Talk:Energy in the United States/GA1

GA Review

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

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Reviewer: Bneu2013 (talk · contribs) 10:37, 28 June 2023 (UTC)

Thank you, I look forward to your comments. Wizmut (talk) 02:54, 30 June 2023 (UTC)

Update - sorry for the delay; I should have my first comments later today. Bneu2013 (talk) 19:04, 2 July 2023 (UTC)

I will be reviewing this article section by section. I will have my first comments soon.

General comments

Update - I once again apologizing for the delay, but after skimming over the article, I'm not sure this article meets the criteria. The article provides great in depth coverage, which is backed up with sufficient pictures and graphs, but a good bit of the wording is a bit ambiguous and awkward, and needs to be worked on. That being said, I would like a more experienced reviewer to take a look at this and offer a second opinion before I continue. Bneu2013 (talk) 04:39, 12 July 2023 (UTC)

Thanks for the comments.

Not all of the data from 2022 is out (small scale solar is missing), and the EIA revises data for a year or so after they first release it.

Can you give a suggestion on greenhouse gas in the lead? It's easy to say something obvious or boring. Maybe a comparison to China? But which one? I added a sentence breaking down consumption by sector.

• Combine the first three sentences and last four sentences to make two paragraphs.

I'm not sure what you mean here.

I added a mention of the industrial revolution, using the same source that discussed the uses of coal. Coal stagnated around 1950 in the sense of fluctuating around a flat level, especially compared to the growth seen around 1850 to 1900. But the US electrified during this time, and coal significantly switched to electricity. I'll rephrase to include these facts.

"Car ownership" refers to per-capita cars, which was closer to doubling than tripling. Add in the baby boom and I'm not surprised the car total was at a higher rate. Per-capita is more interesting, though.

Post–World War II economic expansion is less specifically about the US, and it's also the first link below the section header for Economic history of the United States#Post-World War II prosperity: 1945–1973. Probably no change needed there.

I also rewrote the section on per-capita energy use. Wizmut (talk) 23:14, 15 July 2023 (UTC)

Lead

• I would add an introductory sentence at the beginning of the first paragraph, something like "Energy in the United States is obtained from a diverse portfolio of sources".

• Is the data from 2022 available yet.

• I would include the shares of energy consumed in each major sector (electricity, transportation, industry, etc.)

• Consider a sentence or two about greenhouse gas emissions.

History

• Combine the first three sentences and last four sentences to make two paragraphs.

• From its founding until the late 19th century, population and energy use in the United States both increased by about 3% per year,[6][7] resulting in a relatively constant per capita energy use of 100 million BTU. - clarify when the start date is (e.g. late 18th century, beginning of settlement by European Americans in 16th century, etc.)

• Wood made up the majority of this until near the end of the 1800s, meaning the average American burned 8 tons of wood each year. - change to something like "Most energy came from wood during this time, with the average American burning eight tons each year."

• By the late 1800s, coal had surpassed wood as the major source of energy, as it would often be became cheaper for those some living in cities. - also, didn't the Industrial Revolution in the United States play a role in this?

• Did coal production actually stagnate after 1950? Because if I'm not mistaken, there was a massive increase in coal fired electricity generation in the 1950s and 60s fueled by the post war boom. Also, if I'm not mistaken, natural gas largely replaced coal for home heating during this time.

• According to multiple sources, the number of cars in the US tripled, not doubled between 1945 and 1965.

• Change "after the war" link to Post–World War II economic expansion.

• This figure varied between 300 and 360 for half a century starting in the late 60s. In 2020, per capita consumption dipped below 300 million BTUs for the first time since 1967. - change "60s" to "1960s" and add "BTU" after "360". Also, this isn't the best description of the trend. When did the growth in energy consumption start to slow? Did it peak during a certain year and has it generally declined since then. What was the peak amount, and what has resulted in this decline/stagnation? More description is needed.

Second opinion

• There has been really great work done to get the article to this stage. However, at present, the coverage is not sufficiently broad to meet GA criterion 3(a). The content of the current version of the article is essentially about Energy production and consumption in the United States. The subject of Energy in the United States is significantly broader. The article should present a high level summary and links for additional topics that are essential to this subject. Topics that I recommend should be added to this article (in high level summary form) include Climate (carbon emissions etc), Energy policy, Energy law (and regulation), Energy conservation. At present this article also has no content about the highly diverse organisational structure, entities and governance of the energy sector in the United States, or anything about energy commerce (ie how energy is traded). Additional topics in these areas should also be considered. There are links to articles on some related energy topics in the "See also" section, and in the navigation template at the bottom, but I don't think this is enough. Additional short summary sections are needed in this article on additional topics that are essential to the subject, complete with links to either a closely-related summary article (eg Energy policy of the United States, Energy conservation in the United States etc) and/or to an existing category of relevant articles (eg Category:United States federal energy legislation).

Marshelec (talk) 21:54, 13 August 2023 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.