Because of many local laws and guidelines, energy production and use is highly dictated by each state government. On the following pages, you will find a state by state assessment of energy use and production in the Southwestern US (from http://www.eia.gov/state/).

Arizona

  • Arizona's Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station, rated at 3.937 net GW, is the largest nuclear power plant and the second largest power plant of any kind in the nation.
  • Arizona's only operating coal mine, Kayenta, on the Navajo and Hopi reservations, supplies the 6.4 to 7.3 million metric tons (7 to 8 million tons) burned annually by the Navajo Generating Station's three 750 MW units.
  • Approximately 25% of the energy consumed in Arizona homes is for air conditioning, which is more than four times the national average of 6%, according to EIA's Residential Energy Consumption Survey.
  • Arizona, the 15th most populous state, ranked 44th in the nation in per capita energy consumption in 2013, partly because of the state's small industrial sector.
  • Arizona ranked second in the nation in utility-scale electricity generation from solar energy in 2014.
  • Arizona's Renewable Environmental Standard requires 15% of the state's electricity consumed in 2025 to come from renewable energy resources; in 2014, 8.9% of Arizona's net electricity generation came from renewable resources, primarily from the Glen Canyon and Hoover dams.
Arizona
Arizona

Colorado

  • Colorado's vast fossil fuel resources include the Niobrara Shale, with resource estimates running as high as two billion barrels of oil.
  • Average household energy costs in Colorado ($1551 per year) are 23% less than the national average, primarily due to historically lower natural gas prices in the state, according to EIA's Residential Energy Consumption Survey.
  • From 2004 to 2014, crude oil production in Colorado more than quadrupled; in the same period, marketed natural gas production rose 51%.
  • In 2014, 60% of the electricity generated in Colorado came from coal, 22% from natural gas, and 18% from renewable energy resources.
  • Colorado's Renewable Energy Standard requires investor-owned electric utilities to provide 30% of electricity sold from renewable energy sources by 2020, with 3% coming from distributed generation.
  • In 2014, Colorado's grid-connected solar photovoltaic capacity of 430 MW was the ninth largest in the United States, and the state obtained nearly ten times as much net generation from solar power as it did just five years earlier in 2009.
Colorado
Colorado

New Mexico

  • New Mexico has 26% of the nation's coalbed methane proved reserves, second only to Colorado in the United States. Excluding federal offshore areas, New Mexico ranked sixth in crude oil production in the nation in 2014.
  • New Mexico's marketed production of natural gas accounted for 4.3% of U.S. marketed natural gas production in 2014, despite a decline in production of 30% from its 2001 peak.
  • In 2014, New Mexico ranked sixth in the nation in utility-scale electricity generation from solar energy.
  • New Mexico's Renewable Portfolio Standard requires that 20% of all electricity sold by investor-owned electric utilities, and 10% sold by cooperatives, come from renewable energy resources by 2020; in 2014, renewable energy supplied 9.3% of the electricity generated in the state.
New Mexico
New Mexico

Utah

  • Utah's five refineries process crude oil primarily from Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, and Canada; the UNEV pipeline, opened in late 2011, is the first to connect Utah's refineries to Las Vegas, the largest city in Nevada.
  • Utah produced 1.7% of U.S. coal in 2013 and shipped 27% of that production out of the state, of which nearly one-third was exported. In 2014, for the first time, coal produced only 76% of Utah's net electricity generation and natural gas produced 19%. State planners expect the natural gas share to continue rising as older coal units are shut down.
  • Utah had the 10th lowest average electricity prices in the nation in 2014.
  • Utah has a voluntary goal of using cost-effective eligible renewable energy resources to provide 20% of their 2025 adjusted retail electric sales; in 2014, 4.3% of net electricity generation came from renewable resources.
Utah
Utah