NCMI Blog

Even though manufacturing has always been a major part of the American economy, it’s also been a major source of pollution and energy use. But that’s been changing in recent years.

With the U.S. Energy Department working with companies to develop and implement energy conservation technologies, U.S. manufacturing is becoming more energy efficient.

Manufacturing accounts for more than 6% of all energy consumed in the United States, and a study published last year by the U.S. Energy Information Administration showed that energy consumption in the manufacturing sector decreased by 17% from 2002 to 2010. The study also said that manufacturing gross output decreased by 3%, which points to an improvement in energy efficiency measures and the way companies are approaching the challenges of their industry.

Here are some more facts about our country’s manufacturing energy use:

• U.S. manufacturing used over 14 quadrillion Btu of energy as a fuel in 2010, which is a decrease of 13% from 2002.
• Fuel consumption in the 5 most energy-intensive subsectors accounted for 81% of fuel used in manufacturing.
• Feedstock energy use in manufacturing accounts for more than 6% of all energy consumed in the country. 99% of that feedstock energy use occurs in only three manufacturing subsectors: chemicals, primary metals, and petroleum & coal.

These and other statistics can be found in this article.