The Energy System of the United States of America (USA)

Published September 2023.

Map of the USA1.

Global Carbon Ranking

► World’s Largest oil producer2
► world’s Largest gas producer2
► 4th largest coal producer2
► 2nd largest CO2 emitter3
► 12th largest CO2 emitter per capita4

U.S. oil production — already the highest in the world — is on track to set a new record this year [2023], and will probably rise even more in 2024.

The U.S. is pumping oil faster than ever. Republicans don’t care.

Fossil Fuel Production

Chart 1. USA annual fossil fuel production. The time period of the charts differ due to different time periods of the available data. Data: Energy Institute Statistical Review of World Energy 20235 6.

Carbon Dioxide (CO₂) Emissions

Chart 2. USA annual fossil fuel CO₂ emissions. Data: Energy Institute Statistical Review of World Energy 20235.

Total (Primary) Energy Supply

Total Energy Supply (also known as ‘Primary energy’) accounts for energy supplied prior to conversions to electricity or hydrogen. For help, see the introduction.

Chart 3. USA total (primary) energy by share in 2022. Data: Energy Institute Statistical Review of World Energy 20235.
Chart 4. USA primary energy by annual share of category (left) and fuel (right). Data: Energy Institute Statistical Review of World Energy 20235.
Chart 5. Absolute values of USA annual primary energy by category. Data: Energy Institute Statistical Review of World Energy 20235.
Chart 6. Absolute values of USA annual primary energy by fuel. Data: Energy Institute Statistical Review of World Energy 20235.
Chart 7. Annual change of USA primary energy by category. Data: Energy Institute Statistical Review of World Energy 20235. Values shown at the top of columns is annual change, rounded, in units of exajoules per year.
Chart 8. Annual change of USA primary energy by fuel. Data: Energy Institute Statistical Review of World Energy 20235. Values shown at the top of columns is annual change, rounded, in units of exajoules per year.

Carbon Intensity

Chart 9. Annual carbon intensity of USA primary energy. Data: Calculated using Energy Institute Statistical Review of World Energy 20235.

Energy Consumption (i.e. Final Energy)

Final energy accounts the consumption of energy in final forms, and therefore can account for electricity separately from heat (e.g energy consumed for steel manufacture, or by transport). Unlike primary energy, final energy does not rely on calculating equivalences for non-combustible fuels such as solar and wind. For help, see the introduction.

Chart 10. USA energy consumption (i.e final energy) by share. Data: IEA(2022)7. The Heat share refers to consumed heat produced by combined heat and power plants, and chemical reactions.

The above pie charts of each year are combined below to show the annual gross world energy consumption of each fuel, showing electric and non-electric energy consumption combined.

Chart 11. USA gross energy consumption (i.e final energy) by share for years shown. Data: IEA(2022)7.
Geothermal and tidal shares are too small to show in the lower row for years 1990 and 2000.
Statistics were calculated by converting annual electricity production for each fuel from units of Wh to Joules, and then tallying these with respective ‘heat’ values associated with electricity generation, and thermal ‘total final consumption’ values from direct combustion. This method was used because total final consumption of electricity from separate fuels is unknown. The consequence is that Electricity Imports, Exports, Statistical Differences, Electricity Losses and Industry Own Use are included and therefore assumed to be equally shared between fuels, which is of course not the case.

Electricity

Chart 12. USA electricity generation by share in 2022. Data: Energy Institute Statistical Review of World Energy 20235.
Chart 13. USA electricity generation by annual share of category (left), and fuel (right). Data: Energy Institute Statistical Review of World Energy 20235.
Chart 14. Annual USA electricity generation, by category. Data: Energy Institute Statistical Review of World Energy 20235. For clarity, categories ‘Geo, Biomass and Other renewables’ and ‘Other’ are not shown.
Chart 15. Annual USA electricity generation, by fuel. Data: Energy Institute Statistical Review of World Energy 20235.
Chart 16. Annual change of USA electricity generation, by category. Data: Energy Institute Statistical Review of World Energy 20235. For clarity, categories ‘Geo, Biomass and Other renewables’ and ‘Other’ are not shown. Annual changes are shown at the top of each column, values rounded.
Chart 17. Annual change of USA electricity generation, by fuel. Data: Energy Institute Statistical Review of World Energy 20235. For clarity, categories ‘Geo, Biomass and Other renewables’ and ‘Other’ are not shown.
Footnotes
  1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Map_of_USA_with_state_names_2.svg(↩)
  2. https://www.worldenergydata.org/world-fossil-fuel-production-and-primary-energy/, year 2022.(↩)(↩)(↩)
  3. https://www.energyinst.org/statistical-review/about, from energy, 14% share in year 2022. Largest was China with a 31% share.(↩)
  4. https://globalcarbonatlas.org/emissions/carbon-emissions/, 15 tonnes CO2 per person in year 2021. Ranking is: Qatar(36tCO2/capita/yr), Bahrain(27), Kuwait(25), Trinidad and Tobago(24), Brunei Darussalam(22), UAE(22), New Caledonia(19), Saudi Arabia(19), Oman(18), Australia(15), Mongolia(15), USA(15). Values in brackets rounded.(↩)
  5. https://www.energyinst.org/statistical-review/about(↩)(↩)(↩)(↩)(↩)(↩)(↩)(↩)(↩)(↩)(↩)(↩)(↩)(↩)(↩)
  6. Sheets used from the data were: 1. ‘Coal Production – Tonnes’. 2. ‘Oil Production – Barrels’. Annual figure calculated. 3. ‘Gas Production – Bcm’.(↩)
  7. https://www.iea.org/data-and-statistics/data-product/world-energy-balances-highlights(↩)(↩)