This Department of Energy agency is a trove of statistics about energy use, including state-level figures and history of electricity and fuel prices. It also contains a good explanation of how gasoline prices work.

The U.S. produces over 90 billion cubic feet of natural gas every day. The average home uses about 200 cubic feet per day.

Energy prices are heavily influenced by supply and demand.

The largest refining hub in the U.S. is located in the Texas-Louisiana coast, but there are smaller hubs all over the country.

You may come across different kinds of crude (i.e. crude oil) in your reporting, such as Brent Crude or West Texas Intermediate.

Natural gas can be turned into a liquid by chilling it to unbelievably low temperatures. There are liquefaction terminals – which turn gas into liquid – and regasification terminals, which reheat the liquid back into its original form.

The way of life in communities all over the U.S. is being transformed by new techniques in oil drilling.

The way of life in communities all over the U.S. is being transformed by new techniques in oil drilling. For example, large swaths of the U.S. Northeast – New York, Ohio, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania – sit below a rich natural gas field called the Marcellus Shale, and there’s drilling going on under local churches, schools, airports, and cemeteries.