Just the Facts – Energy and the Environment: Steve Ballmer Talks Through the Number - video Dailymotion

Business Insider

In 2023, the United States produced nearly 22 million barrels of crude oil daily, or around 22% of the global world supply. Watch and get the facts. The more we know, the better voters we can be.

Transcript

00:00Hi, I'm Steve Ballmer.

00:02I spent 34 years growing Microsoft,

00:0510 years owning the LA Clippers basketball team.

00:08I love computers, data, and facts.

00:11That's why I started USAFacts,

00:13to help understand what our government is up to,

00:17and what's going on in America.

00:19I'll share with you the facts and data,

00:22all from our government,

00:24you make up your own mind.

00:26In this episode of Just the Facts,

00:28energy and the environment.

00:32But first, a quick disclaimer.

00:34As I talk, I do a lot of rounding of numbers,

00:38but the data you see on screen will be more exact.

00:41So now, let's roll.

00:44Right now, you're using energy to watch this episode,

00:48and we used energy to make it.

00:50America consumes a lot of energy.

00:53With only 4% of the world's population,

00:56we account for about 16% of global energy use.

01:01We use more energy than any other country except for China,

01:05but it spreads that energy use across a population

01:09four times larger than ours.

01:12The federal government and many state governments

01:15are passing laws and regulations designed

01:17to reduce our use of fossil fuels

01:20and increase renewable energy production.

01:23So what can we learn from the data?

01:25Let's start with energy consumption.

01:28In 2023, America consumed 93.6 quadrillion

01:35British thermal units, or BTUs, of energy.

01:39A quadrillion is a huge number.

01:41It's a one followed by 15 zeros.

01:46It's a million billions.

01:49A BTU measures the heat content of various fuel sources.

01:54A single BTU is about equal to the energy released

01:58by burning a single match.

02:05There's a BTU.

02:10Now, let's look at the energy the average American

02:13uses in our homes each year,

02:15about 63 million BTUs per person.

02:20We use about half of this energy

02:22for heating and air conditioning.

02:24Another quarter is for lighting,

02:26refrigeration, and hot water.

02:29The rest is for powering major appliances

02:32like washers, dryers, televisions, and stoves,

02:36as well as consumer electronics like phones and computers.

02:40As for American electric bills,

02:42the retail price of electricity

02:44and average residential electric bills

02:47have stayed about the same over the last decade

02:51when adjusted for inflation.

02:52For many people I encounter,

02:54the energy price they care about most

02:57is the price of gasoline,

02:59which costs $3.52 a gallon on average in 2023.

03:05For perspective, since 1950,

03:07the lowest Americans ever paid for gas

03:11on an inflation-adjusted basis was $1.98 in 1998.

03:17The highest was $4.88 in 2012.

03:21Remember, it's an average,

03:23so in some places it's more, some it's less,

03:27and all those prices include gas tax.

03:30Overall, the proportion of total consumer spending

03:33spent on energy is lower today than in the past.

03:3840 years ago, total energy costs

03:41accounted for 8% of all consumer spending.

03:45That's recently dropped to around 4.2%,

03:48and frankly, that surprised me.

03:50I did think it would be higher.

03:52Now let's look at how different sectors

03:54of our economy use energy.

03:57Our electric power sector,

03:59that is the utilities and companies that make electricity,

04:03is the biggest energy hog.

04:05It accounts for 34% of all energy use.

04:09But here's a fact that surprised me.

04:12More than half of the energy consumed

04:15is lost in the process of getting that electricity

04:19to the consumer.

04:20The remaining energy is used in three primary ways,

04:25residential, commercial, and the industrial sector.

04:30The other big energy consumer

04:32in our economy is transportation.

04:34Transportation accounts for 30% of all energy consumption,

04:38almost 90% of which comes from gas and diesel fuels

04:43burned by vehicles on the road.

04:45The U.S. has more than 280 million registered vehicles.

04:49Less than 1% of these are electric vehicles and hybrids,

04:53although they comprise over 16%

04:57of all light-duty vehicle sales in the U.S. in 2023.

05:01The industrial sector, which includes manufacturing,

05:04construction, and agriculture, among others,

05:08is the next biggest energy consumer at 28%.

05:1375% of this energy comes from petroleum products

05:18and natural gas and 13% from electricity.

05:22Data centers and artificial intelligence

05:25may increase demand from this sector.

05:28That leaves residential, our homes, at 12%.

05:33And the commercial sector,

05:34which includes places like office buildings,

05:37retail stores, and that all accounts

05:39for about 10% of energy use.

05:43Let's close our look at consumption

05:45by breaking down the kinds of energy we use.

05:48Fossil fuels like oil, coal, and natural gas

05:52still provide most of America's energy needs.

05:5620 years ago, fossil fuels accounted for 88%

06:01of our energy consumption.

06:03In 2023, it was 82% with nuclear power,

06:07accounting for 9%, and renewable energy,

06:11which includes solar, wind, hydropower,

06:14geothermal, and biomass like ethanol, accounted for 9%.

06:20The most significant shift in our energy mix

06:22is the steep drop in coal,

06:25from 37% of America's energy use in 1950

06:29to only 9%, 9% in 2023.

06:34Now let's talk about energy production.

06:37Big picture, America's production of oil,

06:41natural gas, and renewables is growing,

06:44with natural gas growing most of all.

