I recently took a road trip from Oklahoma to Southern California with a fellow energy nerd and her two dogs.
Between episodes of the SmartLess podcast, we marveled at the changing environment along I-40 and the historic Route 66 and how differing areas’ natural resources – or lack thereof – impact energy production. From oil pumpjacks and natural gas Christmas trees to solar farms, wind turbines, and hydroelectric dams, we had a front row seat to America’s vast and varied energy landscape.
When it comes to energy production, location is everything. At its most basic, the natural resources available in a region, combined with its climate, terrain, and infrastructure, usually determine the types of energy that are most practical to develop. Across the United States, you’ll find a diverse patchwork of energy landscapes, each shaped by geography. Let’s take a quick tour of how place and power are deeply connected.
The Permian Basin, stretching across West Texas and southeastern New Mexico, is one of the richest oil and natural gas regions in the world.
The dry climate, flat terrain, and deeply buried shale formations make this region ideal for large-scale extraction operations. This area’s infrastructure is built for the job, with pipelines, railroads, and highways moving oil and natural gas to refineries, processing plants, and shipping corridors. The pipeline takeaway capacity alone is slated to increase significantly, with multiple approved projects in various stages of development
The American Southwest offers some of the best conditions in the world for solar power. States like Arizona, New Mexico, and California receive abundant sunshine nearly year-round, making them ideal for solar farms.
Beyond sunlight, deserts offer something else that solar projects need: space. Utility-scale solar farms require vast tracts of land—something that’s in short supply in densely populated areas but abundant in the desert. We saw this firsthand during our trip, with projects like the City of Gallup’s solar farm harnessing this geography to deliver clean power at scale.
American wind energy development has expanded rapidly over the past two decades, particularly in high-wind regions like the central corridor of the United States and parts of California
Sites like the Tehachapi Pass and Altamont Pass host some of the oldest and most developed wind projects in the country, with ongoing modernization efforts boosting their efficiency and capacity. Wind energy is so integrated into the California landscape that in Palm Springs, tourists can book a tour of a windmill farm! Maybe we’ll stop and check it out on our next road trip.
Where there are rivers, there’s potential for hydropower—and the Colorado River is a prime example. The Hoover Dam, built in the 1930s on the Arizona-Nevada border, remains one of the largest hydroelectric power facilities in the U.S.
Hydropower projects tend to thrive in mountainous or hilly areas where gravity helps move water through turbines, and they can also serve multiple purposes: flood control, water storage, and irrigation.
We didn’t see any nuclear facilities on our cross-country road trip, but nuclear remains a key part of American energy strategy. We need a balanced approach that leverages all available resources—including fossil fuels, renewables, hydro, and nuclear power—to ensure reliable, affordable, and sustainable energy. Each region’s geography, landscape, and natural resources must be carefully considered when determining the most effective mix of energy sources: wind and solar thrive in open, windy, and sunny areas; hydro is best suited to river-rich regions; and fossil fuels remain critical for baseload reliability and industrial needs. Nuclear offers a stable, low-emission option where feasible.
Bottom line: The United States possesses abundant natural and energy resources, and a balanced, diversified approach is critical to sustaining our energy demands and economic priorities now and in the years ahead