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Every year, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory puts out an energy flow chart for the previous year [1]. This image has been called “The Chart That Explains Everything” [2] and that's not a bad way to think about it. When you look where we get energy as a country and where that energy goes, this diagram tells a compelling story:

Some of those details are likely in contrast to what you've heard. And you'll note that the majority of the energy we produce gets wasted. That is the nature of combustion: when you burn things, it's hard to capture all of the energy [3].

While we're doing images that illustrate reality-that-defies-popular-opinion, here's one that shows electricity generation by source [4]:

And finally, one more graph. This one is about oil and it comes from the U.S. Department of Energy [5]:

The story is this:

1. We use a lot of energy
2. Most of it comes from burning stuff we get out of the ground
3. We're extracting basically enough to burn to meet our own needs
4. But…most of what we burn is wasted
5. And…eventually we're going to run out stuff to burn [6]

The first thing we need to do is use less energy. Turn off lights in rooms you aren't using [7]. Get a smart thermostat to run your HVAC system more efficiently. When driving: reduce or combine trips, carpool, keep your tires inflated, and upgrade to more fuel-efficient vehicles. Business can help even more by supporting telecommuting and investing in energy-efficient technologies.

Second, we need to reduce the distance energy travels. Chances are the gas in your car came from Canada or Saudi Arabia. The electricity in your home was produced hundreds of miles away instead of on a neighbor's rooftop or backyard. The more we can localize energy production, transport, and storage, the more we can be efficient about energy use.

Finally, we need less combustion. Burning hydrocarbons is the easiest way to get heat, and heat is the easiest way to get electricity. But it's wildly inefficient. Yes, the process of transitioning to renewables is complicated and time consuming and expensive. And it cannot be rushed. But is the future.

[1] https://flowcharts.llnl.gov/. Looks like they release the previous year around September, despite what I've read elsewhere.

[2] So says Lloyd Alter, anyway, who isn't exactly nobody.

[3] The meaning of "rejected energy".

[4] From the International Energy Agency. Remember this is just electricity generation, so things like cars that run on gas aren't included.

[5] https://afdc.energy.gov/data

[6] This isn't much of an argument because we don't know the future. All we know is, abstractly, "Oil is a finite natural resource produced over a geological timespan whereas demand continues to climb". Current estimates are that we are going to start to have trouble meeting demand in the 2030s or 2040s. But these things are hard to predict.

[7] A drop in the bucket, but good practice.