sappstuf
4/10/2013, 05:42 AM
First the good news... At least if you thought the Kyoto would save the world.
http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/kyoto_met_1997-2012.png
We have lowered our emissions by 5.2%, that is the amount that first world countries were supposed to cut. Although we never ratified the treaty, we are the first country to actually meet the target.
Here you can see the dramatic effect on the world CO2 levels that our cuts have led to.
http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/webdata/ccgg/trends/co2_data_mlo.png
Errr.. Not so much. But I digress.
Here is the 12 month moving average of number of total vehicle miles.
http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/us_miles.png
Miles have clearly flatlined for awhile. We have been through recessions before on this chart but nothing is as dramatic as the past 4 years of the Obama recession.
Here is a chart of gasoline sales. As you can see there was a regular "heartbeat" of sales as summer started, but then it all drops off dramatically.
http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/us_gasoline_sales.png
Many Dems on the left say that usage is down because of fuel efficiency and higher mileage standards. But we have been improving those for years and years and you don't see anything that has those dramatic drops.
Now let us add in a couple of events to the same chart.
http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/us_gasoline_sales_econ.png
I don't remember any world changing fuel efficiency events happening at the same time as our credit rating was downgraded.
Thoughts from Zerohedge:
…but the biggest question we have is just how did the biggest boost in energy and engine efficiency occurred at two key junctions: Just after the Lehman Failure, and just after the US downgrade and the first debt ceiling crisis, when the total sales of gasoline by US retailers literally went off the charts, and which data series is now languishing at levels not seen since the 1970s (unfortunately we can only estimate: not even the EIA’s data set goes back that far).
Perhaps, just perhaps, Occam’s razor applies in this situation as well, and the collapse in energy demand in the US has little to do with MPG efficiency, higher productivity, and throughput mysteriously achieved just when the entire economy was imploding in the months after the Lehman failure, and despite the re-emerging proliferation of cheap Fed debt funded SUVs and small trucks, and everything to do with the US consumer being slowly but surely tapped out?
Of course, if that is the case, than the US economy is far, far weaker than even we could have surmised, although it certainly would explain the desperation with which the Fed is doing everything in its power to preserve the levitation of the S&P, i.e., the confidence that all is well despite all signs to the contrary. Because should the market finally be allowed to reflect the underlying economy – not the administration represented economy, but the real one – then everything that has transpired in the past five years will be child’s play compared to what’s coming.
http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/kyoto_met_1997-2012.png
We have lowered our emissions by 5.2%, that is the amount that first world countries were supposed to cut. Although we never ratified the treaty, we are the first country to actually meet the target.
Here you can see the dramatic effect on the world CO2 levels that our cuts have led to.
http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/webdata/ccgg/trends/co2_data_mlo.png
Errr.. Not so much. But I digress.
Here is the 12 month moving average of number of total vehicle miles.
http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/us_miles.png
Miles have clearly flatlined for awhile. We have been through recessions before on this chart but nothing is as dramatic as the past 4 years of the Obama recession.
Here is a chart of gasoline sales. As you can see there was a regular "heartbeat" of sales as summer started, but then it all drops off dramatically.
http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/us_gasoline_sales.png
Many Dems on the left say that usage is down because of fuel efficiency and higher mileage standards. But we have been improving those for years and years and you don't see anything that has those dramatic drops.
Now let us add in a couple of events to the same chart.
http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/us_gasoline_sales_econ.png
I don't remember any world changing fuel efficiency events happening at the same time as our credit rating was downgraded.
Thoughts from Zerohedge:
…but the biggest question we have is just how did the biggest boost in energy and engine efficiency occurred at two key junctions: Just after the Lehman Failure, and just after the US downgrade and the first debt ceiling crisis, when the total sales of gasoline by US retailers literally went off the charts, and which data series is now languishing at levels not seen since the 1970s (unfortunately we can only estimate: not even the EIA’s data set goes back that far).
Perhaps, just perhaps, Occam’s razor applies in this situation as well, and the collapse in energy demand in the US has little to do with MPG efficiency, higher productivity, and throughput mysteriously achieved just when the entire economy was imploding in the months after the Lehman failure, and despite the re-emerging proliferation of cheap Fed debt funded SUVs and small trucks, and everything to do with the US consumer being slowly but surely tapped out?
Of course, if that is the case, than the US economy is far, far weaker than even we could have surmised, although it certainly would explain the desperation with which the Fed is doing everything in its power to preserve the levitation of the S&P, i.e., the confidence that all is well despite all signs to the contrary. Because should the market finally be allowed to reflect the underlying economy – not the administration represented economy, but the real one – then everything that has transpired in the past five years will be child’s play compared to what’s coming.