Dear Senior Executives in the Energy Information Administration, There is one, and only one, Unit of Energy, acceptable for all forms of physical or chemical energy, in the twenty first century.
This Unit of Energy is the "joule" symbol "J" for any and all forms of energy. Typical decimal multiples are the kilojoule (kJ), the megajoule (MJ), the gigajoule (GJ), the terajoule (TJ), etc. This "International System of Units" (SI) and its decimal multiples, is fully documented in NIST Special Publication 811. Older units of measurement, from outside the SI, are *defined* in SP 811, as non-decimal multiples of SI Units, which can be applied as conversion factors. As an emeritus professor from the College of Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, I request that the EIA adopt the SI in all its reporting documentation. e.g. In a column of numerical values expressed in SI Units of Measurement in all tables and in single statements of energy from any source; coal, oil, gas, nuclear, etc., in any amounts, by appropriate prefixes. Eugene A. Mechtly Cell Phone: 217 688 2626 Internet: mech...@illinois.edu
