National Energy Comparison (LA Times, April 9)

• The average California resident uses 40% less electrical energy than the average American.
• A kwh cost the average American 7.5 cents last year.  This will rise to 8 cents by the end of this year and 8.5 cents in 2002.
• As of last October, California averaged 10.7 cents per kwh, placing us ninth, behind leaders Hawaii at 16.8 cents per kwh and New York at 14.1 cents per kwh.
• The average residential customer in California pays $107 per month (new rates or old?).
• The Northwest gets 45% of its electricity from the 29 dams in the Bonneville Power Administration in the Columbia and Snake river basins.  They will be raising their wholesale rates from 95% to 200% in October.
• The Federal government gives the Nortwest rights to shares of BPA, part of which they then wholesale to California at higher rates to keep their own rates down.  Since it is a federal BPA, some are proposing that the shares be sold directly to California.
• DOE national averages of home power usage are:  heating and cooling, 44%; lighting, cooking and appliances, 33%; water heating, 14%; and refrigerator, 9%.
• US Electric Power Generation is generated from 52% coal,  20% nuclear, 16% gas, 7% hydroelectric, 3% oil, and 2% non-hydro renewable.
• For comparison, California electric power sources, are 13% coal, 15% nuclear, 31% gas, 15% hydroelectric, 8% renewables, and 18% imported.
• Total US energy in 2001 is 35% from oil, 29% from natural gas, 22% from coal, 8% nuclear, and 6% renewable.
• The renewable breaks down to 42% hydroelectric, 51% wood and waste, 5% geothermal, and 2% solar and wind.
• The natural gas percentage of US electricity is expected to rise from 16% today to 33% twenty years from now.
• The US consumes nearly 23 trillion cubic feet of natural gas a year, up 21% from a decade ago.
• Nobel Laureate and past director of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, Burton Richter, in LA Times Opinion, May 20, states that the Administration energy plan assumes a 3.5% annual growth rate.  It also assumes that the energy intensity, i.e. the energy needed to produce a dollar of GNP, declines by 1.6% a year.  That leaves a net increase in energy demand of 2% a year.  Compounded over 20 years gives (1.02)^20 = 1.49, or a 50% increase in energy demand over 20 years.  The energy intensity only declined by 1.3% a year between 1986 and 1999.  Since we use twice as much energy per dollar of GNP than Japan, and 1.5 times that of Western Europe, he calls on us to decrease energy intensity by 3% a year.
• The federal government spends about $8 billion per year on energy.
• Renewable sources other than hydropower provide only 2 to 3% of electricity, because of their expense.
• The U.S. has coal reserves in the ground which would last 250 years at its current rate of usage.
• Since the 1970 clean air act, coal use for electricity has tripled, while emissions have dropped 30% (LA Times, May 27).

Data on Electricity in Western States (Sunset Magazine, June 2001)

• States in the hydroelectric Northwest import power from the Southwestern states during their cold winters.
• Southwestern states import from the Northwest during the summer, when coal and nuclear plants cannot meet their demand.
• California imports power mainly from Washington, Oregon, and Arizona.