In Hawaii Introduction Energy is a fundamental necessity for living and is used directly and indirectly by everyone. It is the capacity for performing work. It makes things happen. For many centuries the only immediate sources of energy were human and animal, supplemented by energy form combustible materials, the sun, oceans, wind, rain, lightning, and other natural phenomena. With the invention of the steam engine and the coming of the industrial revolution, modern man began to see larger amounts of energy derived from burning fuels.
Fossil fuels provide ninety five percent of the energy consumed.
They are stored by nature beneath the earth's surface and must and must removed by drilling into the earth or stripped from the earth's surface. Oil is the nation's leading fossil fuel and provides 46 percent of the nation's total energy requirements. Natural gas is the next largest fossil fuel source and accounts fro 32 percent of the nation's energy and is used primarily as a clean-burning fuel. Coal is the third major fossil fuel and accounts for 17 percent of the nation's total energy consumption. Hawaii Hawaii is unique among the fifty states in that more than 90 percent of its energy comes from oil.