<[email protected]> wrote: I think another important factor was the stock market in 2008, which caused > many > people to become more conservative in their spending. They actually > started to > make an effort to save energy. >
People have been making intense efforts to save energy since the 1970s, in the U.S. and everywhere else, especially China. Japan has made the least progress in the 21st century, I think, because they were already far more efficient than other industrialized nations, and because they have not invested much in efficiency. They invested practically nothing in alternative energy. They put all their eggs in the nuclear power basket. They regret that now. U.S. manufacturing is back to the peak it reached before the 2008 crash. See the graph I referenced before, only this version does not slide off the screen: "Energy Use and Energy Intensity of U.S. Manufacturing—Data from the 2014 Manufacturing Energy Consumption Survey (MECS)" https://www.eia.gov/consumption/manufacturing/reports/2014/enduse_intensity/ ?src=%E2%80%B9%20Consumption%20%20%20%20%20%20Manufacturing%20Energy% 20Consumption%20Survey%20(MECS)-b1 As I said, there has been a relative decline in manufacturing compared to other countries, especially China, but in absolute terms there has been no decline. There was after 2008, but it recovered. - Jed
