Then there’s the effect of younger Americans moving to the city. The population in downtown areas grew at more than double the overall rate of U.S. metropolitan areas from 2000 to 2010, according to the Census Bureau. More people living in city centers means more people who can get around without cars.

“There’s been a migration to inner cities by the youth, and they’ve shunned cars,” Michael Morris, the U.S. Energy Information Administration economist who prepares the nation’s petroleum demand forecasts, said by telephone Dec. 8. “The baby boomer cohort is retiring in much larger numbers.”

While oil drillers are clamping down on spending amid the lowest crude prices in five years, developers are investing more than $250 billion in 2014 on wind, solar and renewable resources, data compiled by Bloomberg show. ConocoPhillips, based in Houston, cut its capital budget by 20 percent for next year, deferring spending in unconventional plays including the Niobrara in Colorado.

Fuel Oil

In the past five years, U.S. renewable energy companies’ sales grew at a 49 percent annual rate while oil, gas and coal companies climbed 9.4 percent. Renewable power production rose to a record 252 million megawatt-hours in 2013, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Oil generated 13 million megawatt-hours, down 88 percent since 2003.

“When high-sulfur fuel oil was abundant, it was a very good competition to coal in the power system,” Ed Morse, Citigroup Inc.’s head of commodities research, said Dec. 5 by phone from New York. “Now we have virtually eliminated fuel oil production.”

The U.S. energy boom has been driven by a combination of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, which has unlocked supplies from shale formations including the Bakken in North Dakota and the Eagle Ford in Texas. The technique is typically more expensive than pumping from conventional reservoirs.

Weaker Demand

Higher production has allowed the U.S. to import the least oil in almost two decades, build more chemical plants and increase fuel shipments abroad to 3.6 million barrels a day, the most in the world. Combined with lower prices, rising output has spurred calls for the government to lift restrictions on most U.S. crude exports.

Companies are investing $133 billion in the U.S. chemical industry to take advantage of plentiful natural gas from shale formations in places like Pennsylvania and Texas, according to the American Chemistry Council.