2007 was the peak year for electricity consumption by US industry. Unlike financial or corporate profit data electricity use shows actual US industrial activity. It is not a pretty picture.
Consumption dropped two percent the next year then dived another 9% during the 2009 financial crash. It edged up some during the Obama administration, but has never fully recovered. Last year was the second largest decline this century. It dropped 50 trillion Kilowatt Hours from 2015 (4%).
There is real economic hardship for the families that depended on the industrial economy. Our industry is disappearing. The higher paying jobs have disappeared. The choice in the last election was framed for many as having a narcissistic liar as a president or being broke and homeless. Food and housing trumps politics when people are made desperate .
Some states are well on their way to complete deindustrialization. Connecticut, Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Tennessee all use 30% to 40% less electricity for manufacturing last year than in 2007.
Of the ten heaviest users of industrial electricity only Louisiana used more power in 2016 than 2007. In 2007 Louisiana was still reeling from the effects of Hurricane Katrina.
STATE (BY iND. ENERGY USE) |
pERCENT DECLINE 2007 TO 2016 |
tEXAS |
3.3% |
cALIFORNIA |
1.3% |
OHIO |
20.1% |
pENNSYLVANIA |
3.6% |
iLLINOIS |
7.3% |
iNDIANA |
17.1% |
LOUISIANA |
(19.2%) |
ALABAMA |
10.0% |
GEORGIA |
7.5% |
MICHIGAN |
11.7% |
Of the dozen states with increases in the last decade only the Dakotas’ have seen more than a 20% rise.
Electricity use in the US has not increased in the last decade. This might seem like a problem for increased revenue. There is a plan to reform this program. It is underway especially in states like Texas and Pennsylvania. Through it residential customers have chosen to transfer over $5 billion dollars from themselves to companies and the rich. Instead of the socialist ideas like the Rural Electrification Administration and Universal Service, the electric grid is becoming a machine to transfer wealth from the poor to the Job Creators. Ah but that is another story.