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Wood Use
In the 1700s wood was our main source of energy in the US. Wood became the dominant source of energy because it was easy to obtain, portable, and could be consumed on demand -
First major boom of coal
Tom Thumb, the first commercially practical American-built locomotive, was manufactured. The Tom Thumb burned coal, while almost every American locomotive that burned wood was converted to use coal. America's coal industry had begun taking shape. -
First successful use of a drilling rig
On August 28, 1859, George Bissell and Edwin L. Drake made the first successful use of a drilling rig on a well drilled especially to produce oil, at a site on Oil Creek near Titusville, Pennsylvania. -
Thomas Edison paves the way for coal use
In 1882 Edison built the first practical coal-fired electric generating station, supplying electricity to some residents of New York City. This paved the way for our dependence on coal. -
Spindletop oil field
On the morning of January 10, 1901, the little hill south of Beaumont, Texas began to tremble and mud bubbled up over the rotary table. A low rumbling sound came from underground, and then, with a force that shot 6 tons of 4-inch (100 mm) diameter pipe out over the top of the derrick, knocking off the crown block, the Lucas Gusher roared in and the Spindletop oil field was born. -
Oil in Oklahoma
In Oklahoma City, Oklahoma a well was discovered in 19258. The Mary Sudik No. 1, "Wild Mary Sudik", gusher did not blow until March 25, 1930—she sprayed an estimated 3,000 barrels. -
Oil in Alaska!
Petroleum seeps on the North Slope have been known for many years, and in 1923, the federal government created US Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 4 to cover the presumed oil fields beneath the seeps. Some exploration drilling was done in the reserve during World War II and the 1950s, but the remote location deterred intensive exploration until the 1960s. The Prudhoe Bay Oil Field, the largest oil field in the United States in terms of total oil produced, was discovered in 1968. -
Nuclear power
On May 26, 1958 the first commercial nuclear power plant in the United States, Shippingport nuclear power plant, was opened by President Dwight D. Eisenhower as part of his Atoms for Peace program. -
A new era for coal
By 1961, coal had became the major fuel used by electricity utilities to generate electricity, and a new era for coal began taking shape. U.S. coal production nearly doubled, increasing from 520 million tons in 1970 to one billion tons for the first time in 1990 and to nearly 1.1 billion tons currently. -
Hydropower
As of January 2003 about 10% of U.S. electricity comes from hydropower. Today, there is about 80,000 MW of conventional capacity and 18,000 MW of pumped storage.
