Billings, Mont. (AP) - U.S. energy consumption plummeted to its lowest level in more than 30 years this spring as the nation's economy largely shut down because of the coronavirus, federal officials reported Wednesday. 

The drop was driven by less demand for coal that is burned for electricity and oil that's refined into gasoline and jet fuel, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said.

The declines were in line with lower energy usage around the globe as the pandemic seized up economies.

Those trends are turning around as commercial activity resumes but the impact has already been profound - including energy companies filing for bankruptcy protection and a forecasted dip in annual U.S. and global greenhouse gas emissions. 

Overall U.S. energy consumption dropped 14% during April compared to a year earlier, the energy administration said. That's the lowest monthly level since 1989 and the largest decrease ever recorded in data that's been collected since 1973.

The largest drop previously seen was in December 2001, after the Sept. 11 attacks shocked the economy and a mild winter depressed electricity demand.

Natural gas bucked the trend with a 15 percent increase in the use during the April lockdown. More people at home meant more demand for natural gas as heating fuel, while relatively few homes are heated with coal or oil, said Brett Marohl, who helped produce the energy administration findings.

Petroleum consumption fell to 14.7 million barrels a day in April, down almost a third compared to the same period in 2019. Demand already has rebounded some after stay-at-home orders expired and large sectors of the economy started moving again.

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