Renewable energy production in the United States reached an all-time high of 8,788 trillion British thermal units in 2024. Consumption followed closely behind at 8,581 trillion British thermal units. U.S. investment in clean energy The United States' investment in renewables has greatly increased in the past two decades. Clean energy in the United States currently comes primarily from wind, solar, and hydropower, with significant contributions from biofuel and biomass - also known as biopower. Investments are motivated not only by environmental concerns, but also by unstable markets for traditional fossil fuels. Crisis in oil markets When oil prices peaked during the 2008 financial crisis, investors turned toward developing renewables as well as increasing domestic oil production as a more economically viable source. During the 2010s oil glut, oversupply of shale oil followed the expansion of extraction methods such as hydraulic fracturing, used to access the country’s large reserves of sandstone deep underground.

The United States consumed approximately 94.2 quadrillion British thermal units of primary energy in 2024. This was an increase in comparison to the previous year of roughly 0.6 quadrillion British thermal units. Primary energy refers to energy harvested directly from natural resources and includes both fossil fuels and renewable sources. U.S. has one of the highest energy consumptions in the world The U.S. has had a consistently strong demand for energy over the past two decades, ranking second among the largest primary energy consuming countries in the world, following China. As energy consumption has increased, so have energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy, causing a decrease in greenhouse gas emissions in the country. Energy market shifts Over the last few years, the fluctuations of the international fossil fuel market and President Trump's administration caused a shift in the country's energy policy, from a focus on renewable energies and green tech to fossil fuels. This led the U.S. to invest more in domestic shale oil and natural gas production than ever before.

The United States consumed some 2,802 trillion British thermal units of energy derived from biofuels in 2024. This figure includes fuel ethanol and biodiesel used as automotive fuels. Biofuels consumption in the North American country has been on a mostly upward tendency over the last decade, peaking in 2024.

In 1999, North America's coal production volume came to 25.28 exajoules. By 2024, it decreased to 11.88 exajoules. North America's role in global coal energy Coal production has decreased in North America in recent years. In 2000, the continent as a whole produced 24.65 exajoules of coal and had reduced production some 53 percent by 2024. However, globally, there has been a significant increase in coal production, from 96.5 exajoules in 2000 to 182.23 exajoules in 2024. This global increase is largely due to the coal production and energy consumption in China. The country accounts for almost half of both the world’s production and consumption of this fossil fuel. China’s coal production has more than doubled, from 29.6 exajoules in 2000 to 94.48 exajoules in 2024. North American coal consumption and environmental backlash The consumption of coal in the United States decreased to 7.89 quadrillion British thermal units (Btu) in 2024. The United States consumed almost 18 quadrillion Btu of coal in 2014 and 2.47 quadrillion Btu from conventional hydroelectric energy. Coal companies face competition from the growing renewable energy industries and increasing demands for cleaner energy from consumers. In Canada, the province of Ontario had shut down all of its coal-generated plants as of April 2014, the first jurisdiction in North America to do so.

United States' electricity producers paid about 2.75 U.S. dollars per million British thermal unit for natural gas in 2024. Meanwhile, coal power plant operators paid an average of 2.48 U.S. dollars. In the last decade, the price of natural gas used for electricity generation has seen a net decrease, followed by a considerable rise in 2022. Coal, on the other hand, has consistently been among the cheapest fuel types used in the power sector. Natural gas prices and the influence of oil demand As it is often produced alongside oil, prices for natural gas are shaped by overall market developments of the oil and gas industry. When an overproduction of oil led to the oil glut between 2015 and 2016, natural gas prices fell notably. The same circumstance could be observed in 2020 when a fall in oil demand brought many benchmarks such as WTI and Brent to historic lows and also resulted in the Henry Hub price falling to a 21-year low. Apart from petroleum, which is an expensive and inefficient means of power production, fossil fuel costs for electricity generation have declined since 2022. Shift away from conventional energy sources Although renewable technologies were once thought to be very expensive, greater investments have quickly rendered their levelized cost of energy generation on par with fossil fuels, especially when deployed on a utility-scale. The aging coal fleet is a prime example of the increasing necessity to switch to carbon neutral technologies. Older coal plants are dealing with increasing maintenance costs as well as environmental regulations forcing the installation of pollution controls.