Bringing the US Kaya Factors Up-to-Date

I obtained the US monthly energy consumption data, and updated my earlier plot of the factors in the Kaya Identity factors for the United States:

I annualized the data to get rid of seasonal squiggles in energy use. "Tech" is what Roger labels technology -- the carbon intensity of the economy:

Tech = EI*CI = C/GDP

(see this post for the acronym definitions). The story remains the same: most of our flattening carbon emissions come from using energy more efficiently, not from reducing carbon emissions per se.

Here's a plot that shows that the average American is actually using less energy than a few decades ago:

[Yes, energy isn't measured in Watts, but since we're talking about a fix period of one year, the two are directly related.] We're flat in energy not because we are trying to use less of it, but because we use it more efficiently.