U.S. Energy Consumption Could Take Decade or More to Recover from Pandemic, EIA Says

The craterous impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on energy demand is likely to ripple out into the next decade, with consumption potentially not returning to pre-pandemic levels until 2029 or later, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in its latest long-term projections.

The agency’s 2021 Annual Energy Outlook (AEO2021), released on Wednesday, projects changes in domestic and global energy trends over the next three decades. The report, the first AEO to account for the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, lays out a future characterized by slower consumption growth “in an increasingly energy-efficient U.S. economy.”

This slower growth in consumption will stand in contrast to an increasing supply of energy from oil and natural gas, as well as from renewable...