a country.  Changes in GDP are the most widely used indicator of a country’s overall economic health. There four components of GDP: Data Metadata PNG Dividing a country’s GDP by its population is a common way to measure the average level of material affluence

Can releases from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve lower energy prices?

November 10, 2022

In March 2022 President Biden announced that he would authorize the release of up to 180 million barrels of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to help lower gasoline prices in the wake of market disruptions caused by the Russia-Ukraine War.1 Can such action lower prices at the pump? Let’s take a look. What is the Strategic Petroleum

Does more energy use raise incomes?

October 17, 2022

In another article, I explored the relationship between per capita energy use and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita, the latter being the most common metric of material well-being. Here I use another measure called Gross National Income (GNI) which calculates income instead of output. Gross national income is defined as GDP plus abroad compensation of employees who are residents, property

United States energy history in two charts

February 20, 2023

One striking feature of the nation’s energy use is the substantial increase in the quantity consumed, from about 0.3 exajoules (EJ) in 1780 to about 100 EJ in 2007. Energy use in 2000 was nearly ten times as great as it was in 1900, and in 1900 it was eighteen times as great as it was in 1800. The secular increase in energy use was driven by increases in population, economic growth, affluence, and technology. The impacts of major geopolitical and economic events are clearly visible: the Great Depression, major recessions, world wars, the oil price shocks of the 1970s and 1980s, and the COVID-19 pandemic.

What is the relationship between energy use and economic output?

November 10, 2022

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) measures the dollar value of the final goods and services produced in a country.  Changes in GDP are the most widely used indicator of a country’s overall economic health. There four components of GDP: Data Metadata PNG Dividing a country’s GDP by its population is a common way to measure the average level of material affluence

Can releases from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve lower energy prices?

November 10, 2022

In March 2022 President Biden announced that he would authorize the release of up to 180 million barrels of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to help lower gasoline prices in the wake of market disruptions caused by the Russia-Ukraine War.1 Can such action lower prices at the pump? Let’s take a look. What is the Strategic Petroleum

Does more energy use raise incomes?

October 17, 2022

In another article, I explored the relationship between per capita energy use and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita, the latter being the most common metric of material well-being. Here I use another measure called Gross National Income (GNI) which calculates income instead of output. Gross national income is defined as GDP plus abroad compensation of employees who are residents, property

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License: Unless otherwise noted, all visualizations, data, and stories produced by Visualizing Energy are open access under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). This means that you have permission to copy, transform, and redistribute the material in any medium, provided the source and authors are credited.

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