america_the_green.jpgForbes magazine has just released its survey of the “greenest state in the land of the free” (to borrow from the old Davy Crockett TV show theme).  Forbes ranked each state in six equally weighted categories: carbon footprint, air quality, water quality, hazardous waste management, policy initiatives and energy consumption. 

They ranked the states on policy initiatives according to the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy’s energy efficiency scorecard. For energy consumption and lifestyle choice, they examined vehicle miles traveled, number of alternative fuel and hybrid-electric vehicles per capita, and number of LEED-certified buildings, among other metrics. Data from the Energy Information Administration, EPA, Department of Transportation, Natural Resources Defense Council, and Sierra Club also went into the brew.

Here’s what they came up with (you can click on the states near the top and bottom of the list for more detail). 

Rank
 State
 Score
1
 Vermont 43.6
2
 Oregon 43.6
3
 Washington 43.4
4
 Hawaii 41.3
5
 Maryland 40.4
6
 Connecticut 39.8
7
 New Jersey 39.5
8
 Rhode Island 38.7
9
 New York 38.1
10
 Arizona 37.9
11
 Massachusetts 37.8
12
 Idaho 37.2
13
 Colorado 37.2
14
 California 37.1
15
 Minnesota 36.3
16
 Wisconsin
 35.7
17
 Nevada
 35.1
18
 New Mexico
 34.7
19
 New Hampshire
 33.7
20
 Florida
 32.9
21
 South Dakota
 32.6
22
 Montana
 31.5
23
 Virginia
 30.5
24
 Michigan
 30.3
25
 Maine
 29.9
26
 North Carolina
 29.5
27
 Illinois
 28.6
28
 Utah
 28.5
29
 Georgia
 28.2
30
 Delaware
 28
31
 Kansas
 27.7
32
 Pennsylvania
 27.5
33
 Nebraska
 27.5
34
 Texas
 26.5
35
 Iowa
 26.4
36
 South Carolina
 25.3
37
 Wyoming
 24.8
38
 Oklahoma
 24.2
39
 Ohio
 23.4
40
 Alaska
 22.7
41
 Missouri
 22.6
42
 North Dakota
 22.2
43
 Tennessee
 22.2
44
 Arkansas
 20.8
45
 Kentucky
 20.4
46
 Mississippi 17.6
47
 Louisiana 17
48
 Alabama 15.8
49
 Indiana 15.3
50
 West Virginia
 14.2

“So who’s at the bottom? Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Indiana and, at No. 50, West Virginia. All suffer from a mix of toxic waste, lots of pollution and consumption and no clear plans to do anything about it. Expect them to remain that way.”

And where does all that trouble in West Virginia come from?  Mostly from the literal destruction of the landscape in pursuit of coal, and the nasty consequences for everybody that lives downstream.  Meanwhile, my home state of Virginia is flirting with lowering our ranking by emulating our neighbors across the border to the West  with a spanking new coal-fired power plant (complicated by the fact that Dominion Power is currently under investigation by the NY Attorney General).  Maybe some peer pressure from the northeast is in order . . .