US energy in five maps (infographics)

America has a lot of energy. Saxum, an Oklahoma City-based advertising and communications firm, has developed a portrait of the country's vast oil, gas, coal, solar, wind, and other resources (click each image for a larger version):  

4. The big picture

(Credit: Saxum)

Layering all the country's resources onto one map gives a sense of the wealth and diversity of US energy resources.

Coal remains king, but environmental concerns and the falling price of alternatives are challenging its reign. Oil and gas are booming and there is great potential for growth in renewables, particularly with solar across the Southwest. Nuclear faces competition from natural gas and suffered a public-relations setback in the wake of the Fukushima disaster in Japan in 2011.

How the US exploits these diverse resources will depend on economics and government policies, which suggests lots of jockeying among industries lies ahead.

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