Got BTU? Accounting for America’s Energy and GDP

This is an interesting chart and concept that the writer brings up regarding the usage of energy here in the US.  There is no doubt that higher mileage vehicles, alternative energies, and other conservation measures have all played a role in the reduction.  As we have reduced our energy consumption or more specifically oil, how much of that has been because the products we buy are manufactured abroad now?  


From the post

• It was not just cheap labor that OECD countries have sourced in the developing countries. It was the cheaper BTU, primarily coal, burned with little regulation and little regard for the environment, that we in the West now exploit. And so you have to ask yourself a question: what if America was forced to produce GDP with the full and accurate accounting of our total energy consumption, repatriated from its “externality?” What would the calculation, in the above chart, show? Well, the answer is certainly not lower, than 9% of GDP. 

 

We have had numerous discussions and posts regarding this very topic in the manufacturing of goods abroad,   .increased productivity in the US which could have the potential of reducing energy usage, and the overall decline in US manufacturing.  Visit our main website and search for productivity to find all of our posts.