This week’s question is going to be a little trickier than some, so I am going to give out several hints at once.
Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Vermont have none.
There were roughly 650 of these in 2006 in the entire world, on every continent but Antarctica. There are over 700 now.
There are roughly 150 in the United States. Over a third of these are in three states.
Canada has roughly 20, with one in most provinces.
Burt Likko is the pseudonym of an attorney in Southern California. He is sometimes known as the "Transplanted Lawyer" in commemoration of a two-year sojourn in East Tennessee which was something of a transformative life experience. His interests include politics and public policy, Constitutional law with a focus on the separation of church and state, cooking, good wine, and bad science fiction movies.
Will Truman is the pseudonym of a somewhat random guy that lives in the Mountain West with his doctorly wife. He has moved around frequently, having lived in four states in the last five years or so. Part-poligeek, part-geek, sometimes substitute teacher, sometimes professional gearhead, and off-and-on amateur fiction writer. He is primarily interested in the balancing of competing interests and points of view where answers are not easily found. He does (mostly) non-political blogging at 
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My first thought was drive-in theaters, but that can’t be right – the number of those is decreasing, and I can’t imagine there being ones on every continent.
My first thought was Marijuana Dispensaries but then I saw Oregon on there. (I’m also pretty sure that there are more than 150 on Platte Avenue, let alone in three states.)
LaRouche Democrats?
Awesome
Wind farms?
I thought that was a great guess, but Oregon has four major wind farms according to Wikipedia and New York has two.
Landing spots for extraterrestrials. I helped build them.
Even though I have a sneaking suspicion I shouldn’t be encouraging this particular commenter, I have to admit I found this answer amusing.
Deck truss bridges?
Got me stumped, but that isn’t hard to accomplish.
I have no idea, but it’s interesting that there are none in New England — seems like that might be meaningful.
I believe I have figured it out.
Calfornia is one of the three states with the most.
In Central America, Panama, Guatemala, Belize and Honduras don’t have any, while Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and El Salvador each have one.
Sigh… I’m pretty sure you’ve got it. How many in Alabama, New Jersey, and Ohio?
3, 6, and 4, repectively (per Wikipedia).
Yeah, you’ve got it. (Though New Jersey actually has five, according to my more reliable source.)
Tuesday hint: Except Florida, the Gulf Coast states are all overrepresented. Except Idaho and Arizona, so, too, are the Mountain West states. There is no intuitively obvious reason as to why those states are different (indeed, Idaho and Florida were the most surprising to me). Also, as KenB points out, none in New England. That didn’t surprise me at all.
Wildlife preserves? That’s can’t be right — the Everglades is a preserve for the Florida Panther.
Oil refineries.
That’s got to be it. The Wikipedia list looks right. California is both a significant producer and a destination for imported oil because consumption is so heavy, so that accounts for its heavy concentration. Florida has been politically allergic to oil refining for a long time despite being another major consumer and having plenty of good ports.
That’s it. I was quite impressed this time around. It was a sort of random ranking, but RTod’s first guess wasn’t too far off the mark (wrong energy source is all). And, of course Randy, who continues to know everything.
So, Randy and Peter, what was the giveaway for you?
After reading the question, the first thing that came to mind was “maybe something to do with bridges.” Thus, my shot-in-the-dark first guess. While looking back at the question several hours later, for some reason I thought of refineries. I can’t point to any one giveaway.
Also, I hardly know everything. My being able to answer these questions is probably due in no small part to two things. First, the type of question being asked. Second, things being somewhat slow at the office, thus allowing me time to think about and research possible answers. When tax season starts (I’m a CPA), I won’t have time for this.
Two clues for me were the overrepresentation on the Gulf Coast ex Florida, and especially the lack of any in Florida. Also the lack of any in New York and New England.
I’ll add a question: the 675-mile drive from Winterhaven, California to Van Horn, Texas, ten hours and change on interstates 8 and 10, is the shortest road trip in the United States that would allow you to experience what thing/situation?
Three Timezones?
Guess that one was too easy. Another interesting time-zone road trip is Vale, Oregon to Pensacola, Florida … over 2,300 miles, but only one time zone change.
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