Re:How America Became an Economic Superpower
by maxerickson on Thursday December 25, 2014 @09:45AM
(#8796308)
There are strong confounding factors. Gasoline is something like half of U.S. petroleum consumption:
http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/pet_sum_snd_d_nus_mbbl_a_cur.htm
The vehicle fleet has been significantly improved in the period you are talking about:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/12/13/c...
So even though petroleum consumption has been flat or whatever, miles driven have expanded by ~2x:
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/M12MTVUSM227NFWA
I doubt it's as noticeable, but housing and appliances have also improved over that period (the average energy efficiency of newer buildings is probably the biggest effect, but better appliances and lighting probably manage to show up).
Re:How America Became an Economic Superpower
by rgbrenner on Thursday December 25, 2014 @05:20AM
(#8795965)
If that graph was cumulative, it would appear much flatter. Here are the actual numbers:
http://www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data/monthly/pdf/sec1_3.pdf
Decline after 2004? sure.. it went from 100 quadrillion Btu to 97 in 2013.
Solid economic growth in the 70ies, then a big dip around 1980, a smaller around 1988, then solid growth in the 90ies until around 2004. Then decline. I would trust this model much more than any government announced GDP growth.
Reminds a little bit to Sow jet Russia. They had a tractor manufacturing plant with state given output increases they had to match. They were not able to fulfill the quota but since output (like many other things) were measured in "tons of tractors produced" the solution to the problem was easy. While they did not produce more tractors, the tractors became heavier and heavier every year...