Map Of US States Compares Energy Use With Foreign Countries

Twisted Kidney said:
The issue is not the energy we consume but how we produce it.

All the money we spend trying to make scientists fake the evidence to support a politically motivated regressive tax could be used to fund real energy research.
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Fixed that for ya boss!
 
We probably should factor in the environment of Texas as compared to, say, Germany.
If you live in Texas, you're going to need an air conditioner, much more so than an average German resident. That's not an excessive usage of electricity, but I imagine that it adds quite a bit to the "per-capita-electrical usage" of Texas.
 
The sheer amount of self-loathing in this thread is pathetic.

God forbid we live like kings because of the sacrifices of our fathers, their fathers and their father's fathers... and of course mothers too.

You guys/gals/its that live here in the greatest damn country on God's Green Earth are complaining about using so much energy need to realize just how good you've got it and stop complaining, or move out and come to regret it.
 
'47 Knucklehead said:
That's because many US states are the SIZE of many countries.

germany.png
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Irrelevant, population density is much lower in the US. Energy consumption is higher here due to an affluent lifestyle full of unnecessary gadgets and conspicuous wastage.
 
My cell phone uses more power than North Korea..that doesn't make me an energy hog.
 
Energy usage is a sign of prosperity. The more energy I consume, the happier I am, because I'm probably doing something fun and/or useful with it.
 
temujin987 said:
this guy gets it. i have no idea what they teach in US schools... also, texas has 28 mn people which is only a third of germany so that image comparing size is just laughable. it's about population, not the size of the country. the U.S. does use way too much energy per capita.
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Define "too much". And do it in a way that doesn't use arbitrary figures and definitions.

Look at HOW the energy is consumed. It's not just 300 million people watching TV and surfing porn all day.

The US supports some very large, energy-intense businesses.

Are you REALLY going to damn the US because Google uses more power than A. Random Pig Farmer in northern Germany someplace?
 
Elios said:
this

unless people WANT to drink wash and bathe in the same water they shit and piss in...
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Technically, since water on this planet is a nominally closed system, EVERYONE on the planet drinks, washes and bathes in the same water EVERYONE pisses and shits in.

The only difference is the amount of filtration it receives before moving into the potable water system.
 
///AMG said:
Well its hot down here and I use A/C all the time, I cant live without A/C down here like some of you guys up there and Germany.
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Exactly. It's one thing to be TOLD about a 35.5C (96F) day. It's another to actually experience one.

It's *QUITE* another to LIVE in a part of the world where the AVERAGE temperature is 35.5C for MONTHS ON END with some days being as high as 41C (106F). That kind of weather can KILL people, as unventilated, buildings with no air conditioning would become ovens.
 
SvenBent said:
- No using energy saving and long lasting light bulbs.
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Telling people they can "save money" by replacing their cheap lightbulbs with $6-a-pop LED bulbs is a tough sell up-front.

In time, as incandescent production drops and mainstream fixtures turn exclusively to LED, it'll become more evident.


- People watering in the middle of the day where the suns takes it biggest toll on watering effectiveness
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This is changing though. I know of several communities that have rigorously curtailed daytime watering, with the sole exception in some cases being foundation hydration (to keep from cracking the foundations).

- I have yet to meat one person that knows preheating, for the most part, is unneeded in cooking.
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Well you obviously need to lay your slab with a better group of people.
Also, without a more specific example of where preheating isn't necessary, this is simply a pointless gripe.

- People think they are recycling persons when they just recycle soda cans.
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So, because you have run into a group of imbeciles in your area, the entire place is like that?

I seriously doubt that.

As for quality of life. I think you'll find the median quality of life in Texas is actually better than most of the places you'd compare it to if you got down to the brass tacks.
 
techrat said:
Texas/Population
26.96 million (2014)

Brazil/Population
200.4 million (2013)

So. Texas being the size of many other countries, with 1/10th the population, justifies it being a power hog?

We're a wasteful country and the longer people resist changing over to more energy efficient devices and renewable resources... the more it's going to hurt.
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We're only wasteful if you look at the idiotic "Total Power Consumption ÷ Population = Individual Power Consumption" equation.

This totally ignores governmental and business power consumption factors altogether.

And while most people breath "renewables" like it were some panacea. Guess what. It ain't.

Guess who the biggest lobby for solar and wind are?

