Via The Register-Herald:

Domestic energy use dropped slightly between 2014 and 2015, according to a report by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Overall, the nations energy usage dropped about one half of one percent, from 98.2 quadrillion British thermal units in 2014 to 97.7 in 2015.

EIA data shows natural gas and petroleum were the major sources of energy in the U.S last year, supplying 35.4 percent and 28.3 percent, respectively. Coal came in a distant third, providing 15.7 percent of the nation’s energy.

In 2014, petroleum represented 34.8 percent of the nation’s energy, while natural gas was at 27.5 percent. Coal provided slightly less than 18 percent of the county’s energy, EIA data for the year shows.

However, 91 percent of the power sector – one of four sectors – ran on coal during 2015 and 2014.

Coal experienced a slight bump in industrial usage between 2014 and 2015. In 2014 coal made up eight percent of industrial energy use, but the following year it jump to nine percent, according to the EIA.

During the two years, coal usage remained late at less than 1 percent in the residential and commerce sector.

Natural gas saw growth in the electric and industrial sectors. In 2015, natural gas accounted for 35 percent of the electric power generated, a jump from 30 percent the year before, EIA data shows.

In the industrial sector it went from 33 percent to 34 percent during the years.

Natural gas’s usage remained flat in the transportation sector, remaining at 3 percent, while suffering a decline residential and commercial sector, going from 32 percent of usage in 2014 to 28 percent in 2015.

Nuclear energy remained steady at providing 8.3 percent of the country’s energy during the two years. All domestic nuclear power generated was used in creating electric power, according to an EIA chart.

Overall, renewables provided slightly less than 10 percent of the nation’s energy in 2014 and 2015. It remained slightly changed year-to-year, 9.6 percent in 2014 to 9.7 percent a year later.

Petroleum accounted for more than a third of the nation’s energy source, the majority, 73 percent, used in the transportation sector, up from 71 percent the year before.

Fossil fuels, petroleum, coal and natural gas, accounted for slightly more than 80 percent of energy used in the United States in 2015 and 2014.

See the article here.