
Texas Uses More Energy Than Any Other State - sremani
http://www.texasmonthly.com/energy/texas-uses-energy-state/
======
blunte
Texas has 29 million people.

Texas is big, and is very dependent (unfortunately) on private transportation.
Lots of cars, lots of roads, lots of lanes.

Texas is freaking hot for 5 months of the year. Texas can get surprisingly
damned cold for 4 months of the year in some heavily populated parts
(Dallas/Fort Worth for example). Texas uses heating and air conditioning
because it can.

Texas pumps a lot of oil and gas. Texas has a lot of windy areas, some of
which now have large wind farms. Texas could have a lot of solar, but I'm not
sure how that's developing.

Point is, it's about as reasonable a metric as the frequently (stupidly)
promoted articles talking about "the most stolen car". Per capita, and per
capita per day per degree of climate outside comfort range, and on top of
that, per mile of distance between homes and offices, I imagine Texas is not
out of line.

~~~
vonnik
Texas is not the largest or the most populous or the most climatically
challenged state. For a place that loves superlatives, it doesn't have those
justifications for its energy use. They're sucking all the oxygen out of the
room in more ways than one.

~~~
iakh
Texas is not only a net exporter of energy [1], it is the top energy producing
state and 6th in consumption per capita [2]. It produces 41% more energy than
it consumes. Is that justification enough?

[1]
[https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=32272](https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=32272)

[2] [https://www.eia.gov/state/?sid=TX](https://www.eia.gov/state/?sid=TX)

~~~
oculusthrift
no because that energy is fossil fuel based

~~~
iakh
"Texas accounted for the largest total amount of wind and solar generation in
the United States in 2016" [1]

[1] [https://thinkprogress.org/renewable-energy-just-passed-a-
maj...](https://thinkprogress.org/renewable-energy-just-passed-a-major-
milestone-in-the-united-states-d237530d8c06/)

------
wahern

      California, whose population is 12 million higher than ours,
      uses only 60 percent of the energy we do
    

This is sometimes called the Rosenfeld Effect for the long-time member of the
California Energy Commission who pioneered energy efficiency standards, Dr.
Arthur Rosenfeld.

Here's a great interview with Rosenfeld upon his retirement from the
commission, "Art Rosenfeld, the 'godfather' of energy efficiency",

    
    
      http://www.mercurynews.com/2009/12/23/art-rosenfeld-the-godfather-of-energy-efficiency/
    

There's also a Wikipedia article for Rosenfeld Effect,

    
    
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosenfeld_Effect
    

There are disputes about how effective California's strict energy efficiency
standards have been. But the Mercury News article is a great read simply
because Rosenfeld seemed to have been a great scientist who left lasting
impressions with all the people he worked with, not to mention on our laws and
standards. He passed away at the beginning of this year.

~~~
stevenwoo
There is something else going on, Texas home energy usage only accounts for
about 1/8 of their total so even eliminating home usage (and commercial, too)
would still leave a large difference. Maybe the cheaper gas probably insulates
drivers from the costs of poor fuel efficiency and this lets people choose
long commutes in spite of the driving time, and the laxer industrial standards
encourages a concentration of some processes like the chemical plants in East
Texas.

~~~
ouid
poor city planning and urban sprawl contribute far more to fuel consumption
than low gas prices. See Los Angeles.

~~~
tomjakubowski
> See Los Angeles.

See what? Los Angeles -- whether you slice by city, county, metropolitan
statistical area, or combined statistical area -- ranks nowhere near the top
of per capita household vehicle miles in the United States. In fact, the Los
Angeles-Long Beach combined statistical area has the second-lowest household
fuel consumption in the country, just behind New York-Newark (at least
according to a poorly-sourced Forbes article [1]).

Unfortunately, publicly available _fuel consumption_ data split by
city/county/Census area is much harder to find. But what I have found suggests
that Forbes's ranking of Los Angeles relative to other US metro areas is
probably accurate. The National Household Travel Survey [2] is likely the best
source of raw data for investigating this question.

[1]:
[https://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherhelman/2011/05/10/am...](https://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherhelman/2011/05/10/americas-
biggest-and-least-gas-guzzling-cities/)

[2]:
[https://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/sites/rita.dot.gov.bts/files/su...](https://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/sites/rita.dot.gov.bts/files/subject_areas/national_household_travel_survey/index.html)

~~~
wutbrodo
> Los Angeles -- whether you slice by city, county, metropolitan statistical
> area, or combined statistical area -- ranks nowhere near the top of per
> capita household vehicle miles in the United States. In fact, the Los
> Angeles-Long Beach combined statistical area has the second-lowest household
> fuel consumption in the country, just behind New York-Newark (at least
> according to a poorly-sourced Forbes article [1]).

Wow, thanks for the info. As someone born and raised in LA, I never would've
guessed this.

------
DiabloD3
As a side note, there may actually be more datacenter space in Texas than
there is in California. I wish I could find accurate statistics on this to
prove it either way, but I'm pretty sure I'm right.

Disclaimer: It's rare my day job actually intersects with HN even though I'm
in the Internet industry.

~~~
sremani
To my knowledge DFW has multiple data centers, Facebook @ Ft.Worth being most
famous among them. Not sure, if Toyota already built their Datacenter in
Plano.

~~~
brightball
I've always thought the Rackspace data center there was more well known.

~~~
ericabiz
Rackspace HQ is is in a former shopping mall outside of San Antonio.
Definitely a cool place to tour if you ever get the chance. You can still see
where the "stores" were (they're now employee workspaces.)

~~~
msisk6
Less cool place to work. Very, very noisy. Steps were taken to reduce the
noise level but it wasn't enough.

