The US relied more on electricity from renewable sources in 1950 than today

http://qz.com/623371/the-us-relied-more-on-electricity-from-renewable-sources-in-1950-than-today/

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The fact doesn’t make intuitive sense if you think of mid-20th century America as an industrial powerhouse in a time before environmental regulation or solar and wind technology. But the era’s lower demand for electricity meant that hydroelectric power coming from the mega-projects of the 1930s, such as the Hoover Dam or the Tennessee Valley Authority, could do a lot of heavy lifting:

In 1950, nearly a third of all US power was hydroelectric. While more hydroelectric power is generated today, growing demand required non-renewable nuclear power and natural gas to fill the gap. Mega-projects like massive dams are falling out of favor—it’s much harder to raise billions and move entire communities today than it was in the Depression-era US, or even contemporary China.

There is some good news: Americans use less petroleum and coal for electricity than before, and wind power is playing a bigger role. But the overall mix is still dependent on the limited supply of fossil fuels we can dig out of the ground. With solar energy barely a rounding error here, you can see we have a long way to go before we meet Elon Musk’s promise of powering the entire US by covering a corner of Utah or Nevada in solar panels.

All this data comes from the US Energy Information Administration, by way of economist Tim Taylor, who noted a bunch of interesting social indicators released this year as part of president Barack Obama’s budget.