NYC Scores High in Carbon Footprint Rankings
May 30th, 2008 by Jervey
Yesterday, the Brookings Institute–a think tank–released a first-of-its-kind list of rankings for U.S. regions rating their respective carbon footprints.
Their description:
The nation’s carbon footprint has a distinct geography not well understood or often discussed. This report quantifies transportation and residential carbon emissions for the 100 largest U.S. metropolitan areas, finding that metro area residents have smaller carbon footprints than the average American, although metro footprints vary widely. Residential density and the availability of public transit are important to understanding carbon footprints, as are the carbon intensity of electricity generation, electricity prices, and weather.
The top ten cities:
Honolulu (HI)
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana (CA)
Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton (OR-WA)
New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island (NY-NJ-PA)
Boise City-Nampa (ID)
Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue (WA)
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara (CA)
San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont (CA)
El Paso (TX)
San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos (CA)
Note the 4th place finisher. Just below the podium, sure, but this didn’t account for per capita emissions, a metric which we’d score first. So we’ve got that going for us. Which is nice.