Making history: GDP up, energy use down.

Since the beginning of the Industrial Age, common wisdom said that to grow a national economy, you needed to burn energy. Lots of it. And as economies expand, even more energy must be consumed. Not anymore.

From the beginning of the Great Recession in 2007 through 2015, the US economy grew over 10%. At the same time, the US actually dropped energy consumption by .02%.  So while GDP was growing, electricity use was flat.

Potentially more importantly, the US also shifted 45% of its energy production away from coal and oil to renewables, like solar and wind, and natural gas.  

Carbon emissions simultaneously dropped to its lowest levels since 1995.

Thanks to significant big data crunching by Bloomberg's New Energy Finance (BNEF),  their 2016 Factbook is a compilation of research and excellent visualizations about history-making trends.

For me, the Factbook is a much better read than rehashing whether or not the Broncos have the best defense ever. It indicates history of the truly long-game type.