China Passes US in Energy Consumption

China has passed the US as the world’s most energy-hungry country, according to new data from the International Energy Agency. China consumed the equivalent of 2,252 million tons of oil last year, about 4% more than the 2,170 million tons the US guzzled. The US is unlikely to catch up, the Wall Street Journal notes, because China’s energy consumption has grown by double digits for several years now. A decade ago, the country consumed just half the fuel the US did. (More China stories.)