Bob Higgins <rj.bob.higg...@gmail.com> wrote: It seems to me that another factor in the decline has been the decline in > manufacturing in the USA. >
U.S. manufacturing is at record highs. Manufacturing employment is down, and the U.S. fraction of world manufacturing is down, but in absolute terms it is higher than it has ever been. It is even higher when you include things like mining and agriculture. Manufacturing energy use is down, along with all other sectors such as residential. This is because of improved efficiency. See: https://www.eia.gov/consumption/manufacturing/ Residential: https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=6570 Natural gas is by far the most used fuel in manufacturing. See Fig. 2 (click to enlarge it): https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/index.cfm?page=us_energy_industry#tab2 Electricity and net electricity (including co-gen) have not changed as a percent of the total, but like all sources they have fallen. > . . . but in the USA the manufacturing has been slowly and consistently > trickling to the far east for many years, gradually reducing the electrical > demand. > No, it has not trickled anywhere. As I said, and as these graphs show, it is at record highs. It would be higher still if some of it had not gone to China. None has gone to Japan in recent decades. That is to say, no more than was there in 1980. On the contrary, more Japanese companies now manufacture in the U.S. Total primary energy consumption is down. https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=30652 Coal has fallen off a cliff. Other sources are down except renewables and natural gas. The Trump administration is working overtime to reverse these trends, mainly by curtailing efficiency, especially in transportation, and by trying to subsidize coal. That plan fell through, for now. See: http://www.newsweek.com/trumps-own-picks-block-his-subsidies-coal-power-plants-775460 After President Donald Trump promised to bring back “beautiful” coal power plants, a group of his appointees ruled against the idea Monday on the grounds that subsidies that would favor struggling plants would interfere in energy markets. Trump appointed four of the five officials that sit on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission who rejected the plan Secretary of Energy Rick Perry submitted in September, arguing it would discriminate against producers of other sources of energy. . . . Wind and natural gas employ far more people than the coal industry, so I cannot understand why the administration is so anxious to promote coal at the expense of these other sources, but it is. It is "at the expense" of other sources because net energy use will continue to decline inexorably, despite Trumps efforts to gut efficiency standards and stop efficiency R&D. If the U.S. does not make more efficient cars and refrigerators, others countries will. The administration's plan to gut the Energy Star program has run into problems. A thousand manufacturing corporations protested. "Trump's plan for Energy Star sparks industry uproar" http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/374940-trumps-plan-for-energy-star-sparks-industry-uproar - Jed
