Preliminary Analysis of the Distributions of Carbon and Energy Intensity for 27 Energy Intensive Trade Exposed Industrial Sectors

It is well documented that different manufacturing sectors require different amounts of energy. Primary materials conversion, e.g., iron ore and scrap into steel, limestone and sand into cement and glass, or wood and other fibers into paper, tend to be the most energy-intensive in the production process, while final consumer products like electronics and clothing require the least energy. This leads to something like the 80-20 rule, where a large portion of energy use is in a small number of industries. For example, the 2006 Manufacturing Energy Consumption Survey (MECS) reported that 75 percent of fuel use arises from only five of the 21 three-digit industries, using the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). These five sectors are a small share of the total U.S. economy. The energy intensity for different industrial sectors is easily measured using published government statistics, but the plants within these industries are not homogeneous entities. This report measures the differences in energy use and associated CO2 emissions as a first step to understanding the within-sector heterogeneity of energy use.

Author(s): Gale Boyd, Tatyana Kuzmenko, Béla Személy, and Gang Zhang

Published: April 2011

download: working paper (.pdf) >