This is positioned as the key fact of the whole argument, presented first and repeated. But they do not attempt an equivalent US figure. So here's mine.
https://www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data/monthly/pdf/sec1_19.pdf
1K BTU Consumption per $ of GDP
1995: 7.77
2025: 4.04
4.04 / 7.77 ≈ 0.52, so the U.S. uses about 48% less energy per dollar than in 1995, versus 44% per euro for the EU. So pretty much the same as across the pond.The US trade deficit with the rest of the world is only about 3% of gdp, that doesn’t buy much in the way of emissions.
Look at any device that had a lot of metal years ago.
The second part is phones have replaced a lot of people’s “stuff”. Young people prefer phones to cars even.
You can loads of “stuff” on your phone and it’s just software.
I don't know exactly what it meant by "chained", although from the context it does sound as though it might mean something like "inflation adjusted".
It does mean they tried to eliminate inflation as a factor. In my experience though the basket of goods used for inflation calculations do a poor job representing the majority of consumers' and businesses' costs.
In other words, the entire thesis of the article can be overturned by a quick google search.
Since the start of the conflict with Iran, I've been looking at the oilprice.com website for price information and am shocked at the poor quality of the news articles. Here are some other examples of either very low effort or factually misleading articles, just posted on the site today:
* https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/How-China-Became-... -- the entire article is just three bullet point factoids that don't say much about an economy that still gets half its energy from burning coal.
* https://oilprice.com/Energy/Natural-Gas/AI-Boom-to-Boost-Sou... -- the entire article takes one consultancy report that says data center demand could boost Singapore and Malaysia's energy needs by 16%, and then engages in a reverie where the author imagines a number of other things that might be needed if this consultancy report is true.
* https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/Canadian-Oil-Pushes-De... - a bizarre story in which nothing happened -- no one is pushing anywhere, rather the entire story is a series of graphs and charts discussing Canada's historical participation in US gulf coast oil industries over the long run, with no new announcement or action happening at all.
It's a shame that Italy spent so little on solar compared to Spain. Sun shining there as well last time I checked.
I would not make conclusions from a short 5 month price shock.
Is this really a de-industrialization story? Is manufacturing much more efficient since that time, or has the economy moved onto other less energy intensive tasks, say through outsourcing them to Asia?