Energy use in the United States
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This article presents information on energy reserves, energy production, and consumption in the United States. The chart below displays energy consumption, production, imports, and exports from 1949 through 2016 in the United States in quadrillion BTU.[1]
See the tabs below for further information.
- Energy resources: This tab contains information regarding coal, oil, and natural gas reserves as well as renewable energy capacity in the United States.
- Consumption and prices: This tab contains information on energy consumption by sector and energy prices.
- Energy imports/exports: This tab contains information about energy imports and exports in the United States.
- Production: This tab contains information about energy production in the United States.
Energy sources
Coal, oil, and natural gas
As of 2015, the United States had 477 billion short tons of demonstrated coal reserves, 32.3 billion barrels of proven crude oil reserves, and 388.8 trillion cubic feet of proven natural gas reserves.[2][3][4]
The chart below compares coal, oil, and natural gas reserves in the United States to 17 other countries with the highest valued reserves in 2015, according to data from the BP Statistical Review of World Energy collected by the World Energy Council. The data below is for the year 2015 unless otherwise noted.[5]
| Coal, oil, and natural gas reserves | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Country | Coal reserves (in million tons) | Oil reserves (in metric tons) | Natural gas reserves (in billion cubic feet) | |||||
| Algeria | 59* | 1,536.5 | 159,057.4 | |||||
| Libya | N/A | 6,297.3 | 53,145.1 | |||||
| India | 60,600 | 763.5 | 52,564.9 | |||||
| Kazakhstan | 33,600 | 3,931.8 | 33,055.3 | |||||
| Nigeria | 344* | 5,002.7 | 180,493.2 | |||||
| Australia | 76,400 | 441.8 | 122,591.7 | |||||
| Turkmenistan | N/A | 82.2 | 617,265 | |||||
| Kuwait | N/A | 13,980.7 | 63,001.4 | |||||
| China | 114,500 | 2,521 | 135,652.7 | |||||
| United Arab Emirates | N/A | 12,976 | 215,101.6 | |||||
| Qatar | N/A | 2,694.5 | 866,200 | |||||
| Iraq | N/A | 19,307.6 | 130,452.4 | |||||
| Canada | 6,582 | 27,754.6 | 70,174.6 | |||||
| United States | 237,295 | 6,857* | 368,704 | |||||
| Saudi Arabia | N/A | 36,617.9 | 294,000 | |||||
| Venezuela | 479 | 26,807* | 198,368 | |||||
| Iran | 1,203* | 21,433* | 1,201,404.8 | |||||
| Russia | 157,010 | 14,024 | 1,139,640.7 | |||||
| *2014 data Source: World Energy Council, "World Energy Resources 2016" | ||||||||
Renewable energy capacity
Renewable energy sources can naturally replenish and are not based on a finite resource like coal, oil, or natural gas. Sources include wind, solar, biomass, geothermal, nuclear power, and hydroelectric power.[6]
The table below shows renewable energy capacity in the United States and other countries in 2015. This information was compiled by the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21). Note that total renewable energy capacity is not equal to actual total production (nuclear power was not included in the report).[7]
Click on a column heading to sort the data.
| Top six countries by renewable electric power capacity, 2015 (in gigawatts, or GW) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Country | All sources | Biofuels | Geothermal | Hydropower | Solar | Wind |
| China | 496 | 10.3 | 0 | 296 | 44 | 145 |
| United States | 202 | 16.7 | 3.6 | 80 | 27.7 | 145 |
| Germany | 97 | 7.1 | 0 | 5.6 | 40 | 45 |
| India | 83 | 5.6 | 0 | 47 | 5.4 | 25 |
| Japan | 65 | 4.8 | 0.5 | 22 | 34 | 3 |
| Italy | 51 | 4.1 | 0.9 | 18 | 18.9 | 9 |
| Spain | 49 | 1 | 0 | 17 | 7.7 | 23 |
| Source: REN21, "Renewables 2016 Global Status Report" | ||||||
Consumption and prices
Total consumption
The graph below shows energy consumption by energy type in the United States from 1949 to 2016 in quadrillion BTU.[1]
Consumption by sector
The graph to the right presents energy consumption by sector in the United States from 1949 through 2016. The industrial sector is represented in green, the commercial sector in brown, the transportation sector in yellow, and the residential sector in blue.[8]
Prices
The graph below shows the cost of fuels to end users of energy in real (1982-1984) dollars.[1]
Energy imports/exports
Imports and exports
The charts below present energy imports (top) and exports (bottom) in the United States from 1949 through 2016 in quadrillion BTU.[1]
Production
Production
The chart below shows energy production by energy type in the United States from 1949 to 2016 in quadrillion BTU.[1]
Energy in the 50 states
Click on a state below to read more about that state's energy policy.
See also
- U.S. Department of Energy
- U.S. Department of Agriculture
- U.S. Department of the Interior
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
- United States Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources
- United States House of Representatives Committee on Natural Resources
- United States House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 U.S. Energy Information Administration, "Monthly Energy Review," accessed April 13, 2017
- ↑ U.S. Energy information Administration, "U.S. Crude Oil and Natural Gas Proved Reserves, Year-end 2016," accessed April 12, 2017
- ↑ U.S. Energy Information Administration, "Crude Oil Proved Reserves, Reserves Changes, and Production," December 14, 2016
- ↑ U.S. Energy Information Administration, "U.S. Coal Reserves," November 4, 2016
- ↑ World Energy Council, "World Energy Resources - 2016," accessed April 10, 2017
- ↑ U.S. Energy Information Administration, “Glossary, R” accessed January 29, 2014
- ↑ REN21, "Renewables 2016 Global Status Report," accessed April 13, 2017
- ↑ U.S. Energy Information Administration, "Total Energy," accessed April 13, 2017
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