Although Arkansas possesses substantial and varied energy resources—petroleum, natural gas, coal, and water—the state was slow to develop them. As late as 1935, only 1% of Arkansas farms had electric power. The struggle that began during the 1930s over whether Arkansas's rivers would be publicly developed for the production of electricity (in the manner of the Tennessee Valley Authority) was won by the advocates of private power development. As of 1999, Arkansas power plants had a combined capacity (utility and nonutility) of 9.68 million kW, of which about three-fourths was privately owned; production totaled 46.6 billion kWh. As of 2001, two reactor units were operating at Arkansas Nuclear One, the state's only nuclear power plant.
During 2002, 20,000 barrels per day of crude petroleum were produced. At the beginning of 2001, proved reserves were 43 million barrels. Production of natural gas was 166.8 billion cu ft (4.7 billion cu m) in 2001, with 1.62 trillion cu ft (0.05 trillion cu m) of reserves remaining. About 12,000 tons of bituminous coal were mined in 2000. In 2000 Arkansas's total per capita energy consumption was 406 million Btu (102.3 million kcal), ranking it 13th among the states.