Your gas company. Why? Because all of these new "solar" and "wind" power sites going in are hybrid sites. Solar AND natural gas. Wind AND natural gas. And, with the cyclical nature of solar and wind generation, you DAMN BET a SIGNIFICANT chunk of the time, power is actually coming from a natural gas fed turbine instead of solar or wind.

But hey, natural gas is clean right? No, not really. It's lower CO2 than other sources, but not zero.

Also, there tend to be LOTS of messes when the fracking used to retrieve the gas causes earthquakes.

What this country NEEDS to do is start a comprehensive nuclear power program again.

Then, using renewables and power storage to handle demand peaks, we can continue on in an energy independent manner to see if something like fusion will eventually be a viable power technology.

We can then tell the coal, oil, and other non-reneable power industries to collectively eat a dick.

Doing that on a local level would eventually free up the capital to make a REAL nationwide power grid a viable endeavor.
 
sfsuphysics said:
That said, it says something about their power consumption if they need to do shit like this to get power in the first place
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Actually, it says something about their infrastructure (which is ridiculous).
I have a friend in Argentina, and there are places like this as well.
His sister lives and runs a business out of a place that is tapped into three separate power lines. None of it conforming to even LOCAL code, and all of it unsafe.

One of the taps comes into the house after:

  • Running across a galvanized steel corrugated roof
  • Wrapping around a set of steel window bars
  • Comes into the building through a hole that was just broken into the wall below the bars, which are on a child's bedroom

Most of the wiring is so old (and has been painted and walled over) that the insulation is falling right off, leaving bare wire everyplace.

When his greedy, cheapass sister begged him to come and help fix some of it, he started out with a 160 feet of to-code wire. He got to the end of that supply, and his system decided that was enough.

So he finished up what he could and that was that. And she got more for her money than if she'd paid one of the crooked contractors in her country 100x as much.
 
Chas said:
Are you REALLY going to damn the US because Google uses more power than A. Random Pig Farmer in northern Germany someplace?
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I don't really want to get involved in the nationalistic dick measuring contest that's starting to break out in this thread, but you're delusional if you think Germany is some backwater. It's just a technologically advanced as the U.S. and probably has a healthier manufacturing sector all things considered.
 
who measures energy consumption in BTU?
 
drako said:
I don't really want to get involved in the nationalistic dick measuring contest that's starting to break out in this thread
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The only one waggling their wang in this discussion between you and me is yourself.

And this is why.

but you're delusional if you think Germany is some backwater. It's just a technologically advanced as the U.S. and probably has a healthier manufacturing sector all things considered.
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I didn't SAY Germany was a backwater.

I asked if you were really going to damn the US because GOOGLE uses more than a random pig farmer from Germany's pork production region does?

Now, had I replaced GOOGLE with "BMW", would THAT have soothed your nationalistic fervor?

My *POINT* was...that simply dividing a country's energy usage by populace results in a number that has exactly ZERO value. Because it doesn't take into account MANY other aspects of energy usage.
 
Texas is also the only state that has its own power grid and produces the majority of power it uses so whether it is used or wasted shouldn't concern those who live elsewhere. We like our air conditioning and Friday Night Lights but powering the vast petrochemical complexes that produce gasoline and other by-products for the rest of the US doesn't come cheap or free--those places run 24/7. Also producing and transporting those same resources has a price tag.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_...2003/08/why_texas_has_its_own_power_grid.html
 
I'm doing my part, electrical bill minimum of $250, heating and cooking is propane. I'm trying to squeeze more kWh in, but it's getting harder with all these damn energy efficient bulbs.
 
This thread gets better the longer it goes.

People bitching about wasteful energy consumption on an ENTHUSIAST gaming forum. Most of us here have gaming rigs that definitely do not contribute to the 'efficient energy consumption'.

The irony is real, lol.
 
nutzo said:
However, the high costs and regulations are turning the state into a 3rd world cesspool.
The inland areas are starting to look like the poor areas of Mexico and central America.
If you are in the middle class, its a struggle to afford a place to live, and if you can manage that, good luck affording to run the Air Conditioner.
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Yeah I'm going to disagree with your reasoning there as to why it's looking like a 3rd world cesspool. It's more to do that inland areas used to be farmland, which traditionally uses people from where? Oh hey Mexico and central America as an extremely cheap labor force. Now if you're saying the whole rules about not being able to treat them like slaves being a reason, then yeah sure you may have a point on that, but is it really a bad thing? The inland areas have typically been the conservatives too, and now that they found they can cash out big time by selling their land and having it be turned into make shift suburbs of various cities, they're getting rich in a hurry and leaving.
 
