  Starting from the Maxwell-Lorentz equations, Poynting's theorem is
reconsidered. The energy flux vector is introduced as S_e=(E x B)/mu_0 instead
of E x H, because only by this choice the energy dissipation can be related to
the balance of the kinetic energy of the matter subsystem. Conservation of the
total energy as the sum of kinetic and electromagnetic energy follows. In our
discussion, media and their microscopic nature are represented exactly by their
susceptibility functions, which do not necessarily have to be known. On this
footing, it can be shown that energy conservation in the propagation of light
through bounded media is ensured by Maxwell's boundary conditions alone, even
for some frequently used approximations. This is demonstrated for approaches
using additional boundary conditions and the dielectric approximation in
detail, the latter of which suspected to violate energy conservation for
decades.
