The U.S. is a leading player in the global energy trade, but resources and populations are distributed widely across its more than 3.8 million square miles of territory.
That means states vary widely in their shares of total production and consumption of energy, with even relatively small and unsuspecting states sometimes playing an outsize role in the sector.
TWO BIG STORYLINES A THANKSGIVING LATER
Here’s how states rank across metrics:
Oil production
The United States is the largest crude oil producer in the world and a top-tier exporter, and although dozens of states and offshore areas produce oil, production is mostly concentrated in a handful of regions.
Roughly 71% of total U.S. crude oil production came from five states in 2021, according to the Energy Information Administration, the Energy Department’s data arm.
Leading the way is Texas, whose wells were responsible for some 42.4% of total oil production during the year. New Mexico was the No. 2 producer at 11.1% of production.
The two states share the Permian Basin, a high-producing shale basin responsible for around half of all daily oil production.
North Dakota came in as the No. 3 producer in 2021, and Alaska and Colorado topped out the top five.
Natural gas production
U.S. natural gas reserves are abundant, and the nation produces more gas, a fuel used widely around the world for power generation and industrial processes, than it consumes.
Texas was the nation’s top gas producer in 2021, contributing about a quarter of total production for the year.
Pennsylvania was No. 2 at around 22% of total production, and Louisiana was third. West Virginia and Oklahoma ranked fourth and fifth in shares of total gas production.
Coal
Appalachia is synonymous with coal production, and for good reason. The majority of workers employed in the coal sector are located in the East in states such as West Virginia, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania.
But Wyoming is the nation’s top coal producer — and it’s not even close. Its mines produced 41% of the total coal output in 2021.
West Virginia was a distant No. 2 at 14%, and Pennsylvania was third at around 7% of total production.
Renewable fuels
Distribution of fossil fuel resources was determined by hundreds of millions of years of geologic processes, whereas energy production from renewable sources has both geological and meteorological contributing factors.
Electricity generated from wind is particularly concentrated in states with large plains. Texas, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Illinois were the top five states for wind power in 2021. The five together produced about 56% of total wind electricity generation in 2021, according to EIA.
Although Iowa was No. 2 for its share of total U.S. wind generation, its wind turbines generated 58% of the state’s electricity in 2021, making it the top dog for wind as a share of a state’s total electricity.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
In addition to wind, Iowa is the nation’s largest fuel ethanol and biodiesel producer, and neighboring Nebraska is No. 2.
For solar power, California tops the list with the most generating capacity, more than double No. 2 Texas. The Sunshine State of Florida has the third most solar-generating capacity.
