Energy Year In Review: Fossil fuels remained dominant source of energy for the U.S. in 2023

Despite claims of a transition to "green" energy moving at a “breakneck speed” in 2023, fossil fuels remained the dominant fuel source of electricity in 2023 over wind and solar by a wide margin. The year saw the offshore wind industry face financial struggles, investments in renewable energy drop in value, and increased opposition on the local level to wind and solar projects.

Meanwhile, the U.S. oil and gas industry will hit record-high production levels this year.

Fossil fuels and renewables

The oil and gas industry's tally is expected to come in just over the pre-pandemic levels of 2019. Natural gas production is also hitting record highs this year.

While the industry has been a strong producer of energy in 2023, it’s faced an increasingly tougher regulatory environment, spearheaded a president who campaigned on a promise to “end fossil fuel.” Carrying forward policies begun by President Obama, President Biden and the Democrats have taken extensive actions to reduce oil and gas production.

The oil and gas industry also competed against wind and solar without the level of subsidies that renewables receive. Reuters reported that subsidies to renewable energy was as high as $15.6 billion in the last seven years. The billions in subsidies didn’t prevent the renewable energy industry from having a tough year.

Rising interest rates and supply chain issues, which all industries faced in 2023, had offshore wind companies looking to renegotiate contracts in hopes of getting a profitable rate from electricity customers. Some projects were canceled.

While the federal government pours a lot of support into the wind and solar industry, local opposition continued to increase in 2023. Energy expert Robert Bryce keeps an approximate tally of the number of renewable energy projects across the U.S. that were rejected. In 2014, there was only one project rejected, according to the Renewable Rejection Database. That figure grew to more than 600 canceled projects this year.

“It’s another big year for rejections of wind and solar all across the country — and increasingly, battery projects,” Bryce told Just The News.

This week, U.S. Court of International Trade Judge Jennifer Choe-Graves ruled that Enel must dismantle a 150-megawatt wind project it built in Osage County, Oklahoma, despite the objections of the native-American Osage Nation. The ruling came at the end of 12 years of litigation, according to Bryce, with the court deciding that Enel had illegally mined rock the tribe owned. According to NPR, Enel will spend $300 million to remove the 94-turbine wind farm.

Electricity generation by the numbers

America got most of its electricity from fossil fuel-powered generation in 2023.
Between January and October of 2023, natural gas was the primary fuel source for electricity generated in the United States, according to data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA).

October is the latest month for which the EIA has data. Natural gas produced between 120.5 million megawatt hours in April to as much as 200.5 million megawatt hours in July.
Coal was the next largest fuel source for American electricity generation during the 10-month period in 2023, producing 40 million megawatt hours of electricity in April and nearly 80 million megawatt hours in July.

Nuclear energy provided similar amounts of power in the U.S. grid as coal in the period, with a high of 70.8 million megawatt hours in January and a low of 56.7 million in April.

Wind was the next largest provider of power, with a high of 44.5 million megawatt hours in March to a low of 27.5 million megawatt hours in June. Between 2001 and 2022, total generation in the U.S. increased from 3.73 billion megawatt hours to 4.23 billion megawatt hours.

In 2021, coal was the largest fuel source, accounting for over 50% of the total generation in the U.S., with natural gas providing 17%. Nuclear energy produced 768.8 million megawatt hours in 2021, which was just under 21%. By 2022, coal-fired electricity generation provided 831.5 million megawatt hours, less than 20%, and natural gas-fired electricity generation provided nearly 40%.

Nuclear energy accounted for 18% of the total mix in 2022.

Hydroelectric has remained fairly steady over the past couple decades. It produced just under 6% of the total electricity generation in 2001, and 6% in 2022.

Wind energy began to produce significant amounts of the total electricity generation in 2007, accounting for about 0.8% that year. Fifteen years later, it was producing 10% of the total U.S. electricity generation.

Solar has grown from 0.7% of the total in 2014 to 4.8% in 2022.

While wind and solar have seen large increases in total energy produced, it’s come at a time of increased demand. To meet that demand, electricity generation increased over 13% between 2021 and 2022, which is about equal to the growth of wind and solar in that time.