America stands at a historic energy crossroads that is arguably as critical to our future global leadership as was the completion of the Transcontinental Railway or the interstate highway system. The decisions we make today about our energy future will determine whether we lead or follow in the global AI revolution and whether we maintain our economic edge over China.
To understand the magnitude of what’s coming, we need to look at where we’ve been. From 1920-2021, America’s energy consumption grew fourfold – electricity consumption alone grew 100-fold – as we transformed from a developing industrial nation to the world’s leading economic superpower.
This massive expansion fueled unprecedented prosperity for American families, farmers, and businesses. It spurred incredible innovation, efficiency, and conservation in everything from transportation and distribution, medical care, the digital revolution, manufacturing, farming, textiles, milling, construction, appliances, plastics, and even personal leisure.
But something interesting happened in recent decades. After generations of steady growth, our energy consumption leveled off. Over the past 20 years, we actually saw a slight decline in total energy use – about 4% – despite continued economic and population growth. This plateau reflected improved efficiency and structural economic changes.