Which state makes the most electricity by burning oil?
🔎 Skip to the answer (ranking table)Guess
Which states make the most electricity by burning oil in a year? Tap them most-to-least.
Tapping assigns 1→4 in order
I bet… Texas — that's the oil state, right?
Answer
The real order is…
It's Hawaii — the islands! — with about 4.72× as much oil-burning electricity as #2 Michigan. Alaska is #4 and big oil state Texas only #9.
📚 Background The surprise champion is Hawaii, about 4.7× as much as #2 Michigan. No pipeline and no power line reaches the islands from the mainland, so most of their fuel arrives by ship — and oil makes more than 70% of Hawaii's electricity. Every other state's oil number is far smaller, even the big oil states: Alaska is #4 and Texas only #9. (U.S. EIA, electricity data) (opens in a new tab)
🔍 Explore more: 🏝️『The islands that ship in their power』→ I bet… Texas — that's the oil state, right?
Compare
Electricity made by burning oil (billion kWh, by state, 2024)
Highest: Hawaii (7.1 billion kWh); lowest shown here: Georgia (0.2 billion kWh).
Note: net electricity from petroleum (oil) burned in power plants, in billion kilowatt-hours (kWh), 2024, U.S. EIA. All 50 states burn at least a little oil for electricity; the eight biggest are shown here.
Islands have to ship their fuel in!
Recap
🏅 Today's discovery
🏅 Hawaii is the USA's #1!
🐕 States in Numbers
Quiz a friend!
📋 See the ranking table (top 8)
| Rank | State | Value |
|---|---|---|
| #1 | Hawaii | 7.1 billion kWh |
| #2 | Michigan | 1.5 billion kWh |
| #3 | Ohio | 1.1 billion kWh |
| #4 | Alaska | 0.9 billion kWh |
| #5 | Florida | 0.8 billion kWh |
| #6 | Montana | 0.4 billion kWh |
| #7 | New York | 0.3 billion kWh |
| #8 | Georgia | 0.2 billion kWh |
All 50 states burn at least a little oil for electricity; the eight biggest are shown here.
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (2024)
Sources
Data as of: 2024
U.S. EIA: net generation from petroleum by state, 2024 (opens in a new tab) (2026-07-26) — Official published values (the committed raw file holds EIA's megawatt-hour value for every generating state; the display converts to billion kWh).
↳ On eia.gov/electricity/data/state, open 'Annual generation by state and energy source', filter YEAR 2024, TYPE OF PRODUCER 'Total Electric Power Industry', ENERGY SOURCE 'Petroleum'.