By Meagan Clark - The U.S. produced enough energy last year to meet 84 percent of the country’s demand, supported largely by natural gas production, according to a recent monthly report by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).
Natural gas, coal, oil and other fossil fuels accounted for 82 percent of the energy consumed nationally, with natural gas the largest domestic energy resource produced and consumed for the third year in a row, according to the report.
Renewable energy met 10 percent of energy needs, and nuclear power accounted for 8 percent. Late last year, President Obama called on his administration to use renewable energy to supply 20 percent of its needs by 2020.
The portion of energy consumption supplied by domestic production has been increasing since 2005, when it hit a low of 65 percent, according to the report. Since then, technological advances that help drillers produce from hard-to-reach resources have increased production of energy resources domestically, especially natural gas and crude oil. Over the same time period, reduced road travel, improved vehicle mileage and competition among fuels for electricity generation, have limited consumption of coal and oil.
The last time the ratio of domestic production to consumption increased significantly was from 1978 to 1982, when oil consumption declined in response to higher prices and changing policies and production of oil in Alaska and coal nationally increased.