August 03, 2020
By:
Walter G. Wright
Category:
Arkansas Environmental, Energy, and Water Law
Arkansas Environmental, Energy, and Water Law
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The United States Energy Information Administration (“EIA”) issued a July 29th report stating that consumption of energy in the United States in April 2020 was the lowest since September 1989.
The United States consumption of 6.5 quadrillion British thermal units was 14 percent lower than in April 2019.
The 14 percent decrease between April 2020 and April 2019 was described as the largest year-over-year decrease in EIA’s monthly total energy consumption since 1973.
EIA also describes consumption rates for various fuel types, including:
- Petroleum consumption
- Decreased from 20.1 million barrels per day in April 2019 to 14.7 million barrels per day in April 2020
- Lowest monthly petroleum consumption since May 1983
- Stay-at-home orders and other travel limitations are referenced as key factors
- Natural Gas
- Consumption in April 2020 was 74.9 billion cubic feet per day which constituted a two percent increase in consumption from 73.5 billion cubic feet per day in April 2019
- In contrast to petroleum, residential consumption of natural gas is stated to have been positively affected by stay-at-home orders
- Coal consumption
- Fell to its lowest point in EIA’s monthly records in April
- 27.4 million short tons of coal consumed in April 2020 was 27 percent less than the 37.4 million short tons consumed in April 2019
- Electricity end-use consumption
- Totaled less than 269 billion kilowatthours
- Four percent decrease from April 2019
- Lowest level since November 2001
A link to the EIA report can be found here.
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