Climate Photo of the Week

Energy in the American West, from coal, gas and oil to solar, wind, hydro and geothermal -- and good ol' efficiency: What "All of the Above" looks like.

The U.S. government energy policy of "All of the Above" plays out grandly across the Western landscape. It spans from the upper great plains of Montana and North Dakota, where crude oil production was over 900,000 barrels a day in August – more than double the rate just two years ago -- across to Oregon and Washington's Columbia River where hydropower has been created since the 1930s. The Bakken shale oil area centered in North Dakota had just one oil well in the 1950s and jumped to several thousand in the 1980s boom, but now has more than 9000 wells. Similarly, the rolling wheat and grazing land of eastern Oregon had few large wind turbines in the early 1990s but now sprouts nearly 2000, producing more than 3,000 mw of electrical power. This array near Arlington OR is part of the Shepherd's Flat wind farm, one of the largest in the country. Global warming pollution and land abuse from coal, oil and gas is pushing the change away from fossil fuels, but the investment there is huge and remains the source of most of the world's power.

World View of Global Warming's detailed photo story about another part of "All of the Above," coal, is the first in a new series on The Daily Climate. Thanks to Scientific American and Grist for re-posting this story for their readers.

And look for more on energy and coal in News and Views and on our Action Pages.

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Photography and text Copyright © 2005 - 2017 (and before) Gary Braasch All rights reserved. Use of photographs in any manner without permission is prohibited by US copyright law. Photography is available for license to publications and other uses. Please contact requestinformation@worldviewofglobalwarming.org. View more of Gary Braasch's photography here.