Two years ago today, Forbes published its first-ever list of America's Greenest States. Vermont was ranked in first place, while Oregon, Washington, Hawaii, and Maryland rounded out the top five.
Forbes ranked each state in six equally weighted categories: carbon footprint, air quality, water quality, hazardous waste management, policy initiatives (via the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy's energy efficiency scorecard, released in June 2007), and energy consumption.
There were certainly some surprises in the rankings, like the fact that California didn't even make the top ten, despite the state's notoriety for setting the bar for environmental policy. Another surprising fact: the congested northeast corridor was, at the time of ranking, much more environmentally friendly than one might have expected.
Just twenty-four months after Forbes published their list of Greenest States, many states have dramatically improved their ranking. Indiana is among these. Ranked number 49 in October 2007, Indiana beat out only West Virginia. The Hoosier State had the sixth highest carbon footprint, smog and ozone pollution problems, and water quality worse than only four other states in the country.
But this week, a new report from the Natural Resources Defense Council projects Indiana will become one of the country's greenest states in years to come.
Indiana currently obtains a whopping 95% of its electricity from plants running on coal, but has great potential to profit as an exporter of wind energy and machinery.
"Indiana has some of the best wind potential in the eastern U.S. and has a competitive advantage as a wind producer over most other states because of its location," said Martin R. Cohen, who authored the report, on Wednesday.
Indiana's current wind energy production tallies 530 megawatts, according to the report. By increasing wind energy production to 4,500 megawatts, thousands of jobs would be created. Ranked 38th among states for land area, seems like that land could be put to great renewable energy resource use — and Indiana's farmers would enjoy a bump in salary. Tens of thousands of dollars could be added to their annual income by simply leasing land for wind turbines.
And Indiana's increasingly green potential goes further than wind. Crops and livestock could eventually replace up to one third of the state's gasoline consumption — or generate up to 20% of the state's electricity.
By harvesting corn and wheat stalks and soybean residue, farmers could simultaneously increase profit and produce biomass to use for power production or to make ethanol.
The report also describes Indiana's potential for biogas production from methane, a greenhouse gas emitted by the manure of pigs, cows, and other livestock. Indiana currently ranks among the country's top give hog-producing states, making methane easy to come by. The state would enjoy an additional $10 million in annual revenue from the biogas production on hog farms alone.
The Natural Resources Defense Council points out that Indiana's transformation of energy infrastructure will also require major changes in policy and incentives. There is much to be done in the way of paperwork, especially if the Hoosier State imposes a renewable energy requirement, also called a renewable portfolio standard, to require a percentage of utility electricity usage from nonfossil fuel sources.
But this week, I say we forget the paperwork and to-do list and let Indiana enjoy its jump in the ranks. . . from second-to-barrel-bottom to a projected top place.
Brigid
