Giant Sucking Sound: 2007 Energy Counter
(Update: We've created a better version of this here.)
Look how much we're spending on oil and gas in the Northwest states:
|
||||||||||
If you have javascript enabled on your computer, you should be seeing the year-to-date totals rack up, at a pretty astonishing rate -- about $19.2 billion per year.
Of course, the counter above assumes that energy spending patterns will be the same in 2007 as in 2006. So far, that doesn't look too far off the mark.
The detailed breakdown:
- The Northwest's energy spending set a new single-year record in 2006. Adjusting for inflation, the $19.2 billion we spent to import petroleum and natural gas last year was up 13 percent over 2005 -- which was itself a record.
- Oil and gas import spending totalled $10.9 billion in Washington; $6.1 billion in Oregon; and $2.2 billion in Idaho.
- We spent about $14.8 billion on oil, and $4.4 billion on natural gas.
- Per capita spending in the region averaged $1,660. (Just to be clear, that includes spending by industry, government, and businesses, as well as household and personal spending.)
- Adjusted for inflation, per capita spending was nearly as high as it was at height of the last big price spike, in the early 1980s.
And a final note: these figures don't include taxes, refining, marketing, and so on. It's just the cost of the raw commodities -- that is the amount that refineries pay to have crude oil delivered to them, and that utilities and other big gas users pay at the "city gate" for natural gas.
Comments
Add a Comment