Americans increase overall pace of decarbonization, but state trends vary

Newswise — In 2023, Americans reduced their consumption of electricity and fossil fuels, while increasing consumption of carbon-free energies, according to the most recent energy and carbon flowcharts released by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL).

Each year, LLNL releases these flowcharts to illustrate the nation's consumption and uses of energy, as well as associated CO₂ emissions. Overall, Americans consumed slightly less energy (approximately one percent) than in 2022, but – unlike the last time this happened during the COVID pandemic – this decrease did not occur due to an economic downturn. The US gross domestic product (GDP) actually increased in 2023 by 2.9%, indicating that the US economy increased its overall energy efficiency from 2022 to 2023.

“From 2020 to 2022, energy consumption in the US increased year-over-year as the economy bounced back to pre-pandemic levels,” said Hannah Goldstein, co-principal investigator for the LLNL Energy Flow Charts. “Now that energy demand has stabilized nationally, we are able to observe the nation’s decarbonization trends more clearly.”

The decrease in electricity demand was more pronounced in the residential sector with a drop of 5%, followed by the commercial and industrial sectors, each with a 3% decrease. Fossil fuel inputs to these end uses stayed relatively consistent, except for coal, whose consumption decreased by 17% (1.7 quadrillion BTUs); nuclear, solar and biomass energy consumption increased by approximately 1% each.

A BTU, or British Thermal Unit, is a unit of measurement for energy; 3,412 BTUs is equivalent to 1 kilowatt-hour, which is the amount of energy it takes to light an efficient LED lightbulb for a week. 

State decarbonization trends more nuanced

While the United States, overall, is actioning on its decarbonization goals, the 2022 flowcharts for the 50 states illustrate more nuanced journeys.

“When we compared 2022 to 2021 energy data for states individually, there were two trends repeated across the country that highlighted the significant impact that individual power generating stations can have,” explained Ziad Ammar, engineer for the Energy Flow Charts. “We first observed 11 states that consumed less fossil energy and increased their consumption of non-fossil energies, suggesting a trend toward decarbonization.”

“In contrast, however, another 11 states consumed more fossil energy, and their fossil-free energy decreased,” said Kimberley Mayfield, co-principal investigator for the flowcharts. “Of the 11 states whose non-fossil energy consumption decreased, 10 were caused, in large part, due to a closure or pause in nuclear power availability. These closures or pauses in nuclear electrical generation were then offset by an increase in natural gas use to meet each state’s energy needs.”

Both observations from the state flowcharts are visualized in the maps below. For greater detail, access the U.S. state flowcharts directly online.

Flowcharts from 2015 updated

Alongside the annual update to the 2023 national and 2022 state-by-state flowcharts, LLNL also updated all its flowcharts dating back to 2015 to be in alignment with the U.S. Energy Information Administration, who recently updated their calculation methods for primary energy consumption of electricity from non-combustible renewable energy sources.

“This was a massive undertaking to update all national and state flowcharts dating back to 2015,” Goldstein said. “If you have energy or carbon flowcharts downloaded from previous years, feel free to delete those and re-download those on the website now because they’re all new.”