The gas fees don't really correlate to any energy usage. They're actually a fee for computation on the block. It's no different than the Bitcoin miner fee, except it's based upon how much code is being included and the current network demand. It still blows my mind people think it is acceptable that the network eat their transaction fee if the transaction doesn't go through, especially when these fees are so high (as if now it can cost $2k to do any sort of NFT stuff).

Imagine sending $100 to your mom with your bank and then the bank charges you $2,000 and then the transaction doesn't go through because someone sneezed on the keyboard at the bank and forgot to press send and then the bank keeps the $2000 and your mom doesn't get the $100. Only in this case they didn't sneeze on the keyboard, the transaction calculation actively changed to be $3000 and if only you had $3000 in your account your transaction would've gone through so it's your fault your bank didn't have enough money to send your mom $100.