One thing that has been mentioned on this thread but isn't being given enough weight is climate. A large part of the USA is colder in the winter time and hotter and more humid in the summer time than compared to mainland western European countries such as France and Germany. Heck you could even include the UK, Italy, and Spain in that list. A lot of rich gulf countries have higher energy consumption than the USA and that is probably almost entirely due to the extremely hot summers.
 
Residential is the minority of energy consumption just like personal transportation.

Industrial is the largest chunk. "Green" idiots like to focus on residential and personal vehicles and the vast majority of the gains are to be made elsewhere.
 
sfsuphysics said:
Yeah, although the US isn't the largest energy users per capita, that distinction goes to Iceland
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That's because electricity is so cheap (geothermal) that a lot of aluminium smelting is done there. Just one of the aluminium plants uses a quarter of the countries electricity.
 
Chas said:
Now, had I replaced GOOGLE with "BMW", would THAT have soothed your nationalistic fervor?

My *POINT* was...that simply dividing a country's energy usage by populace results in a number that has exactly ZERO value. Because it doesn't take into account MANY other aspects of energy usage.
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lol, nationalistic fervor. I live in Colorado. Your comparison didn't make much sense. I agree with your second sentence, but it was not clear at all from your post that I replied to.
 
Sigh, this useless drivel that is only intended to stir up low information activists.

California:
Population: 30,000,000
Living in Poverty: 5,000,000
Private nonfarm establishments: 874,243
Total number of firms: 3,425,510
Internet Users: 29,758,896

Mexico:
Population: 120,000,000
Living in Poverty: 54,000,000
Internet Users: 50,923,060
Registered businesses: 68,666

Can anyone figure out WHY mexico uses less power? Anyone? Shall we just remove all those businesses to make it more fair?
 
drako said:
lol, nationalistic fervor. I live in Colorado. Your comparison didn't make much sense. I agree with your second sentence, but it was not clear at all from your post that I replied to.
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Of COURSE the comparison doesn't make sense!

You take the energy consumption of a company like Google. Data centers and tons of IT workers, and work-campuses, etc...

And you have the comparatively meager energy consumption of a random pig farmer in BFE.

But that's what the original math (and some people here), and hell, these idiots at power companies who send you notices on your power consumption compared to your neighbors are trying to do!

"Franz the pig farmer uses only 500 KWH a day! Google uses 100 MWH a day! Google is WASTEFUL!"

Never mind that Google has 57,148 employees (I Googled it!) at the moment, and multiple data centers around the world providing 24/7 services to millions of people.

I'm sure if you woke Franz up at 2AM looking for REALLY fresh bacon, he'd be a little pissed...
 
Taldren said:
Sigh, this useless drivel that is only intended to stir up low information activists.

California:
Population: 30,000,000
Living in Poverty: 5,000,000
Private nonfarm establishments: 874,243
Total number of firms: 3,425,510
Internet Users: 29,758,896

Mexico:
Population: 120,000,000
Living in Poverty: 54,000,000
Internet Users: 50,923,060
Registered businesses: 68,666

Can anyone figure out WHY mexico uses less power? Anyone? Shall we just remove all those businesses to make it more fair?
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SHHHH! You'll bollox up the eco-rhetoric!
 
Chas said:
Telling people they can "save money" by replacing their cheap lightbulbs with $6-a-pop LED bulbs is a tough sell up-front.

In time, as incandescent production drops and mainstream fixtures turn exclusively to LED, it'll become more evident.
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Except it's not always that easy out here in a short sighted nanny state like California.

Years ago they mandated florescent lights as the main lights in kitchens.
Some people didn't like the old florescent tube lights, or the slow startup of the compact florescent lights.
So, they would install can lights, install the compact florescent bulbs, wait until it passed inspection, and then swap out the bulbs.
So, to stop this, some cities started requiring special fixtures that would only take special florescent bulbs. So now these people can't simply switch to LED bulbs, they would have to rip out the old fixtures and install new ones.
Very dumb, and very California
 
nutzo said:
Except it's not always that easy out here in a short sighted nanny state like California.

Years ago they mandated florescent lights as the main lights in kitchens.
Some people didn't like the old florescent tube lights, or the slow startup of the compact florescent lights.
So, they would install can lights, install the compact florescent bulbs, wait until it passed inspection, and then swap out the bulbs.
So, to stop this, some cities started requiring special fixtures that would only take special florescent bulbs. So now these people can't simply switch to LED bulbs, they would have to rip out the old fixtures and install new ones.
Very dumb, and very California
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EVERYTHING that California's done, with regards to their power infrastructure and planning has been dumb, when it hasn't been outright criminally insane.
 
