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Energy Profile

Updated April 2026 · EIA data

U.S. Energy Trend Reports

The current cycle includes 2 aggregate snapshots alongside 0 improvement reports and 0 decline reports — a balanced view of where state energy profiles are moving. Trend reports cover 51 U.S. states with an average residential electricity rate of 17.92¢/kWh, sourced from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

What’s Driving U.S. Energy Trends

The dominant national signal of the past decade is fuel-mix replacement: natural gas displacing coal on the dispatch curve, while wind and solar pick up an increasing share of new build. EIA generation data shows the share of U.S. electricity from coal falling from roughly 45% in 2010 to under 20% today, with most of that share moving to natural gas and wind. State-level outcomes diverge from the national picture sharply — coal-heavy states like Wyoming and West Virginia still sit above 50% coal, while Iowa, Texas, and Kansas now generate 30%+ of their electricity from wind alone.

Retail rates are shaped by a different set of forces. Hawaii’s rates run far above the mainland because the islands rely on imported oil for generation; California’s rates run above the U.S. average because of a mix of clean-energy mandates, transmission costs, and wildfire-related grid investments. The cheapest-rate states — Idaho, Washington, Louisiana, North Dakota — usually have either abundant local hydro or low-cost legacy coal and natural gas. The EIA State Electricity Profiles are the most accessible federal source for these dynamics; the EPA Energy and the Environment hub layers in the emissions context.

Cheapest Residential Rates

Most Expensive Rates

Greenest Grids (% Renewable)

Browse All Trend Reports

Snapshot10 entities

Most Renewable Energy States

States generating the highest share of electricity from renewables

Snapshot10 entities

Highest Energy Cost States

States where residents pay the most for electricity

How Trends Are Calculated

For each U.S. state, we track the EIA monthly retail-rate series and the annual generation-mix series. A trend report is generated when a slice of states (a region, a fuel category, a renewable subset) all move the same direction by more than a threshold within a comparable window. Improvement reports flag states where rates are falling, renewable share is climbing, or coal generation is being displaced cleanly. Decline reports flag the opposite — rate spikes, generation-mix backsliding, or grid-reliability concerns. Aggregate snapshots summarize the whole national distribution at a single point in time. Read the full methodology.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is an energy trend report?

A trend report is a thematic slice of the underlying EIA dataset — a curated list of U.S. states that share a feature: rapidly falling electricity rates, fast-rising renewable share, accelerating natural-gas displacement of coal, or the opposite. We currently publish 2 reports across improvement, decline, and aggregate snapshot types.

How are these trends calculated?

For each state, we track the EIA monthly retail-rate series and the annual generation-mix series, then compute year-over-year changes and multi-year linear trends. A state is flagged for a trend report when the change crosses a threshold — typically a 1¢/kWh rate move, a 5-percentage-point shift in renewable share, or a comparable change in fossil generation. Aggregate reports do not require a cross-cycle comparison; they summarize the national distribution at a single point in time.

Why are renewable shares rising in some states but flat in others?

The answer is mostly policy plus geography. States with renewable portfolio standards, strong wind or solar resources, and competitive wholesale markets — Iowa, Texas, California, Nevada — see fast growth. States with cheap legacy coal, no clean-energy mandate, or limited renewable resource potential see slower growth. The greenest U.S. grid today is Vermont at roughly 99.8% renewable generation; the laggards still sit below 10%.

How often are trend reports refreshed?

Trend reports are recomputed each time EIA publishes new monthly retail-rate or generation data — typically on a roughly two-month lag from the reporting period. The current dataset was last refreshed April 2026. Each underlying state profile carries its own last-updated stamp.

Where does the source data come from?

Every figure is sourced from federal public datasets: the U.S. Energy Information Administration (rates, generation, fuel mix), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (emissions, clean-energy programs), and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (resource potential, technology cost trends). The EIA Form EIA-861 and EIA-923 monthly surveys are the primary inputs.

Sources: U.S. Energy Information Administration, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, National Renewable Energy Laboratory. All federal datasets are public domain.

Last updated 2026-04-12 · 51 states tracked.