Mapping the Location and Scale of U.S. Electricity Capacity

A series of maps from The Washington Post answers the questions of how and where the United States gets its energy.

1 minute read

August 5, 2015, 9:00 AM PDT

By James Brasuell @CasualBrasuell


A set of large, illustrative graphics by John Muyskens, Dan Keating and Samuel Granados, follow the big news from earlier this week about the Obama Administration's Clean Power Plan.

The first, most colorful of the graphics is a large map showing the location and scale of power generation facilities around the country. A graph showing the power portfolio for each state follows the map, and then a series of maps focusing on the different varieties of power generation.

So the maps show the dominance of coal in the Midwest and Appalachia, as well as the ubiquity of natural gas, among other trends in energy capacity from around the country. Each of the maps includes a little explainer text to help make sense of the information.

Friday, July 31, 2015 in The Washington Post

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