Today marks the end of a wild few weeks for U.S. energy policy. 

Meanwhile, as the nation prepares to celebrate its birthday Friday, the U.S. Energy Information Administration has pulled together some data on how energy consumption has changed over the past 249 years.

The first century was pretty uneventful: we burned trees. Things get a little more interesting around 1885 when coal surpasses wood and fuels an exponential jump in consumption. Other fossil fuels didn't catch on for a few more decades, with petroleum surpassing coal in 1950 as we embraced automobile culture. Petroleum remains the number one source at 38%.

More recent trends show coal and fossil gas on inverse trajectories as coal (declining), renewables (increasing) and nuclear (static) converged around 8-9% last year. The question now is what the chart will look like if we make it to the tricentennial.