State Energy Price
and Expenditure Report 1997


The United States spent over half a trillion dollars on energy in 1997 (see table). Nearly half of all energy expenditures were made for the purchase of petroleum products. Most expenditures occurred in the transportation sector ($209 billion), followed by the residential sector ($139 billion), the industrial sector ($120 billion), and the commercial sector ($100 billion). The average amount of money spent per person for energy in 1997 was $2,119.

U.S. Energy Expenditures, 1997
(Billion Dollars)
Coal

28

Natural Gas

92

Petroleum

267

Nuclear Fuel

3

Wood and Waste

2

Primary Energy

391

Electric Utility Fuel Purchases

-38

Electricity Purchased by End Users

214

Total Energy

567

Note: There are no direct fuel costs for hydroelectric, geothermal, wind, photovoltaic, or solar thermal energy.
Source: Energy Information Administration
Energy expenditures by State ranged from $1 billion in the District of Columbia to $55 billion in California, and average expenditures per person ranged from $1,711 in Florida to $3,902 in Wyoming. Energy expenditures per person in the residential sector alone ranged from $343 in Utah to $737 in Maine.

The overall U.S. average price for energy in 1997 was $8.82 per million Btu, and State-level average prices ranged from $5.81 per million Btu in Louisiana to $13.34 per million Btu in Hawaii. U.S. energy consumers were willing to pay electricity's relatively high average price of $20.15 per million Btu for its flexibility and cleanliness at the point of consumption. In comparison, energy consumers paid an average of $7.82 per million Btu for petroleum, $4.62 per million Btu for natural gas, $1.79 per million Btu for wood and waste, and 51 cents per million Btu for nuclear fuel.

The State Energy Price and Expenditure Report 1997 (SEPER) presents annual time series from 1970 through 1997 of energy prices and expenditures by State and for the Nation, by end-use sector, and by energy source. This release includes two years of new data, 1996 and 1997, and revisions to previous years' data where new information has become available. SEPER is a companion to another Energy Information Administration report, the State Energy Data Report, which presents U.S. and State-level time series estimates of energy consumption by sector and energy source and State-level rankings similar to those in SEPER. Expenditure data from SEPER are often used by economists to estimate the U.S. energy expenditure share of gross domestic product, which was 7 percent in 1997.


State Energy Price and Expenditure Report 1997, DOE/EIA-0376(97); 448 pages, 372 tables.

Questions about the report's content should be directed to:
Julia Hutchins, Office of Energy Markets and End Use
julia.hutchins@eia.doe.gov
Phone: (202) 586-5138

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URL: http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/plugs/plseper7.html
File last modified: June 27, 2000