------
hueving
Key line:

>More than half of the energy consumed in Texas is for industrial use,
according to the EIA, while residential use—which in terms of sheer BTUs is
the most in the nation, even as our per capita usage is relatively
low—accounts for just over 13 percent.

------
johngalt
They included industrial energy consumption and Texas is home to more oil
refining than any other state.

------
wsxcde
I don't buy the climate explanation. Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and much of
the north east including New York and New Jersey are all much colder in the
winter and have somewhat comparably hot but shorter summers. And yet the per
capita numbers for the Texas are much worse than each of these states.

The per capita consumption map clearly shows that red states consume more
energy than blue and purple states --- for example, there's a stark difference
between Illinois and Indiana. This is clearly a policy problem caused by the
Republican party's intentional ignorance of climate change.

~~~
sid-kap
Which requires more energy—lowering the temperature by one degree using an AC
or increasing the temperature by one degree using a heater?

------
clavalle
Here in Texas we have playgrounds with stretched tarps over them. I wonder how
much it would help a home energy use to have similar tarps inches above the
roof giving the whole structure shade throughout the day.

~~~
zeveb
Isn't that basically what an attic is for? It's semi-open to the elements,
with lots of ventilation, providing a thermal buffer for the home.

~~~
clavalle
I don't know about anyone else's attic but ours is a holding tank for
incredibly hot air during the summer.

------
tmnvix
Like others here are saying, a lot of this seems to be commercial rather than
residential use so an immediate presumption of profligacy might not be
appropriate.

Having said that, I remember years ago being shocked when someone told me that
some service stations in Texas actually use airconditioning on their
forecourts. Can anyone here confirm whether or not this is just an urban
legend?

~~~
rjeli
Texan here, I had to look up "service station" and "forecourt." Been all
around the state and never saw A/C at a gas station pump.

~~~
conductr
Agree. I've never seen this. We pump gas with our cars running... so we can
sit in AC until we hear the click. We also love drive thru anything for same
reason.

~~~
fludlight
> We pump gas with our cars running

Can an automotive engineer chime in on this? The signs at every gas station
and vehicle owner's manual always said this was a big no-no.

~~~
conductr
You're right, people do it anyway

------
sloreti
What's Louisana and Wyoming's problem?

~~~
francisofascii
Wyoming leads the nation in coal production, accounting for two-fifths of all
coal mined in the United States. (According to EIA) So you have high
industrial consumption and low population.

~~~
pklausler
Is the coal consumed in WY?

~~~
topspin
Yes, but the vast bulk of it is moved to other states and countries via coal
trains and bulk freighters. The state has only 580k citizens but is producing
42% of all US coal.

~~~
pklausler
So no, it's not consumed in WY.

~~~
francisofascii
Energy is consumed to mine and transport the coal.

------
gkanapathy
I would think climate would make some difference compared to California. I
wonder how much though.

~~~
joshuaheard
Texas is HOT, and humid in parts, with barely a breeze. California in the
Northern parts is not that hot, and all of coastal California has a nice ocean
breeze keeping things cool.

~~~
Rapzid
NorCal gets plenty hot off the coast:
[https://www.wunderground.com/ndfdimage/viewimage?type=temp&r...](https://www.wunderground.com/ndfdimage/viewimage?type=temp&region=sw)

------
gozur88
tl;dr: Texas uses more energy per capita because they've included industrial
use and it has a lot of energy intensive industry.

~~~
dhd415
Yep, furthermore, Texas is in the bottom 20% of states in terms of residential
energy use per capita (which is pretty remarkable given how ubiquitous and
essential AC is there). It's all about industrial use.

~~~
Retric
Low humidity + minimal need for winter heating makes a huge difference.

~~~
vmarsy
Low humidity compared to where?

Average yearly relative humidity[1] :

    
    
     	Houston:
     	75% daily 
    	90% morning 
    	55% afternoon
    

In the summer, the heat is much more unbearable in Texas than let's say
Arizona due to the high humidity rates. Every year, 97 days in Houston with
_Apparent_ temperature above 95°F due to humidity (vs. only 16 days per year
where _Actual_ temperature is above 95°F)[2]

[1] [https://www.currentresults.com/Weather/Texas/humidity-
annual...](https://www.currentresults.com/Weather/Texas/humidity-annual.php)

[2] [https://www.currentresults.com/Weather/Texas/hot-humid-
days-...](https://www.currentresults.com/Weather/Texas/hot-humid-days-
apparent-temperature.php)

~~~
Retric
Texas is a lot more than just Houston. Further, you want around 30-45% and AC
only removes excess humity not 100% humidity. Also, it's summer and the second
number that really matters so by comparison:

    
    
      July:
      San Antonio	44 (ok)
      Houston	55 (+10)
      Fort Worth	42 (ok)
      vs.
      Orlando	64 (+19)
      New Orleans	66 (+21)
    

[https://www.currentresults.com/Weather/Louisiana/humidity-
ju...](https://www.currentresults.com/Weather/Louisiana/humidity-july.php)

[https://www.currentresults.com/Weather/Florida/humidity-
july...](https://www.currentresults.com/Weather/Florida/humidity-july.php)

PS: Your AC lower air temp below your target room temp, and extracts water
because that air is limited to 100% humidity. The air is then heated by your
house which is how relative humidity drops. Aka they don't extract anything at
20% humidity and they extract everything over some % that varies based on
outside temp.

------
am1988
That makes sense. Loads of people, lots of area, gets really hot.

------
gandarojin
Wow, Texas is using more energy than the state of China?

------
erikb
I bet Guangdong uses more energy. Maybe the title should be changed to "any
other state in the US"?