Chas said:
Of COURSE the comparison doesn't make sense!
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But for your point to be accurate, you still have to prove that the energy difference between Germany and an equivalently-sized U.S. state is due to a disparity in high-energy industry/business, which you haven't done. My contention was that there are plenty of high-energy point sources in Germany (BMW to use your example). So why the difference? It could just be that German individuals and companies are both more energy efficient than their American counterparts. I don't know if that's the case without spending a few hours researching it, but it's a logical possibility.
 
Why is this even a legitimate discussion? You cannot have a standard of living and the way of life we have in the US without this level of energy production and consumption. Do people not fucking get that through their thick fucking SJW skulls? Fuck.
 
That infographic is pretty much wrong. I lived in Texas once and they barely have basic utilities in most places there plus there's hardly any educated people in a position to do something about it as, if they're smarter, they'll have been scared off by the self-called native Texans who think the pinnacle of life is driving a huge pickup truck to Walmart to buy a new TV since they "Daggum had ta take the last one out n' shoot it cause it weren't workin' no more."
 
Methadras said:
Why is this even a legitimate discussion? You cannot have a standard of living and the way of life we have in the US without this level of energy production and consumption. Do people not fucking get that through their thick fucking SJW skulls? Fuck.
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Sorry, but this is either blatantly idiotic or just pure trolling.

I DO agree that the standard of living of a country has a direct relationship with the level of energy consumption, but stating that it would not be possible to have the same standard of living whilst reducing said energy consumption is... well, I'm hoping you've realised yourself how silly that statement is.

Germany has a higher standard of living than the US, according to most sources, and yet their energy consumption adjusted for population is way, waaaay lower. I live in the country and I can tell you that having been often in the US it is very much a cultural and attitude difference.
 
techrat said:
Texas/Population
26.96 million (2014)

Brazil/Population
200.4 million (2013)

So. Texas being the size of many other countries, with 1/10th the population, justifies it being a power hog?

We're a wasteful country and the longer people resist changing over to more energy efficient devices and renewable resources... the more it's going to hurt.
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You're talking straight from your knee-jerk anti-Americanism, and not fact. The US makes far, far more efficient use of energy than ANY 3rd world country. What matters is not the energy use per capita but what is produced with that energy.

In you're little mind, a sheepherder living in a cave who's only energy use is a few burning twigs is somehow "more efficient" than the "energy hog" American farmer who produces enough food to feed 2000 people.
 
Chas said:
Wow. Stereotype much?
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No, not at all. I've seen it myself and it's utterly disgusting to watch. Yeah, there's some of that kinda mindset in other parts of the US and it's pretty awful to see how far and wide it's spread, but I think Texas is sort of a focal point for it because other states, like say Pennsylvania with a substantial number of people who speak with their own weird redneck patterns and live around fields covered in cow poop, have major cities with infrastructure, access to basic medicine (rather than fear of it as a source of government control like Texans do with immunizations) and educational institutions that teach the wealthy who then influence lower class society through their social improvement programs and by simply being good role models for the alcoholics, gun owners, and illegal drug users out there.
 
focbde said:
Sorry, but this is either blatantly idiotic or just pure trolling.

I DO agree that the standard of living of a country has a direct relationship with the level of energy consumption, but stating that it would not be possible to have the same standard of living whilst reducing said energy consumption is... well, I'm hoping you've realised yourself how silly that statement is.

Germany has a higher standard of living than the US, according to most sources, and yet their energy consumption adjusted for population is way, waaaay lower. I live in the country and I can tell you that having been often in the US it is very much a cultural and attitude difference.
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Yeah, energy consumption in Germany vs the US is "way, WAAAY lower". Of course, that's simply not true but it suits the "truth" you "feel" so I suppose I shouldn't challenge your America bashing.

The US uses less energy per person than Luxembourg, Iceland, or Canada, for instance. When you factor in the FAR greater distances that are necessarily traveled in a much larger and less densely populated country and the need to provide cooling in regions far hotter than anything in Germany and the difference in per capita usage evaporates.

Again though, please don't let any of this interfere with your strident ignorance, I wouldn't want you to be unhappy by forcing you to face the facts in context, and not some cherry picked statistics for the sake of dramatic effect.
 
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