Rhode Island Ranked Least Green State In New England
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
When it comes to being “green,” Rhode Island gets the lowest marks in New England and ranks a very low #47 out of all 50 states, according to mphonline.org, a site that provides information and advice on Master’s in Public Health (MPH) degree programs.
The site’s “How Green is My State” infographic ranks each state’s environmental impact based on seven different categories: mass transit, renewables, recycling, water quality, air quality, gas, and carbon dioxide.
Rhode Island may be the third worst state in the country but its New England neighbors also appeared in the lower bottom half of the rankings. Joining Rhode Island in the bottom 10 green states was Connecticut, ranking #44 in the study. Maine was the only New England state to be honored in the top half of the ratings at #15, and the remaining three states did not stack up so well. Massachusetts had the second highest ranking at #32 followed by Vermont at #36 and New Hampshire at #38.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTThe “How Green is My States” study created its ranking based on the data collected from a variety of sources such as goodguide.com and state energy, waste, transportation, and environmental management agencies. Each state was also given a separate ranking in seven different environmental categories, ranging from use of renewable energy to availability of public transportation.
The first sub-category, mass transit, measured residents per method of mass transit with railways weighted higher. Renewables measured as renewable energy in billions of British thermal unit (BTUs), recycling as the percentage of waste recycled, water quality as the percentage of surface waters with impaired or threatened uses, air quality as pounds of carcinogens released to air, and gasoline consumption as per capita gasoline use in gallons. Co2 was the last sub-category and measured annual carbon dioxide emissions in metric tons.
Although Rhode Island’s overall rank was among the worst, the state still ranked in the top five states in the two categories of carbon dioxide and air quality. The state ranked #3 in Co2 with an annual emission of 11,138 metric tons. With 2,884,472 pounds of carcinogens released to air, Rhode Island was the #4 best state in the category of air quality. However, Rhode Island also landed as the worst rating in the renewables category with its 2,652 billions of BTUs as the smallest amount of renewable energy in the country.
See below for how the New England states performed on every measure.