State-Level Residential Energy Consumption, Income Inequality, and Demographics

Robert Kemp, University of Colorado at Boulder

As climate change and other important environmental problems loom, important discussion are occurring around residential energy use. Previous work to inform this discussion focuses largely on high levels of aggregations or micro-level factors. This paper attempts to bridge literatures by focusing on contextual effects, specifically inequality, in conjunction with population dynamics and their roles in driving energy consumption in the residential sector. The study makes use of residential energy data and socio-demographic data from 1977-2006 to understand how State-level energy use trajectories have been shaped by inequality and population dynamics. Results point to the salience of demographic factors, as expected, and a cumulative effect of inequality rather than a stationary or constant effect over time.