The industrial sector consists of manufacturing, construction, mining, agriculture, and forestry organizations. Energy used by this sector to transport products to market or inputs to the organizations is included in the transportation sector.
Total industrial sector expenditures on energy decreased 16.2 percent to $1,836.8 million from 2014 to 2015. In 2015, the industrial sector spent $808.8 million for electricity, $394.7 million for diesel fuel, $390.4 million for natural gas, $76.0 million for asphalt and road oil, $70.6 million for motor gasoline, $36.2 million for coal, $34.4 million for propane, $14.5 million for lubricants, $11.0 million for other petroleum products (a definition is in the next paragraph), and $0.3 million for wood and waste. Expenditures for kerosene and residual fuel were not reported. There were no direct fuel costs for hydroelectric, geothermal, wind, photovoltaic, or solar thermal energy. The cost for ethanol is not being tracked so there are no expenditures to report.
Other petroleum products included sixteen (16) separate products, all of which were assigned to the industrial sector. The sixteen products were: aviation gasoline blending components; crude oil; motor gasoline blending components; natural gasoline, including isopentane; pentanes plus; petrochemical feedstocks, naphtha; petrochemical feedstocks, other oils; petrochemical feedstocks, still gas; petroleum coke; plant condensate; special naphthas; still gas; unfinished oils; unfractionated streams; waxes; and miscellaneous. Miscellaneous products varied from inexpensive (absorption oils similar to kerosene) to very expensive (hydraulic fluids) products. The greater part of the miscellaneous product line consisted of finished petrochemicals, especially the aromatic hydrocarbons: benzene, toluene, and the xylenes.
Nearly all of the money (98 percent) spent in the industrial sector on energy in 2014 went to electricity (44 percent), petroleum products (33 percent), and natural gas (21 percent) expenditures. Coal expenditures were 1.97 percent of the total expenditures. Renewable energy expenditures were 0.02 percent of the industrial sector's energy expenditures; renewable energy expenditures were comprised of wood and waste. The cost for ethanol is not being tracked so there are no expenditures to report. Within the petroleum category, expenditures on diesel fuel comprised 66 percent of the petroleum category, motor gasoline expenditures were 12 percent, propane expenditures were 6 percent, and asphalt and road oil expenditures were 13 percent. Expenditures on each of the rest of the petroleum products were less than 3 percent of the petroleum category.
The expenditures are in nominal dollars to provide a better comparison.
