� EIA ANALYSIS : HOW ENERGY USE HAS CHANGED
In 2023 , 94 quadrillion British thermal units ( quads ) was consumed in the United States , a 1 % decrease from 2022 , according to EIA ’ s Monthly Energy Review . Fossil fuels — petroleum , natural gas , and coal — accounted for nearly 83 % of total U . S . energy consumption in 2023 . Non-fossil fuel energy — from renewable sources and from nuclear — accounted for the other 17 %. In 2023 , petroleum remained the most-consumed fuel in the United States , as it has been for the past 73 years , and renewables exceeded coal for the first time in about 140 years .
When the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776 , wood , a renewable energy source , was the largest source of energy in the United States . Used for heating , cooking , and lighting , wood remained the largest U . S . energy source until the late 1800s , when coal surpassed it .
Early use of water to power grist , lumber , and other milling operations is not well quantified and not included in EIA data , but such mills were common throughout early U . S . history . The first industrial use of hydropower to generate electricity in the United States was to power lamps at a chair factory in Grand Rapids , Michigan , in 1880 . The world ’ s first hydroelectric power plant to sell electricity to the public opened on the Fox River near Appleton , Wisconsin , in 1882 .
Renewable energy did not become a more significant part of U . S . energy again until more recently . Biofuels became the most-consumed U . S . renewable energy source in 2016 , surpassing wood . In the 1980s , the United States began to consume more ethanol blended with petroleum motor gasoline and later biodiesel and renewable diesel blended with petroleum diesel . Renewable diesel can be substituted for petroleum diesel while chemical differences limit the amount of biodiesel that can be blended into petroleum diesel . U . S . renewable diesel surpassed biodiesel use for the first time in 2022 .
Electricity generation from zero-carbon sources such as wind and solar has
8 JULY 2024 | FUEL OIL NEWS | www . fueloilnews . com