Total electric generation last 11 years

[Errosion Of Accord]

From 2001 to 2005 it is business as usual then from 2005 to 2007 you can see the economy overheating. Remember this is the period when gasoline went through the roof then in 2007 the summer usage spiked but did not plateau. I think the economy was starting to stall in 2007 as evidenced by the graph. 2008 & 9 saw a definite drop while '10 and '11 went back to business as usual these two years saw a healthy plateau during the summer season. Does anyone else see a correlation between 2007 and 2012? It was hot as hell in 2012 but there is no summer plateau.

http://www.eia.gov/beta/enerdat/#/topic/0?agg=2,0,1&fuel=vvg&geo=g&sec=g&linechart=ELEC.GEN.ALL-US-99.M~ELEC.GEN.COW-US-99.M~ELEC.GEN.NG-US-99.M~ELEC.GEN.NUC-US-99.M~ELEC.GEN.HYC-US-99.M&columnchart=ELEC.GEN.ALL-US-99.M~ELEC.GEN.COW-US-99.M~ELEC.GEN.NG-US-99.M~ELEC.GEN.NUC-US-99.M~ELEC.GEN.HYC-US-99.M&map=ELEC.GEN.ALL-US-99.M&freq=M&start=200101&end=201209&chartindexed=0&ctype=linechart&maptype=0&rse=0

[Sparky]

That's a great chart, thanks. By plateau, do you just mean that the high summer value lingers through both July and August? I think a non-plateau simply means that one of those two months was noticeably hotter than the other. I don't think it's very meaningful. But I'd be interested to hear why you think otherwise.

[Errosion Of Accord]

There are only two years when the summer spike is pronounced 2007 and 2012. The following link no longer has 2007 on it but when it did you could see that the stockpiles started growing in 2007.

http://www.eia.gov/coal/news_markets/elec_stocks.cfm

I think the coal stockpiles were indicating that the economy was starting to crap out in 2007 but momentum carried it to 2008. The stockpiles grew in 2012 as well but that is largely due to a warm winter and extremely low nat gas prices due to fracking. With that said the stockpiles are no longer a good indicator because the power companies who have the ability to switch between fuel choices will always go with the cheaper fuel, and nat gas has been the fuel of choice most of the year. I'm just taking a guess but I think the pronounced spike in 2012 is indicating that 2013 will be another recessionary year and that right now you and I are just waiting for the bastardized economic numbers to bear out that fact

[Errosion Of Accord]

Sounds like more global warming claptrap but it is still in line with my suggestion that 2012 was a very warm year and that there should have been a plateau this year.

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/08/16413805-noaa-2012-was-warmest-year-ever-for-us-second-most-extreme?lite

[Cebu_4_2]

Could be hotter due to the excessive spraying they are doing trapping the heat in, greenhouse effect.