How much Energy use in MWhrs and natural gas consumption is affected by
the decreases abonced by ford. This including shutting some plants as
well. A similar question was answered for GM.

bill22-ga,


Hello, and thank you, once again, for a very challenging, very
interesting question.

Ford, like GM, has announced substantial cuts in its vehicle
production schedule.  The company has also provided a wealth of detail
over the years about its energy use and greenhouse gas emissions (and
of course, they've also announced a change of CEOs, but that's another
story entirely).


Let's start by spending some time with some of Ford's environmental
and sustainability publications, as I think you'll find them of
interest.  I'll then summarize the data below, and use it to estimate
energy reductions, as I did with the GM question.




http://media.ford.com/newsroom/release_display.cfm?release=24057
FORD REDUCES NORTH AMERICAN VEHICLE PRODUCTION AS PART OF ACCELERATED
?WAY FORWARD? TURNAROUND
 

DEARBORN, Mich., Aug. 18, 2006 ? Ford Motor Company [NYSE: F]
announced an aggressive reduction of North American production as part
of its broader efforts to accelerate the pace of its Way Forward
turnaround.

The company said it is reducing North American fourth-quarter
production by 21 percent ? or 168,000 units ? compared with the fourth
quarter a year ago. The revised plan also reduces the company's
previously announced third-quarter plan by 20,000 units.

Bill Ford, the company's chairman and CEO, outlined the decision to
cut production in a note to employees, explaining the decision is part
of broader efforts to accelerate the company's North American
turnaround and saying full details of additional actions will be
announced in September.

"We know this decision will have a dramatic impact on our employees,
as well as our suppliers," Bill Ford told employees. "This is,
however, the right call for our customers, our dealers and our
long-term future."

For full-year 2006, Ford now plans to produce 3.048 million vehicles
at its North American assembly plants ? 1.134 million cars and 1.914
million trucks ? a 9 percent reduction from 2005.

 
 
===============

[this is interesing not only for the data on vehicle manufacture, but
because they compare CO2 emissions from manufacture to emissions
during the vehicle's lifetime of use]

http://www.ford.com/NR/rdonlyres/e6vzmdwyz2ycyehpwvuj5sdkrmfknipsreoyznmwwfqtzlwqfbfbcq44ckquxgn5xfir532knjvkq3ovbyhuscz7sfh/fordReptBusImpClimChg.pdf
FORD REPORT ON THE BUSINESS IMPACT OF CLIMATE CHANGE

The energy we use to produce our vehicles and power Ford facilities
resulted in 8.4 million metric tonnes of CO2 emissions (CO2 is the
most significant of the greenhouse gases) in 2004. About 12 percent of
all man-made GHG emissions worldwide come from burning fossil fuels in
the cars and trucks of all makes on the road today.

To that end, since 2000 we have cut the emissions of CO2 from our
plants and facilities by 15 percent, and we have targeted even further
reductions...

But while we are proud of our accomplishment in reducing CO2 from our
operations and have benefited from the energy cost savings that go
with it, we recognize that only about 10 percent of the lifetime GHG
emissions from a vehicle occur during its production. The remaining 90
percent attributed to each vehicle is emitted when the customer is
using it ? when it burns gasoline or diesel fuel from fossil sources.

GHG emissions in manufacturing account for about 10 percent of the
total emissions over the lifecyle of a vehicle. Since 2000, we have
cut the GHG emissions from our facilities worldwide by more than 15
percent. We're also on track to meet a five year goal of improving the
energy efficiency of our plants by 14 percent, normalized for changes
in production.



===============

[despite their energy conversation efforts, the per-vehicle CO2
emissions have actually increased recently, even though total CO2
emissions have dropped]


http://www.ford.com/NR/fordcom/microsites/sustainability/2005-06/images/DoE%202005%20Report.pdf
2005 Reporting of Greenhouse Gas Emissions

...Due to a continued decline in U.S. vehicle production volumes,
Ford's stationary source emissions per vehicle increased by 2% between
2002 and 2005.  However, Ford's absolute GHG emissions decreased by
13% (450,000) over the same period.

...1.31 metric tons of CO2 per vehicle built in 2005 (0.37 direct and
0.95 indirect, i.e. purchased electricity)

[NOTE:  I did not find breakouts from Ford for CO2 emissions from
different vehicle types (cars vs trucks), as I did at GM]


===============


http://www.ford.com/en/company/about/sustainability/2005-06/envDataFacilityTables.htm
Facility Energy Use and CO2 Emissions

Worldwide Facility Energy Consumption per Vehicle

 
 2005 BTUs/vehicle direct --  7.4 million BTUs per vehicle
 (natural gas + coal)


 2005 BTUs/vehicle indirect - 4.7 million BTUs per vehicle
 (purchased electricity)


Total energy consumption per vehicle = 12.1 million BTUs


Averaging energy and CO2 emissions by the number of vehicles produced
yields a somewhat imperfect indicator of production efficiency. When
the number of vehicles produced declines, as it has since 2000,
per-vehicle energy use tends to rise because a portion of the
resources used by a facility is required for base facility operations,
regardless of the number of vehicles produced. We believe that
stable-to-declining per-vehicle energy use and CO2 emissions indicate
that more efficient production since 2000 is offsetting the tendency
of these indicators to rise during periods of declining production.
This interpretation is reinforced by our energy efficiency index,
which focuses on production energy efficiency, and which has been
steadily improving. Our energy efficiency index target also has the
effect of driving reductions in CO2 emissions.



==========



The bottom line on all this is that Ford is producing 9% fewer
vehicles at its North American facilities in 2006 than they did in
2005, which translates to 3.048 million vehicles in 2006 vs 3.349
million vehicles in 2005.

Put another way, there are 301,000 fewer Fords being built in 2006.


Since each vehicle requires 12.1 million BTUs of energy to
manufacture, the elimination of 301,000 vehicles will result in an
overall drop in energy demand of:


12,100,000 BTUs x 301,000 vehicles = 3,642,100,000,000 BTUs = 3.642 trillion BTUs  
[NOTE -- this is an annual figure, whereas the GM numbers were
calculated on a quarterly basis]

 
Since 61% of Ford's energy consumption comes from natural gas and
coal, we can calculate that 0.61 * 3.642 trillion BTUs = 2.22 trillion
BTUs of energy reduction will stem from reduced use of natural gas and
coal, while the rest will come from reductions in purchased
electricity.


Assuming a 50/50 split between gas and coal (Ford provides no details
on the actual split between fuels that I could see), then each fuel
will be reduced by 1.11 trillion BTUs.


For natural gas consumption, this amounts to:
 

1000 BTUs = 1 cubic foot

1.11 trillion BTUs = 1.11 billion cubic feet 




Similarly, we can see from:


http://www.callabresi.biz/Web%20Page/BTU%20Content%20of%20Fuels.htm


that for Coal:

25 million BTUs = 1 ton 

1.11 trillion BTUs =44,400 tons



===============


To summarize:


Ford is reducing 2006 production (from 2005 levels) by:

--301,000 vehicles

--1.1 trillion BTUs

--roughly 1.11 billion cubic feet of natural gas

--roughly 44,400 tons of coal




I trust this information fully answers your question.  

However, please don't rate this answer until you have everything you
need.  If you would like any additional information, just post a
Request for Clarification to let me know how I can assist you further,
and I'm at your service.

All the best,

pafalafa-ga