November 13, 2004
Who's got the Power?


(States in red are self-sufficient energy producers— they do not import power from neighboring states. All but AK and HI are exporters.)

After reading this wonderfully snarky post, one of the paragraphs started the wheels turning in my head. Grace mentions the lack of power plants in Blue America, and I decided to visit the Department of Energy website for some statistics on energy generation and consumption. (I finally found a use for the DoE!) This .PDF file contains a column entitled "Net Interstate Flow of Electricity/Losses" which gives a sum (positive or negative) of power consumption in relation to generation. A negative number indicates that the state is a net exporter of energy, whereas a positive number indicates a net importer. The map produced above provides an interesting picture. While there are some oddities, there is a remarkable correlation between energy dependence and Kerry support. Only six Kerry states (Minnesota, New Hampshire, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin) are exporters, while seven Bush states (FL, ID, LA, MS, MT, OH, and VA) are importers. Further, the blue states as a whole do not generate sufficient energy to support themselves; they fall 3,274 Trillion BTU's short of sufficiency. They could shut off the entire state of Michigan and still not meet their energy needs. Of course, this would not be much appreciated by the Michiganders, and would put quite a dent in the blue states' productivity figures.

(Link to Orthodox & Heterodox via Instapundit.)

posted on November 13, 2004 04:42 PM



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