Energy Expenditures, Commercial Sector, Nebraska

The commercial sector consists of nonmanufacturing business establishments.  Included are hotels, motels, restaurants, wholesale businesses, retail stores, laundries, and other service enterprises; health, social, and educational institutions; and federal, state, and local governments.  Streetlights, pumps, bridges, and public services are also included.  Dollars spent on fuel used in motor vehicles for commercial purposes is included in the transportation sector.  Examples of common expenditures of energy in the commercial sector include space heating, water heating, refrigeration, air conditioning, and cooking.

Total commercial sector expenditures on energy increased 5.7 percent to $766.3 million from 2003 to 2004.  In 2004, the commercial sector spent $496.8 million for electricity, $227.0 million for natural gas, $14.3 million for propane, $15.3 million for motor gasoline, $9.8 million for diesel fuel, $1.0 million for wood and waste, $1.5 million for residual fuel, $0.4 million for kerosene, and $0.1 million for coal.  Since the commercial sector's residual fuel consumption was reported as zero in 2002, the expenditure for residual fuel is shown as $0.  Likewise, since the commercial sector's coal consumption was reported as zero in 1998, 1999, and 2000, the expenditure for coal for those years is shown as $0.  There are no direct fuel costs for geothermal, photovoltaic, or solar thermal energy.

Electricity expenditures were nearly two-thirds (65 percent) of the total money spent in the commercial sector on energy in 2004 with expenditures on natural gas comprising nearly a third (30 percent) of the total.  Propane expenditures were 1.9 percent, and diesel fuel expenditures were 1.3 percent of the total while each of the other fuels' expenditures was less than one percent. 

The expenditures are in nominal dollars to provide a better comparison.

Sources:  State Energy Price and Expenditure Report.  Energy Information Administration, Washington, DC.  Nebraska Energy Office, Lincoln, NE.

Note:  Totals may not equal the sum of the components due to independent rounding.

The table and graph were updated on August 22, 2007.  Typically, there are two years between updates.

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