06:47In 1950, natural gas was about 18%

06:51of total U.S. energy production.

06:53In 2023, it was about 38%.

06:57Nuclear production has remained relatively flat

07:01since about 2001.

07:04Renewables are growing fast,

07:05with wind production more than doubling

07:07over the last decade,

07:09and solar growing by a factor of seven,

07:12but they remain a small part of our overall energy mix,

07:16with wind accounting for just 1%, and solar just 1%.

07:21As for oil, U.S. domestic crude oil production

07:25has more than doubled since 2000.

07:28In 2023, we produce nearly 22 million barrels daily,

07:34or around 22% of the global world supply.

07:38We exported an average of 4.1 million barrels daily,

07:42but we also imported nearly 6.5 million barrels a day.

07:48Wait a second, why are we importing energy

07:50and exporting energy at the same time?

07:53Glad you asked.

07:54Depending on where the oil and gas is found in the U.S.,

07:58it may or may not be easily transported, refined,

08:01or processed for U.S. consumers,

08:04and not all oil is alike.

08:07Sometimes it can make sense to ship oil

08:09or natural gas abroad while importing other forms

08:13of oil and gas for use in the U.S. market.

08:16The U.S. is the world's number one producer of oil

08:20and the number one producer of gas.

08:23In 2020, for the first time on record,

08:26the U.S. began a streak

08:28of being a net exporter of petroleum,

08:30and we have been a net exporter of natural gas since 2017.

08:36Through the 2021 Inflation Reduction Act,

08:40the U.S. government now offers an array of tax credits

08:44to incentivize the production of renewable energies

08:47and the adoption of more electric vehicles.

08:51And many states have passed rules requiring their utilities

08:55to produce more electricity from renewable sources.

08:59Shifting gears, let's talk about the environment.

09:03Let's start with good news.

09:05Air pollution levels across the United States are improving.

09:09In the last five years,

09:10major U.S. cities have had two-thirds fewer

09:14unhealthy air quality days than we did two decades ago.

09:19Fantastic.

09:21What about water?

09:23Well, you may have read news stories

09:25about drought conditions in certain parts of the U.S.,

09:28but nationally at least,

09:29the previous 50 years have generally been wetter than average.

09:34In the last century,

09:36the worst periods of drought in the U.S.

09:38were the 1930s and 1950s.

09:41The U.S. is seeing more natural disasters

09:45that cost over a billion dollars of damage,

09:49even after adjusting for inflation.

09:52There have been 39 such disasters between 2023 and 2024,

09:57which is more than there were from 1980 to 1990 in total.

10:04Data shows that the planet

10:05is experiencing higher temperatures.

10:08The Earth's average land and ocean surface temperature

10:12in 2023 set a record at 2.12 degrees Fahrenheit

10:18above the average of the last hundred years.

10:22Global sea levels have risen eight to nine inches since 1880.

10:28The rate in the previous three decades

10:30is nearly double that of the last century.

10:34In 2022, worldwide,

10:36there were 523 particles of CO2

10:41and equivalents from other gases like methane

10:44per one million air particles.

10:48That number was only 388 in 1979.

10:53Increased to 461 in 2004,

10:57and then 478 in 2010.

11:01Greenhouse gases are a global phenomenon.

11:04America's annual greenhouse gas emissions

11:07increased throughout the 90s,

11:09but peaked in 2007,

11:11and actually had declined by 16% by 2022

11:16to about 6.3 million metric tons,

11:19which is the equivalent of nearly 20 Empire State Buildings.

11:24Historically, the United States has admitted

11:27more greenhouse gases per person than any other country.

11:32These gases can stay in the atmosphere from anywhere

11:35from a few years to thousands of years.

11:39But even as our emissions decline,

11:41others are increasing.

11:43Today, China is the world's top source of greenhouse gases,

11:48emitting more than twice as much as the US did.

11:52About 73% of America's greenhouse gases

11:55result from our burning fossil fuels for energy,

11:58with the transportation sector

12:00being the most significant source of these emissions.

12:04Transportation is responsible for 28%

12:07of total greenhouse gas emissions,

12:11followed by electricity generation at 25%,

12:15and the industrial sector at 23%.

12:19The remainder came from residential use,

12:22commercial use, and agricultural emissions.

12:26About 87% of these gases end up in our atmosphere.

12:31The other 13% is sequestered,

12:34or sucked back into the land by forests, plants, oceans,

12:38and various land management practices.

12:41Some, including me, say act aggressively now

12:47on greenhouse gases.

12:48Others say we have time

12:50to let technologies resolve these issues.

12:54Still others reject that there's any problem at all.

12:58Global forces will also impact the picture.

13:02For example, Russia invading Ukraine,

13:05unrest in Venezuela reduced the amount of oil

13:09that the US imported from both countries.

13:12Ultimately, it's up to you to learn the facts,

13:16reflect on varying opinions from scientists and economists

13:20about what might happen, and make up your own mind

13:23what risk we might take for the future

13:27with our kids and grandkids and others who will come

13:31versus the painful issues of today

13:34and the potential in rising energy prices.

13:37This is just the facts from USAFacts.org.

13:41We share the government data.

13:43You decide what you believe.

14:01You decide what you believe.

14:03USAFacts.org

Just the Facts – Energy and the Environment: Steve Ballmer Talks Through the Number

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