China Passes U.S. as World's Biggest Energy Consumer

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: The Wall Street Journal.

BUSINESS JULY 19, 2010, 9:26 A.M. ET

By SPENCER SWARTZ
China, powered by years of rapid economic growth, is now the world's biggest energy consumer, knocking the U.S. off a perch it held for more than a century, according to new data from the International Energy Agency.

The Paris-based agency, whose forecasts are generally regarded as bellwether indicators for the energy industry, said China devoured 2,252 million tons of oil equivalent last year, or about 4% more than the U.S., which burned through 2,170 million tons of oil equivalent. The oil-equivalent metric represents all forms of energy consumed, including crude oil, nuclear, coal, natural gas and renewable sources such as hydropower.

The figures reflect, in part, how the global recession hit the U.S. more severely than China and hurt American industrial activity and energy use. Still, China's total energy consumption has clocked annual double-digit growth rates for many years, driven by the country's big industrial base. Highlighting how quickly its energy demand has increased, China's total energy consumption was just half the size of the U.S. 10 years ago.
....

The U.S. is still by far the biggest energy consumer per capita, with the average American burning five times as much energy annually as the average Chinese citizen, said {IEA chief economist Fatih Birol}, who has been in his current role for six years.

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703720504575376712353150310.html?ru=yahoo

[dkf]

1. Wow that was fast

[proteus_lives]

5. But not surprising.

300 million energy users vs. a billion energy users.

[brandus01]

6. rounding error

I noticed you said one billion, when it is actually 1.3 billion. In other words, the entire population of the US is a rounding error.

[iamthebandfanman]

2. good thing they are leading us on green energy too then eh ? lol n/t

[snooper2]

3. I guess we won't see that "we use the most energy" line anymore

Kind of amazing...didn't know they were even that close

[Romulox]

4. "Free trade" = we export pollution to the third world. nt

[mr clean]

7. "We export pollution to the third world" and they(China) sends it right back in sheet-rock and toys.

[Romulox]

10. Freeing us up from the drudgery of all those good paying manufacturing jobs.

It's a win-win-win!

[MellowDem]

8. This doesn't have to do with free trade....

This is China industrializing all on its own. We didn't export the pollution. They created it themselves.

[Romulox]

9. Any time you feel tempted to say "X doesn't have anything to do with Y", stop, and reflect.

There are few things in this world that truly "don't have anything to do with one another". In this case, China's massive trade deficit with the US does indeed have something to do with China's growing economic clout. :hi:

[MellowDem]

11. I understand the general rule...

but the idea that the US can, once again, be blamed for everything is where the premise goes wrong. Some people take your logic to an irrational conclusion that the US is responsible for everything, at least everything negative in the world. In this case, free trade with the US causes the US to export pollution. Considering the US is still using ever more resources itself, I don't know that we are exporting the overuse of resources and the resulting pollution. I think China's own domestic policies can be blamed for their own pollution over there. It's not exported, it's homegrown. So in that sense, free trade has nothing to do with us exporting pollution, since we aren't actually exporting pollution in the first place. Trying to couch pollution in terms of trade (exporting) is where it goes wrong. It tries to excuse China while blaming the US.

[Romulox]

15. I didn't mention "everything"--I mentioned pollution.

The US has exported its pollution (along with its industrial base) to China. Outsourcing is so potent a weapon in the quiver of corporations and governments precisely because places like China are industrial waste free-fire zones.

This is basic, observable reality.

[MellowDem]

16. Ah, so the Chinese didn't build their industrial base...

we "exported" it. It is observable reality that China has built their own industrial base. Outsourcing is a tool of corporations. So blaming the US for it doesn't make any sense. Why do governments want to outsource exactly? You act as if there is some finite pool of pollution and industrial base that just gets traded around, but the truth is that much more of both have been created.

And I was referring to others that like to relate the US to everything, not you specifically.

[brandus01]

12. you mean, "trade surplus with the US"

[Romulox]

14. Just so. nt

[Rex]

13. Yaaaay America is number 2! We are number 2!

Rah rah America, we are number 2!! Can I get a big foam hand with the L sign please.