[swolios]

Many of the resources consumed to make electricity at the scale we are talking replacing the production of those resources create the other resources used to for various other things

e.g. diesel(heating oil), jet fuel, gasoline, plastics, asphalt, etc

There is a balance of these.

This also doesn't take into account the extra electricity needed to replace the alternative heating methods in the home that utilize these other materials we're abandoning

[pfdietz]

The linked article does take into account all those other uses of energy.

[swolios]

it only loosely takes into account the total BTU of energy produced not all the byproducts and equipment that needs energy to be replaced. 5 million homes heat with heating oil 70 million homes heat with NG. 26 million tons of bitumen for asphalt roads You can assume 13 million tons of shingles going to the dump each year are replaced with shingles using again bitumen. ~10% of fossil fuels consumed per year go to making plastics

Again when you refine or produce OIL you don't just get one or the other. Most of the power generation in Mexico (over 50%) is literally just the waste NG from producing oil from the shale in western USA. (We were previously just burning this off at the wells btw)

[pfdietz]

The total energy used includes all the energy used in those "byproducts and equipment", so I don't understand your argument. What, you think the natural gas that goes into plastic production isn't being counted?

A significant overcount would be confusing primary energy with work. A joule of electrical energy can replace more than a joule of primary energy.