The aim of this data-file is to disaggregate US energy consumption and CO2 emissions per person per year, and by category.
We estimate the Average American consumes 36MWH of energy each year, emits 20 tons of CO2, spends $2,000 per year directly on energy (6% of their income) and $4,500 in total energy costs, including the energy embedded in goods and services (15% of income). This makes a low cost energy transition crucial.
Data in the file are fully split out by fuel, by CO2 content, by cost and across ten different categories: goods, services, food, driving, flying, freight, public transit, heating, cooling and residential appliances (chart above). They are also split out by income group to test whether CO2 taxes can avoid being regressive.
The numbers can be stress-tested for different energy input prices and CO2 prices. We estimate the entire world can be decarbonized for a CO2 cost below $75/ton, which would absorb an additional c5% of average annual income. Alarmingly, some policy proposals are incentivizing technologies with $300-700/ton abatement costs, equivalent to 20-45% of average incomes.