12,133 -- per capita annual electricity consumption (kilowatt-hours) in the U.S. in 1997 1,381 -- per capita annual electricity consumption (kilowatt-hours) in the rest of the world in 1997 21.5 -- percent increase in U.S. electricity consumption from 1990 to 1999 43 -- percent decrease in utility funding for energy efficiency from 1993 to 1998 90 -- percent of total U.S. coal consumption used to generate electricity in 1998 33 -- percent of all mercury emissions in the U.S. that came from coal power plants in 1999 30,000 -- number of lives cut short in the U.S. each year due to pollution from electric utilities 37 million -- number of cars necessary to produce the amount of smog-forming pollution that comes from U.S. coal power plants each year 7.5 -- percent of total U.S. energy consumption from renewable sources in 1998 94 -- percent of total U.S. renewable energy consumption from hydropower and bio-mass (trash and wood incinerators) $216.7 billion -- revenue of the U.S. electric utility industry in 1999 $124 billion -- approximate combined revenues of all the governments in Africa 90 -- percent of total electricity used by a standard incandescent lightbulb that is wasted as heat 1,000 -- reduction in pounds of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere by replacing one incandescent lightbulb with a compact fluorescent bulb, over the bulb's lifetime Statistics and sources are available at: http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/counter/counter031601.stm Louis Proyect Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org
