Which U.S. states are most energy efficient?
U.S. states made significant progress in boosting energy efficiency this year even though Congress failed to pass a major climate and energy bill, says a 50-state annual scorecard released Wednesday.
States are now spending nearly twice as much on energy efficiency as in 2007 and twice as many adopted or advanced energy-saving building codes for homes and commercial properties in the last year, according to the 2010 scorecard from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, an independent and non-profit group.
"The overall story here is one of states getting done what Congress has so far failed to do," Steven Nadel, the group's executive director said in a statement, adding that $11 billion in federal Recovery Act funds helped.
How did your state rank?
California retained its top ranking for the fourth year in a row, followed in 2010 by Massachusetts (also #2 last year), Oregon, New York, Vermont, Washington, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Minnesota and Maine.
The Southwest region showed particular progress in the last year, as Arizona (#18, up 11 spots) and New Mexico (#22, up eight spots) were among the four most-improved states. Utah (#12) and Alaska (#37) were the other two most improved.
Texas (#32) and New Hampshire (#22) dropped the farthest in the 2010 scorecard, each down nine spots. The scorecard, which includes the District of Columbia, gives the lowest scores to Louisiana (#42), Missouri (#43), Oklahoma (#44), West Virginia (#45), Kansas (#46), Nebraska (#47), Wyoming (#48), Alabama (#49), Mississippi (#50) and North Dakota (#51.).
The other major findings of the fourth annual scorecard include:
State budgets for energy efficiency in 2009 are almost double the level of spending in 2007, increasing from $2.5 billion to $4.3 billion. Reported electricity savings from energy efficiency programs across all states increased 8% between 2007 and 2008 (the most recent available data).
27 states have adopted or have pending Energy Efficiency Resource Standards (EERS) that establish long-term, fixed efficiency savings targets – double the number of states in 2006. These states account for two-thirds of electricity sales in the U.S.
20 states have either adopted or have made significant progress toward the adoption of the latest energy-saving building codes for homes and commercial properties – double the number of states in our 2009 Scorecard.
While federal transportation efficiency policy has progressed significantly this year with the adoption of new fuel economy standards and plans to set standards out to 2025, states are taking the lead to fill in the gaps in transportation opportunities. California, Massachusetts, and Washington have implemented transportation-specific greenhouse gas reduction targets while several other states have adopted policies to encourage the creation of compact and transit-oriented communities.
The scorecard's rankings are based on points in six areas: utility and public benefits programs; transportation policies; building energy codes; combined heat and power; state government initiatives; appliance efficiency standards.
content.usatoday.com |
