Note: Other Sector includes agriculture, mining & construction, and streetlights.
Data Source: California Energy Commission, California Energy Consumption Database.
Analysis by CEC Economics
Highlight
- Among the buildings sector, the residential sector (-12.4%) has performed significantly better than the commercial sector (+3.9%) over the 20-year period in terms of curbing natural gas consumption. However, the commercial sector recorded an impressive 6.8% decline in natural gas consumption from 2021 to 2022. Although the commercial sector has not performed as well as the residential sector, its overall natural gas consumption has still been trending down since 2015. On a 20-year basis from 2002 to 2022, natural gas consumption has declined by 3.8% while electricity consumption in California has increased by 11.8%.
Challenge
- Natural gas non-electricity consumption in California is still 19.2% higher than electricity consumption in 2022. However, the gap is narrowing compared to before the pandemic (it was 33.1% higher in 2019). In addition, the “other” sector, which consists of agriculture, mining & construction, and streetlights, has failed to make progress. It is also the only sector where natural gas consumption has gone up (3.9%) from 2021 to 2022.