Data Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, 2021 State Energy Data System (SEDS).
Analysis by Beacon Economics
Highlight
- California’s energy expenditures as a percent of GDP was 4.5 percent in 2021, up 17 percent from 2020, but still 2.7 percent below the pre-pandemic level in 2019. These percentages were significantly lower than those in the U.S. without California, which were 5.9 percent in 2021, up 18.2 percent from 2020, but still 1.1 percent below the pre-pandemic level in 2019. Among the largest states in the U.S., California had the second-lowest energy expenditure as a percent of GDP, behind New York (3.1%). Among all 50 states, California has the third-lowest percentage behind Washington (3.8%), in addition to New York.
Challenge
- Unlike electricity bill expenditures, statewide energy expenditures as a percent of GDP have not been uniformly declining across the U.S. Among the largest states in the U.S., Texas was the only state that had recovered to its pre-pandemic level of 6.2 percent in 2021. In California (+2.8%), Pennsylvania (+0.4%), Texas (12.5%) and the rest of U.S. (+1.8%), energy expenditures have risen from 2016. The recent increases in energy expenditures can mainly be attributed to an increase in the transportation sector, which accounted for 29.9 percent of the change from 2016 to 2021 in total energy expenditures—even though the transportation sector itself makes up 73.4 percent of total energy expenditures in California in 2021.
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