US Energy: Source to End-Use

Maybe my perceptions are incorrect on this point, but my sense is that a lot of people believe that the US economy is making strong progress toward clean non-carbon energy, driven by increases in solar and wind power. I don’t see it that way. My own reading of the evidence is that the solar/wind presence in the US energy sector is barely getting underway, with some high hurdles to come. For an overview, here’s a figure showing the US energy sector from the the US Energy Information Administration website. The left-hand categories show the primary sources of energy. Electricity is not a “primary” source, because it needs to be generated from the primary sources, but instead is a method for transmitting energy. Thus, the electricity sector in shown in the bottom center. The main sectors of energy use are on the right. Some thoughts from this figure: 1) In 2025, after several decades of discussion of risks of climate change and the need to reduce carbon emissions, fossil fuels are 81% of…