In 2023, the United States produced nearly 22 million barrels of crude oil daily, or around 22% of the global world supply. Watch and get the facts. The more we know, the better voters we can be.
Category
🤖
TechTranscript
00:00Hi, I'm Steve Ballmer.
00:02I spent 34 years growing Microsoft,
00:0510 years owning the LA Clippers basketball team.
00:08I love computers, data, and facts.
00:11That's why I started USAFacts,
00:13to help understand what our government is up to,
00:17and what's going on in America.
00:19I'll share with you the facts and data,
00:22all from our government,
00:24you make up your own mind.
00:26In this episode of Just the Facts,
00:28energy and the environment.
00:32But first, a quick disclaimer.
00:34As I talk, I do a lot of rounding of numbers,
00:38but the data you see on screen will be more exact.
00:41So now, let's roll.
00:44Right now, you're using energy to watch this episode,
00:48and we used energy to make it.
00:50America consumes a lot of energy.
00:53With only 4% of the world's population,
00:56we account for about 16% of global energy use.
01:01We use more energy than any other country except for China,
01:05but it spreads that energy use across a population
01:09four times larger than ours.
01:12The federal government and many state governments
01:15are passing laws and regulations designed
01:17to reduce our use of fossil fuels
01:20and increase renewable energy production.
01:23So what can we learn from the data?
01:25Let's start with energy consumption.
01:28In 2023, America consumed 93.6 quadrillion
01:35British thermal units, or BTUs, of energy.
01:39A quadrillion is a huge number.
01:41It's a one followed by 15 zeros.
01:46It's a million billions.
01:49A BTU measures the heat content of various fuel sources.
01:54A single BTU is about equal to the energy released
01:58by burning a single match.
02:05There's a BTU.
02:10Now, let's look at the energy the average American
02:13uses in our homes each year,
02:15about 63 million BTUs per person.
02:20We use about half of this energy
02:22for heating and air conditioning.
02:24Another quarter is for lighting,
02:26refrigeration, and hot water.
02:29The rest is for powering major appliances
02:32like washers, dryers, televisions, and stoves,
02:36as well as consumer electronics like phones and computers.
02:40As for American electric bills,
02:42the retail price of electricity
02:44and average residential electric bills
02:47have stayed about the same over the last decade
02:51when adjusted for inflation.
02:52For many people I encounter,
02:54the energy price they care about most
02:57is the price of gasoline,
02:59which costs $3.52 a gallon on average in 2023.
03:05For perspective, since 1950,
03:07the lowest Americans ever paid for gas
03:11on an inflation-adjusted basis was $1.98 in 1998.
03:17The highest was $4.88 in 2012.
03:21Remember, it's an average,
03:23so in some places it's more, some it's less,
03:27and all those prices include gas tax.
03:30Overall, the proportion of total consumer spending
03:33spent on energy is lower today than in the past.
03:3840 years ago, total energy costs
03:41accounted for 8% of all consumer spending.
03:45That's recently dropped to around 4.2%,
03:48and frankly, that surprised me.
03:50I did think it would be higher.
03:52Now let's look at how different sectors
03:54of our economy use energy.
03:57Our electric power sector,
03:59that is the utilities and companies that make electricity,
04:03is the biggest energy hog.
04:05It accounts for 34% of all energy use.
04:09But here's a fact that surprised me.
04:12More than half of the energy consumed
04:15is lost in the process of getting that electricity
04:19to the consumer.
04:20The remaining energy is used in three primary ways,
04:25residential, commercial, and the industrial sector.
04:30The other big energy consumer
04:32in our economy is transportation.
04:34Transportation accounts for 30% of all energy consumption,
04:38almost 90% of which comes from gas and diesel fuels
04:43burned by vehicles on the road.
04:45The U.S. has more than 280 million registered vehicles.
04:49Less than 1% of these are electric vehicles and hybrids,
04:53although they comprise over 16%
04:57of all light-duty vehicle sales in the U.S. in 2023.
05:01The industrial sector, which includes manufacturing,
05:04construction, and agriculture, among others,
05:08is the next biggest energy consumer at 28%.
05:1375% of this energy comes from petroleum products
05:18and natural gas and 13% from electricity.
05:22Data centers and artificial intelligence
05:25may increase demand from this sector.
05:28That leaves residential, our homes, at 12%.
05:33And the commercial sector,
05:34which includes places like office buildings,
05:37retail stores, and that all accounts
05:39for about 10% of energy use.
05:43Let's close our look at consumption
05:45by breaking down the kinds of energy we use.
05:48Fossil fuels like oil, coal, and natural gas
05:52still provide most of America's energy needs.
05:5620 years ago, fossil fuels accounted for 88%
06:01of our energy consumption.
06:03In 2023, it was 82% with nuclear power,
06:07accounting for 9%, and renewable energy,
06:11which includes solar, wind, hydropower,
06:14geothermal, and biomass like ethanol, accounted for 9%.
06:20The most significant shift in our energy mix
06:22is the steep drop in coal,
06:25from 37% of America's energy use in 1950
06:29to only 9%, 9% in 2023.
06:34Now let's talk about energy production.
06:37Big picture, America's production of oil,
06:41natural gas, and renewables is growing,
06:44with natural gas growing most of all.
