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Coronavirus Has Propelled Us Into the Future of Energy Spending

For the first time in at least the last 60 years, Americans shelled out more for electricity than they did for gas.

A person works from home on a laptop computer in Princeton, Illinois.
A person works from home on a laptop computer in Princeton, Illinois.Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg

The Covid-19 pandemic has upended conventional wisdom in oil markets (prices will never go negative) and car sales (electric vehicle numbers will fall off a cliff). At the end of the summer, it hit another decades-old trend, at least in the U.S. For the first time since at least 1960, U.S. personal consumption expenditure on electricity was higher than it was on gasoline. 

That shift required two things to happen: personal consumption expenditure on gasoline and diesel had to fall alongside a spike in spending on electricity.