INCREASED PRODUCT MINUS COST IS PRODUCTIVITY:

The EIA released new energy data recently showing that the US had the most energy-efficient economy in history last year, based on the amount of energy expended to produce each real dollar of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In 2015, it required only 5,970 BTUs of energy (petroleum, natural gas, coal, nuclear and renewables) to produce each real dollar of GDP, which was the lowest amount of energy required to produce a dollar of real GDP in US history (see chart above).

Here's another way to understand America's most energy-efficient economy in history: The US produced $16.4 trillion of real GDP last year (in 2009 dollars), which was a 2.4% increase over 2014 and the largest annual amount of GDP in US history. Compared to 2000 when real GDP was only $12.6 trillion (in 2009 dollars), the US economy was 30% larger last year than 15 years ago, even though 1.2% less total energy was required in 2015 than in 2000 (98.82 vs. 97.65 quadrillion BTUs) to produce $3.8 trillion more real output. That would be like adding an economy about the size of Germany's to the US, but without requiring any additional energy to produce 30% more output! 

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