Remember the energy crisis? The United States at one time consumed far more energy than it produced. We were at risk of being beholden to or blackmailed by the OPEC nations in the Middle East. Energy conservation was a hot topic.
Things are different today.
ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥œIn 2024, the United States imported about 17% of its domestic energy supply, half of the record share set in 2006 and the lowest share since 1985,ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ the U.S. Energy Information Administration said in an update issued Monday.
ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥œThe decline in importsÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™ share of supply in the previous two decades is attributable to both an increase in domestic energy production and a decrease in energy imports since 2006. ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥¦
ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥œIn 2024, for the third consecutive year, the United States remained a net exporter of energy, producing a record amount that continues to exceed consumption. Individually, U.S. natural gas, crude oil, natural gas plant liquids (NGPLs), biofuels, solar, and wind each set domestic production records in 2024.ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥
Noticeably absent from that list were coal and nuclear power. Coal as a fuel source in the United States has been on a steep downward trend since fracking for oil and natural gas boomed in the early 2010s. Here in West Virginia, fracking shifted energy production from the southern coalfields to the Marcellus shale area north of U.S. 50. The state has ample supplies in the Utica shale also, but those fields are much deeper than the Marcellus shale, so thereÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s no great desire from drillers to go down that far yet.
Between 2006 and 2024, U.S. imports of crude oil and petroleum products fell 39%, the EIA reported.
As for the apocalyptic threat from OPEC, the EIA said that in 2006, OPEC countries in aggregate accounted for the largest share of U.S. crude oil and petroleum imports.
ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥œSince then, imports from OPEC countries decreased 77% while imports from Canada nearly doubled. Total crude oil and petroleum imports from Canada to the United States exceeded those from OPEC for the first time in 2014 and have every year since. Following the recent expansion of CanadaÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s Trans Mountain pipeline, U.S. imports of crude oil from Canada reached record highs in 2024. Nearly all crude oil used by U.S. refineries in the Midwest and Mountain regions comes from Canada.ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥
Thirty years ago, who would have expected coal to collapse so quickly and natural gas to rise so high as the fossil fuel of choice in power plants?
ThereÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s often a dark cloud behind every silver lining, and in this case it could be the rise of data centers. Those energy hogs are needed for the rise of artificial intelligence applications. In many places, including northern West Virginia, neighbors donÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™t want them.
We may be in a calm between storms when it comes to energy supply and demand. As southern West Virginia has learned, nothing in energy is permanent, no matter how much we wish it were. ItÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s best to be flexible and think generationally. That last part has proven difficult here and elsewhere.
