MANUFACTURING

The United States leads all nations in the value of its yearly manufacturing output. Some 18 percent of annual gross domestic product is accounted for by manufacturing, which employs about one-sixth of the nation’s workers.

Ranked by value added by manufacturing, the leading categories of U.S. manufactured goods are chemicals, transportation equipment, processed foods, industrial machinery, and electronic equipment.

All varieties of industrial machinery accounted for 10 percent of the yearly value added by manufacture in the mid-1990s. Industrial machinery includes engines, farm equipment, various kinds of construction machinery, computers, and refrigeration equipment. California led all states in the annual value added by industrial machinery, followed by Illinois, Ohio, and Michigan. Transportation equipment includes passenger cars, trucks, airplanes, space vehicles, ships and boats, and railroad equipment. Michigan, with its huge automobile industry, is a leading producer of transportation equipment. California is a leader in the aerospace industry.

Texas and Louisiana are leaders in chemical manufacturing. The petroleum and natural gas produced and refined in both states are basic raw materials used in manufacturing many chemical products.

Food processing is an important industry in several states noted for the production of food crops and livestock, or both. California has a large fruit- and vegetable-processing industry. Meat packing in Illinois and dairy processing in Wisconsin make both states leaders in food manufacturing.

The electronic equipment industry includes the manufacture of electric industrial apparatus, household appliances, radio and television equipment, electronic components, and communications devices. California, Illinois, Indiana, and Massachusetts are all leaders in the production of electronic equipment, which is one of the fastest growing sectors of U.S. industry.

The manufacture of fabricated metal and primary metal is concentrated in the nation’s industrial core region. Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan are leading states in the value of primary metal output.

Printing and publishing is a widespread industry, with newspapers published throughout the country. New York, with its book-publishing industry, is the leading state, but California, Illinois, and Pennsylvania are also important.

Other major U.S. manufactures include textiles, clothing, precision instruments, lumber, furniture, tobacco products, leather goods, and stone, clay, and glass items.

ENERGY

The energy to power the U.S. economy is derived from various sources. Measured in terms of heat-producing capacity, petroleum provides 39 percent of the total energy consumed in the United States. It supplies nearly all of the energy used to power the nation’s transportation system, and it is used to heat millions of houses and factories.

Natural gas is the source of 24 percent of the energy consumed. Many industrial plants use natural gas for heat and power, and several million households burn it for heating and cooking. Coal provides 22 percent of the energy consumed. Its major uses are in the generation of electricity, which uses more than three-fourths of all the coal consumed, and in the manufacture of steel.

Water power generates 4 percent and nuclear power about 7 percent of the nation’s energy. Both are employed mainly to produce electricity for residential and industrial use. Nuclear energy has been viewed as an important alternative to expensive petroleum and natural gas, but its development has proceeded somewhat more slowly than originally anticipated. People are reluctant to live near nuclear plants for fear of a possible radiation-releasing accident. Another obstacle to the expansion of nuclear power use is that satisfactory ways of disposing of radioactive wastes have not been devised.

Some 33 percent of the energy consumed in the United States is used in the generation of electricity.

Date: 2015-01-02; view: 806