06:47In 1950, natural gas was about 18%
06:51of total U.S. energy production.
06:53In 2023, it was about 38%.
06:57Nuclear production has remained relatively flat
07:01since about 2001.
07:04Renewables are growing fast,
07:05with wind production more than doubling
07:07over the last decade,
07:09and solar growing by a factor of seven,
07:12but they remain a small part of our overall energy mix,
07:16with wind accounting for just 1%, and solar just 1%.
07:21As for oil, U.S. domestic crude oil production
07:25has more than doubled since 2000.
07:28In 2023, we produce nearly 22 million barrels daily,
07:34or around 22% of the global world supply.
07:38We exported an average of 4.1 million barrels daily,
07:42but we also imported nearly 6.5 million barrels a day.
07:48Wait a second, why are we importing energy
07:50and exporting energy at the same time?
07:53Glad you asked.
07:54Depending on where the oil and gas is found in the U.S.,
07:58it may or may not be easily transported, refined,
08:01or processed for U.S. consumers,
08:04and not all oil is alike.
08:07Sometimes it can make sense to ship oil
08:09or natural gas abroad while importing other forms
08:13of oil and gas for use in the U.S. market.
08:16The U.S. is the world's number one producer of oil
08:20and the number one producer of gas.
08:23In 2020, for the first time on record,
08:26the U.S. began a streak
08:28of being a net exporter of petroleum,
08:30and we have been a net exporter of natural gas since 2017.
08:36Through the 2021 Inflation Reduction Act,
08:40the U.S. government now offers an array of tax credits
08:44to incentivize the production of renewable energies
08:47and the adoption of more electric vehicles.
08:51And many states have passed rules requiring their utilities
08:55to produce more electricity from renewable sources.
08:59Shifting gears, let's talk about the environment.
09:03Let's start with good news.
09:05Air pollution levels across the United States are improving.
09:09In the last five years,
09:10major U.S. cities have had two-thirds fewer
09:14unhealthy air quality days than we did two decades ago.
09:19Fantastic.
09:21What about water?
09:23Well, you may have read news stories
09:25about drought conditions in certain parts of the U.S.,
09:28but nationally at least,
09:29the previous 50 years have generally been wetter than average.
09:34In the last century,
09:36the worst periods of drought in the U.S.
09:38were the 1930s and 1950s.
09:41The U.S. is seeing more natural disasters
09:45that cost over a billion dollars of damage,
09:49even after adjusting for inflation.
09:52There have been 39 such disasters between 2023 and 2024,
09:57which is more than there were from 1980 to 1990 in total.
10:04Data shows that the planet
10:05is experiencing higher temperatures.
10:08The Earth's average land and ocean surface temperature
10:12in 2023 set a record at 2.12 degrees Fahrenheit
10:18above the average of the last hundred years.
10:22Global sea levels have risen eight to nine inches since 1880.
10:28The rate in the previous three decades
10:30is nearly double that of the last century.
10:34In 2022, worldwide,
10:36there were 523 particles of CO2
10:41and equivalents from other gases like methane
10:44per one million air particles.
10:48That number was only 388 in 1979.
10:53Increased to 461 in 2004,
10:57and then 478 in 2010.
11:01Greenhouse gases are a global phenomenon.
11:04America's annual greenhouse gas emissions
11:07increased throughout the 90s,
11:09but peaked in 2007,
11:11and actually had declined by 16% by 2022
11:16to about 6.3 million metric tons,
11:19which is the equivalent of nearly 20 Empire State Buildings.
11:24Historically, the United States has admitted
11:27more greenhouse gases per person than any other country.
11:32These gases can stay in the atmosphere from anywhere
11:35from a few years to thousands of years.
11:39But even as our emissions decline,
11:41others are increasing.
11:43Today, China is the world's top source of greenhouse gases,
11:48emitting more than twice as much as the US did.
11:52About 73% of America's greenhouse gases
11:55result from our burning fossil fuels for energy,
11:58with the transportation sector
12:00being the most significant source of these emissions.
12:04Transportation is responsible for 28%
12:07of total greenhouse gas emissions,
12:11followed by electricity generation at 25%,
12:15and the industrial sector at 23%.
12:19The remainder came from residential use,
12:22commercial use, and agricultural emissions.
12:26About 87% of these gases end up in our atmosphere.
12:31The other 13% is sequestered,
12:34or sucked back into the land by forests, plants, oceans,
12:38and various land management practices.
12:41Some, including me, say act aggressively now
12:47on greenhouse gases.
12:48Others say we have time
12:50to let technologies resolve these issues.
12:54Still others reject that there's any problem at all.
12:58Global forces will also impact the picture.
13:02For example, Russia invading Ukraine,
13:05unrest in Venezuela reduced the amount of oil
13:09that the US imported from both countries.
13:12Ultimately, it's up to you to learn the facts,
13:16reflect on varying opinions from scientists and economists
13:20about what might happen, and make up your own mind
13:23what risk we might take for the future
13:27with our kids and grandkids and others who will come
13:31versus the painful issues of today
13:34and the potential in rising energy prices.
13:37This is just the facts from USAFacts.org.
13:41We share the government data.
13:43You decide what you believe.
14:01You decide what you believe.
14:03USAFacts.org