PAIR-O-GRAPHS: Rising energy addiction? Reduce (but don’t recycle or reuse) your use of the phrase.

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We’ve noted many energy pros’ observation that U.S. energy use may have peaked for good. As one book calls it, we’re reaching the end of energy obesity. How skinny? The chart above, from the Energy Department’s newest projections today, predicts each Joe and Jane the Plumber will buy less energy from here on out. That’s the green line (how nice, green). The brown one predicts a giant dropoff in what’s called energy intensity; think of it as how much work we get out of a barrel of oil. Makes me wonder about America’s latte-intensity per unit of gdp. The new hockey-stick chart?