New information has been released from the US Department of Energy on the consumption of energy in the United States over the past year. The results are certainly worth pondering and are certainly due to a combination of a variety of factors, but the net results show a DECREASE in energy usage overall.

Energy consumption is generally measured by the amount of energy produced by the various providers throughout the country. The net generation in the US dropped overall by 6.8 percent between June 2008 and June 2009.

Consumption of coal for power generation was down 11.8 percent this June compared to last.

Despite this, the average retail price of electricity for June 2009 was 1.0 percent lower than the same time last year.

Of course there are many factors involved in these statistics, which only show a snapshot of the bigger picture of energy consumption in our country. But wouldn’t it be great to think that as more and more of our citizens become re-aware of the literal value of electricity, that we once again are beginning to conserve it, rather than squander it away?

Pinellas County Extension is involved in the development of an Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy for our county. Once this strategy has been completed we will be eligible for more of the ARRA (stimulus) funds to implement energy conservation measures throughout the county.

Pinellas County Extension plans on using some of the funds to develop an educational program that will provide citizens not only information about energy conservation in the home, but actual materials to make those changes.

There will be more on this later, but we just thought we’d give you a heads-up to stay tuned!

Reference:
US Energy Information Adminsitration

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