This section presents statistics on fuel resources, energy production and consumption, electric energy, hydroelectric power, nuclear power, solar energy, wood energyand the electric and gas utility industries. The principal sources are the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration (EIA), the Edison Electric Institute, Washington, DC, and the American Gas Association, Arlington, VA. The Department of Energy was created in October1977 and assumed and centralized the responsibilitiesof all or part of several agencies including the Federal Power Commission (FPC), the U.S. Bureau of Mines, the Federal Energy Administration, and the U.S. Energy Research and Development Administration. For additional data on transportation, see Section 21; on fuels, see Section 24; and on energy-related housing characteristics, see Section 25.

The EIA, in itsAnnual Energy Review, provides statistics and trend data on energy supply, demand, and prices. Information is included on petroleum and natural gas, coal, electricity, hydroelectric power, nuclear power, solar, wood,and geothermal energy.Among its annual reports are Annual Energy Review, Electric Power Annual, Natural Gas Annual, Petroleum Supply Annual, State Energy Data Report, State Energy Price and Expenditure Report, Financial Statistics of Selected Electric Utilities, PerformanceProfiles of Major EnergyProducers, Annual Energy Outlook, andInternationalEnergy Annual.These various publications contain state, national, and international data on production of electricity, net summer capability of generating plants, fuels used in energy production, energy sales and consumption, and hydroelectric power. The EIA also issues the Monthly Energy Review, which presents current supply, disposition, and price data and monthly publications on petroleum, coal, natural gas, and electric power. Data on residential energy consumption, expenditures, and conservation activities are available from EIA’s Residential EnergyConsumption Survey and are published triennially in ResidentialEnergy ConsumptionSurvey: Consumption and Expenditures, andResidential EnergyConsumption Survey:Housing Characteristics, and other reports.

The Edison Electric Institute’s monthly bulletin and annual Statistical Year Book of the ElectricUtility Industry for the Yearcontain data on the distribution of electric energy by public utilities; information on the electric power supply, expansion of electric generating facilities, and the manufacture of heavyelectric power equipment is presentedin the annualYear-End Summary of the Electric Power Situation in the United States.The American Gas Association, in its monthly and quarterly bulletins and its yearbook, Gas Facts, presents data on gas utilities, financial and operating statistics.

Btu conversion factors-Various energy sources are converted from original units to the thermal equivalent using British thermal units (Btu). A Btu is the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of 1 pound of water 1 degree Fahrenheit (F) at or near 39.2 degrees F. Factors are calculated annually from the latest final annual data available; some are revised as a result. The following list provides conversion factors used in 1995 for production and consumption, in that order, for various fuels: Petroleum, 5.800 and 5.586 mil. Btu per barrel; total coal, 21.278 and 20.852 mil. Btu per short ton; and natural gas (dry), 1,028 Btu per cubic foot for both. The factors for the production of nuclear power and geothermal power were 10,676 and 20,914 Btu per kilowatt-hour, respectively. The fossil fuel steam-electric power plant generation factor of 10,272 Btu per kilowatt- hour was used for hydroelectric power generation and for wood and waste, wind, photovoltaic, and solar thermal energy consumed at electric utilities.