Energy Center Missouri Energy Expenditures

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Missouri Energy Expenditures at a Glance

Missouri's Total State Energy Bill, 1999: Distribution by Sector

Missouri consumers pay approximately $12 billion for energy each year – about two and a half times the amount spent on K-12 public education.
In 1999, Missouri ranked seventeenth among states in both total energy expenditures and total population. Energy expenditures per capita in Missouri equaled $2,027, slightly higher than the U.S. average of $1,985.
As the pie chart illustrates, energy expenditures are not spread evenly across sectors. About 43 percent of Missouri’s total energy bill is for transportation. This share of the state’s energy bill is substantially larger than the national average of 37 percent for transportation.
Another 43 percent of the state’s energy bill is for energy use in residential and commercial buildings. This is slightly larger than the national average of 42 percent for buildings.

Only 14 percent of the Missouri’s energy bill is for energy use by Missouri industry, compared to the U.S. average of 20 percent for industry. The most likely explanation for Missouri industry’s relatively small share is an industrial mix with a relatively low proportion of energy-intensive industries.
In 1999, Missouri ranked sixteenth among states in total transportation energy expenditures, sixteenth in residential expenditures, seventeenth in commercial expenditures and twenty-fifth in industrial expenditures.
Data presented in these charts is based on total expenditures by "end users," excluding utilities. Utility payments for the fuel used to generate electricity are not counted separately because they are already included in end user expenditures for electricity.

Missouri's Total State Energy Bill, 1999: Key Fuels and End Uses

As the bar chart illustrates, a few key fuels and end uses account for over 90 percent of the Missouri’s energy expenditures.
About 43 percent of the total state energy bill is for petroleum fuels used in transportation (the sky-blue segment of the bottom bar). Petroleum fuels including gasoline, diesel fuel and jet fuel constitute nearly all transportation expenditures

An additional 37 percent is for electricity used in the residential, commercial and industrial sectors (the yellow segments of the three top bars).
Another 12 percent is for natural gas used in these three sectors (the dark blue segments of the three top bars).
Propane is also a key fuel in Missouri. Although only about 2 percent of Missouri’s total energy bill is spent for propane, it is an important residential heating fuel in the state and accounts for about 41 percent of expenditures for petroleum outside the transportation sector.

Increase in Missouri’s Total State Energy Bill, 1990-1999

Missouri’s total state energy bill increased about 21 percent between 1999 and 1999 compared to an 18 percent increase for the U.S. as a whole.
Expenditures for transportation fuels increased more rapidly in Missouri than in the U.S. as a whole – a 25 percent increase in Missouri compared to a 16 percent increase for the U.S.
Expenditures for electricity in all Missouri sectors increased by 20 percent, lagging a 23 percent increase for the U.S. as a whole. The increase in the total electricity bill for Missouri’s residential and commercial was larger at 22 percent but still lagged the national average increase of 29 percent.

Expenditures for natural gas increased by 26 percent in Missouri, lagging a 30 percent increase for the U.S. However, it is important not to visualize this as a simple linear increase. In Missouri, expenditures for natural gas actually increased 38 percent through 1996 and then decreased every year from 1996 through 1999. Demand for natural gas varies from year to year due to the sensitivity of utility demand to price and residential and commercial demand to the severity of the weather.
Missouri’s energy bill is determined in part by national and regional factors that affect fuels supplies and prices. Economic analyses of energy price, supply and demand are available at EIA’s Web site.

Data sources

The primary sources for data used in this overview are the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Census Bureau.