As America celebrates our 250th birthday, we will rightly remember the Founders, soldiers, and pioneers who made this nation the freest and most prosperous country in history. But another group deserves a place in that celebration: the men and women who produced the energy that made American greatness possible.
America did not become a world leader by managing scarcity. It became a world leader by producing abundance. From coal to oil to natural gas, American energy powered the cities, factories, homes, cars, and yes, armies that turned a young republic into the strongest nation on earth.
The story begins with coal because long before electricity reached American homes, coal was already lighting American streets. In 1816, Baltimore became the first American city to light its streets with gas made from coal. That was a preview of the modern city: safer streets, longer business hours, and urban life no longer limited by sunset.
Just a few years later, natural gas entered the American story. In 1821, William Hart dug a well in Fredonia, New York, intended to produce natural gas. The Fredonia Gas Light Company later became the first American natural gas company. From that small beginning grew an energy source that today heats homes, fuels industry, and strengthens America’s allies overseas.
Coal then helped drive the great industrial expansion of the 19th century. It powered railroads and helped move America from a coastal republic into an industrial powerhouse. Coal also made steel possible at scale. Before America could build skyscrapers and railroads, it needed steel. And before America had steel, it needed coal.
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Coal also helped bring electricity into American homes. Edison’s first practical coal-fired electric generating station went into operation in New York City in 1882. By 1907, Census data show that 8 percent of U.S. dwelling units had electric service, meaning America had already crossed the one-million-home electricity mark. Hydropower mattered in certain regions, but the national workhorse of early electrification was coal-fired steam power. The miracle at the wall switch was not powered by wishful thinking. It was powered by fuel pulled from the earth.
Oil brought the next revolution. Whale oil once illuminated American homes and businesses, but after the discovery of petroleum in Pennsylvania in 1859, kerosene and other petroleum products largely replaced whale oil for lighting by the end of the century. That’s right, oil literally helped save the whales.
Then oil put America on wheels. In 1908, Ford assembled the first Model T in Detroit. People were no longer tied as tightly to rail schedules or the limits of the horse and buggy. Oil gave ordinary Americans something that had once belonged mostly to the wealthy: freedom of movement.
By World War II, oil had become more than a consumer fuel. It was strategic power. When German U-boats threatened tanker routes along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts, America built the Big Inch and Little Big Inch pipelines to move crude oil and refined products from Texas to the East Coast. American oil did not just power cars. It powered victory.
After the war, natural gas helped build the modern American household. In the 1950s and 1960s, a massive pipeline buildout made natural gas a normal part of American life: cooking dinner, heating homes, running factories and later helping power the grid.
Another milestone came in 1949, when hydraulic fracturing became a commercial tool. Combined decades later with horizontal drilling, it helped unlock the shale revolution, restoring America’s place as an energy superpower.
The proof came after Russia invaded Ukraine. In 2022, as Europe faced a natural gas shortage, U.S. LNG exports to Europe surged in response. American natural gas became more than a domestic blessing. It became geopolitical leverage for the free world.
And the story is not over. The United States is still setting records in oil and natural gas production.
That is part of the record America should celebrate on its 250th birthday. Coal lit the cities, forged the steel, moved the railroads and powered the first electric homes. Oil replaced whale oil, moved families and helped win world wars. Natural gas heated homes, fueled industry, transformed the grid and gave America’s allies an alternative to hostile regimes.
The lesson of 250 years is simple: nations that produce energy lead. Nations that beg for energy follow.
Larry Behrens is an energy expert and the Communications Director for Power The Future. He is also author of the book “Power Restored: President Trump’s First Year and the Revival of American Energy Leadership.” You can follow him on X/Twitter @larrybehrens.
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