The “Stuff” of the American Energy Footprint
by Sarah (Steve) Mosko, PhD
Appeared:
- PopularResistance.org, 25 Jun 2013
- E-Magazine as “Buying Season,” 12 Dec 2011
- Vall -E-Vents Sierra Club Newsletter, Sept 2011
- Fullerton Observer as “How to Reduce America’s Energy Footprint,” mid Dec 2010, p.20
- Truthout.org, 14 Dec 2010
- CultureChange.org, 9 Dec 2010
- Surf City Voice as “How to Shrink America’s Energy Footprint,” 5 Dec 2010
Americans today are generally aware that we consume far more energy per capita than most of the world’s peoples, over four times the world average and double that of regions like Japan and Europe which enjoy a similar standard of living. Most of us reflect on home gas and electric bills plus the fuel pumped into our cars’ gas tanks when judging our personl energy footprints.
But in reality it is all the “stuff” Americans accumulate that contributes most heavily to our total energy consumption. To understand why this is true, it is necessary to first get a handle on the ways societies utilize energy.
By convention, the energy-consuming activities of society are divided into the four sectors described below: residential, commercial, industry and transportation. The pie chart below shows the percentage of total U.S. energy delivered in a year to each sector, according to recent U.S. Energy Information Administration figures. Note that the very same pie chart describes the average per capita energy consumption of Americans in the four sectors.
The residential sector reflects the energy used to run our homes (to power lighting, appliances and heating & cooling systems) and, at 15 percent, it is the next to smallest pie piece. At 40 percent, the transportation sector is largest but includes all energy inputted to move both people and goods about, be it by car, truck, train, plane, boat or pipeline. Given that about half this amount goes into shuttling people, this means that personal transportation and running our homes together account for only about 35 percent of the energy we Americans use.
Posted by Sarah (Steve) Mosko 
Boogie Green 