Coal in
the U.S.
... Energy usage increases dramatically ... but coal usage does not
... here are the numbers ==> |
The total amount of energy
used in the U.S. has dramatically increased since
1910 --- from 17 exajoules per year to 89 exajoules per year
--- mostly due to an increasing population.
However, the annual use of coal in the U.S. has hardly changed in the same interval. Through almost an entire century with a nearly tripling population, the use of coal has varied only by a factor of two. In 1932, during the Depression, we used about 10 exajoules from coal, which was lower than the 14 EJ used in 1910 and the 18 EJ of 1917. In 1993, we used 14 EJ, and in 1994, 20.5 EJ |