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Comment by gregwebs | Hacker News Reader

Where are you getting your data from? I see here [1] that energy usage is static now (but not since 2000), but it is not declining. But that means it is declining per capita. But again, I would like to see manufacturing outsourcing taken into account.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_in_the_United_States

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In 2020, total energy consumption was significantly below 2010, which was my original claim. In 2020, total energy consumption was far below 2000 as well. Total energy consumption declined. Continually saying "where are your sources" when they're the canonical sources of a simple Google search doesn't make my statement untrue.

"But again, I would like to see manufacturing outsourcing taken into account."

Groan. This is going down that incredibly boring path where someone must "win" however strained and nonsensical their argument becomes.

Every developed nation has effectively capped energy usage and started to reduce it (despite continuing population growth). Every developing nation is starting with a much better foundation where they have extremely competitive options that aren't the catastrophe that prior ones were.

Thanks for editing to cite your sources. They seem to show a slight increase in energy usage since 2010. You must be using 2020 pandemic data as your comparison which is very misleading. But 2018 is the same as 2007, so I think it is fair to call energy usage flat.

But the entire point of the chart in my original comment is that even if members of the developed world are reducing energy usage and lowering carbon emissions (which is at best marginally true of the US), the rest of the world by definition is more than making up for it whether or not they are also using renewables as well.

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