{"id":1990,"date":"2011-04-25T16:24:04","date_gmt":"2011-04-25T22:24:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/?p=1990"},"modified":"2011-04-25T16:26:45","modified_gmt":"2011-04-25T22:26:45","slug":"indiana-kentucky-and-illinois-all-among-the-11-least-green-states","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/?p=1990","title":{"rendered":"Indiana, Kentucky and Illinois all among the 11 “Least Green States”"},"content":{"rendered":"

April 25, 2011-by 24\/7 Wall Street<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Editor’s note-The listing compiled was actually \u00a0from first greenest to the least greenest. Vermont occupies 1st place while Indiana came in a dubious 48th. Illinois ranked 44th and Kentucky 40th.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Illustration \u00a9 2011 John Blair<\/p><\/div>\n

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24\/7 Wall St. has analyzed the environmental issues facing the 50 states. Pollution is as much a state problem as a national one. Ohio, which ranks poorly on our list, has more problems than Vermont, which ranks well.\u00a0 Unlike Ohio, Vermont does not have to regulate hundreds of factories, which pollute the water and air. Similarly, Ohio does not have great tracts of land where it can install vast numbers of wind farms. Texas, which ranks first in wind energy, does.\u00a0 Texas, however, has the largest number of coal-fired power plants.\u00a0 As a consequence, the state burns more coal and produces more carbon dioxide than any other state. No two states have the same problems. This means that solutions must be informed by both local and national concerns.<\/p>\n

24\/7 Wall St. examined energy consumption, pollution problems and state energy policies with the help of industry experts, government\u00a0databases<\/a> and research reports. \u00a0Data comprising 49 separate metrics came from a number of sources.\u00a0Of the 49 metrics chosen, rankings for all of them were reflected in 27 final separate categories. \u00a0The sources\u00a0included\u00a0The Pew Center on Global Climate Change<\/a>,\u00a0The Energy Information Administration<\/a>,\u00a0The Department of Energy<\/a>,\u00a0The Interstate Renewable Energy Council<\/a>,\u00a0Renewable Energy World<\/a>,\u00a0American Council For an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE)<\/a>,\u00a0The Environmental Protection Agency<\/a>,\u00a0The American Lung Association<\/a>,\u00a0Environment America\u2019s Research and Policy Center<\/a>,\u00a0The Political Economy Research Institute<\/a>,\u00a0and\u00a0the Bureau of Economic Analysis<\/a>. \u00a0Although other state factors like industry type and scale, GDP, population and natural resources were considered, they did not impact the rankings.<\/p>\n

We used only recent information available for all states \u2013 issued in 2009 and 2010 \u2014 and collected thousands of\u00a0data<\/a> points to reach our rankings of the most and least \u201cgreen\u201d states.\u00a0 For each metric, the higher the rank, the better the score, the lower the rank, the worst.<\/p>\n

The rankings, in other words, are balanced so that one or two grades from the study cannot overwhelm two or three other grades.\u00a0 For example, Mississippi ranks third on our list in Environmental Protection Agency violations.\u00a0 Meanwhile, the state ranks in\u00a0the\u00a0bottom half of our list for\u00a0financial<\/a> incentives for alternative energy and 49th<\/sup> in\u00a0energy\u00a0efficiency<\/a>. Conversely, Iowa, is in the bottom half for carbon footprint, air particle pollution, and water pollution. Nevertheless, the state ranks in the top ten overall because it scores well in areas such as financial incentives for energy consumption and wind energy production.<\/p>\n

The results of this effort are what we believe to be among the most comprehensive report on the state of pollution in all 50 states coupled with each state\u2019s responses.<\/p>\n

Read more:\u00a0The Environmental State of The Union: A Survey of Pollution, Energy Use and Policy in all 50 States – 24\/7 Wall St.<\/a> http:\/\/247wallst.com\/2010\/12\/16\/the-environmental-state-of-the-union-a-survey-of-pollution-energy-use-and-policy-in-all-50-states\/#ixzz1KZmJDBok<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

April 25, 2011-by 24\/7 Wall Street. Editor’s note-The listing compiled was actually \u00a0from first greenest to the least greenest. Vermont occupies 1st place while Indiana came in a dubious 48th. Illinois ranked 44th and Kentucky 40th.     24\/7 Wall … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[25,64,65,18,17,32,40,63],"class_list":["post-1990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-coal","tag-coal-power","tag-environment","tag-illinois","tag-indiana","tag-kentucky","tag-mitch-daniels","tag-toxic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1990"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1990\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1995,"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1990\/revisions\/1995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}