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January 19, 2009

Is that a useful comparison?

The plain truth is that the United States is an inefficient user of energy. For each dollar of economic product, the United States spews more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than 75 of 107 countries tracked in the indicators of the International Energy Agency. Those doing better include not only cutting-edge nations like Japan but low-tech countries like Thailand and Mexico.

Energy is expensive. Your marginal product of labor (your productivity) has to be high to justify using a lot of electricity in that work. In poor countries employers make heavy use of labor intensive processes that do not use nearly as much machinery and therefore electricity as workers in the west would use doing the same job. Our climate is less moderate than many other nations, requiring air conditioning over much of the warmer months and heating in the cool ones. Also, because we are richer, we have bigger houses, more ipods, and in general use more electricity for personal consumption.

Therefore, it isn't a surprise we use more energy than less productive nations, poorer nations, or ones in nicer climates. That probably still doesn't explain why Japan uses less energy per capita than we do. They probably care more about energy efficiency than we do (although their houses are small). However, comparisons with Mexico and Thailand which are both far poorer, less productive, and in many ways in more moderate climates are unhelpful in understanding what America's energy policy should be.

Posted by OneEyedMan at January 19, 2009 7:52 AM

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