Amid historic U.S. election, an unprecedented energy transformation

, Washington D.C. Correspondent
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, EIA Monthly Energy Review, October 2024 • Includes power plants with at least 1 megawatt of generation capacity. Renewables include wind, solar, geothermal, wood, landfill waste and conventional hydroelectric dams, but excludes pumped hydro storage. Other includes petroleum liquids, petroleum coke and other furnace waste gases, including propane.

The backdrop to the momentous election underway in the United States this week is a significant — and at times paradoxical — transformation of our energy systems.

Clean energy use is climbing, often rapidly, and yet at the same time, America has become the world’s biggest producer of oil and natural gas.

Global appetite for U.S. oil is surging amid the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, according to the latest data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Despite the GOP’s call to “drill, baby, drill,” the U.S. has been the world’s top producer of oil since 2018 and natural gas since 2011, owing mainly to the practice of fracking.

U.S. crude oil production has been rising since 2009, except for brief pauses caused by low prices in 2015 and the economic disruption during the Covid pandemic. In December 2023, the U.S. produced a record average of 13.3 million barrels-per-day.

The U.S. is also the world’s top exporter of liquified natural gas, beating out other top exporters Australia and Qatar in 2023 with an average of 11.9 billion cubic feet per day.

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration • Data includes first seven months of 2024.

The EIA’s short-term energy outlook also projects U.S. power consumption will reach record levels in 2024, driven by the rising needs of artificial intelligence and data centers, alongside the ongoing shift in homes and businesses to electric heating and cooling systems, appliances and transportation.

Meanwhile, more and more of that electricity is coming from clean sources. Clean-electricity deployment and generation continues to grow, led in recent years by cheap solar, despite headwinds from high interest rates, supply chain disruptions, permitting and grid connection challenges in recent years.

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Monthly Energy Review-October 2024 • Clean sources of generation include nuclear power and exclude pumped hydroelectric storage, which EIA says expends more energy in pumping than in storage. Data includes first seven months of 2024. Includes power plants with at least 1 megawatt of generation capacity.

Last year, wind and solar generation accounted for 10.2% and 3.9%, respectively, of the U.S. power mix. Combined together, these two renewable resources were nearly on par with coal generation, which has dropped significantly in recent years, according to EIA. This year, the government agency projects wind and solar could exceed coal-fired generation.

The EIA attributes the growing share of renewable energy to significant declines in manufacturing costs, state renewable-energy mandates that have been in place for many years and the more recent landmark climate law, the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which extended the subsidies for these two resources.