Energy History

Oil was discovered in America in 1890. As late as the early 1900s, Americans were still using wood and coal as their primary energy sources. For many years, oil was under-used because the technology to employ it and the distribution infrastructure did not yet exist. Whaling was a major fuel source for lighting homes, and horses were the common form of transportation. In 1907, only eight percent of the country had electricity.

Technological development during the last century was rapid, and largely based on the discovery of petroleum. Nearly all the mechanical, industrial, architectural, and technological advances, including the automotive industry, were based on the availability of relatively inexpensive, easily useable fossil fuel. New heating and cooling systems, elevators, and advanced building techniques made the development of steel and glass architectural forms possible, leading to buildings whose structures were totally unconnected to local climate or weather conditions. The widespread production and distribution of electricity led to improved lighting, radio, television, and telecommunications.

By 1925 over half of all American homes had electricity, although it was not until after World War II that many rural farmhouses were connected to the grid. During this time of electrical expansion, it was clearly cheaper and more profitable for electric utilities to produce electricity in large, centralized generating stations, and the cost of power fell dramatically during this period. Many private industries which had their own generators abandoned them because they were no longer cost effective.

The oil embargoes of the 1970s, the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island, and the electric utility's inability to retain regulatory confidence, resulted in governmental and regulatory incentives to foster co-generation, wind and hydro-electricity, and other decentralized systems on the basis that they were more energy efficient and would restrain electric price increases. Never the less, the energy-efficient design and operation of your home and automobile is still the most valuable strategy for the economic well being and future energy supply of the United States.