Dec 2, 2025 · 15 min · 13 segments
LLNL’s Energy Flow Charts have become one of the clearest ways to understand the nation’s energy system. Learn how these diagrams capture everything from pandemic shutdowns and shifting fuels to…
The 1970s.
Cars were big.
Polyester was bigger.
If you were lucky, your living room had wood paneling and a shag carpet that would swallow your shoes.
And gas was cheap, until it wasn't.
Gas lines at many stations were a lot longer than normal.
Beneath the glitter of disco, something else was happening.
We are heading toward the most acute shortages of energy since World War II.
The oil crisis of the 1970s made energy suddenly visible, visible in the long lines at gas stations.
The longer the line and waiting time-
With the oil embargo, an existing gasoline shortage-
And in the worry that the United States wasn't as secure as it thought.
That's when a group of scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory were asked to help.
Their assignment? Figure out exactly how the nation used energy.
This was the origin of the first energy flowchart.
The lab started creating them in 1970, around when the oil crisis was happening.
That's Hannah Goldstein, the system and policy analysis group leader at the lab.
Let's keep this simple.
On the left, you had hydroelectric, natural gas, coal, petroleum, conversion, residential, industrial, non-energy, and then transportation, and then rejected and used energy, and that was it.
The data was pulled from the Bureau of Mines, typed up on sheets of paper, and mailed across the country to the scientists at the lab.
From there, lab researchers used pen and ruler to create a blend of art and science, the very first energy flowcharts.
The 1970s.
Cars were big.
Polyester was bigger.
If you were lucky, your living room had wood paneling and a shag carpet that would swallow your shoes.
And gas was cheap, until it wasn't.
Gas lines at many stations were a lot longer than normal.
Beneath the glitter of disco, something else was happening.
We are heading toward the most acute shortages of energy since World War II.
The oil crisis of the 1970s made energy suddenly visible, visible in the long lines at gas stations.
The longer the line and waiting time-
With the oil embargo, an existing gasoline shortage-
And in the worry that the United States wasn't as secure as it thought.
That's when a group of scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory were asked to help.
Their assignment? Figure out exactly how the nation used energy.
This was the origin of the first energy flowchart.
The lab started creating them in 1970, around when the oil crisis was happening.
That's Hannah Goldstein, the system and policy analysis group leader at the lab.
Let's keep this simple.
On the left, you had hydroelectric, natural gas, coal, petroleum, conversion, residential, industrial, non-energy, and then transportation, and then rejected and used energy, and that was it.
The data was pulled from the Bureau of Mines, typed up on sheets of paper, and mailed across the country to the scientists at the lab.
From there, lab researchers used pen and ruler to create a blend of art and science, the very first energy flowcharts.
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