Story at a glance
- WalletHub recently compared each of the 50 states along 25 metrics to determine which state is the greenest.
- Vermont was followed by New York and Hawaii.
- The least environmentally friendly states in the union were in order: West Virginia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, North Dakota, and Kentucky.
Vermont is the most environmentally friendly state in the U.S., according to a new report released a little more than a week away from Earth Day.
WalletHub recently compared each of the 50 states along 25 metrics, including air quality, water quality and highest percentage of renewable energy consumption, to determine which state is the greenest.
Wyoming led the way with the highest air quality while five states – California, Hawaii, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, and Massachusetts, tied for the highest water quality.
California, Illinois, and Nevada were the three states with the lowest air quality, according to WalletHub’s rankings.
Overall, the least environmentally friendly states in the union were in order: West Virginia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, North Dakota, and Kentucky.
There were 47 $1 billion weather related disasters in 2021, according to a Yale Climate Connections report that was released earlier this year. This is tied for the fifth most on record.
“Extreme weather events, some of which were enhanced by climate change, were particularly notable in the United States,” the report said, noting that “as climate change influenced hazard behavior grows more volatile and severe, the expansion of population footprints will additionally grow the risk of costlier disasters.”
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But there are ways states and localities can design policies to make their communities more environmentally friendly.
“Frankly, we need to move on beyond doing ‘less bad’ and work toward thinking about how our policies can help heal the damage already done,” Carol J. Dollard, energy engineer, facilities management at Colorado State University, told Wallet Hub.
“Without a healthy planet – there is no economic growth. It is vital to consider all the environmental impacts of growth to understand the whole picture,” Dollard added when asked about tradeoffs between environment protecting policies and economic growth.
Here are WalletHub’s ten greenest states in 2022.
1. Vermont
2. New York
3. Hawaii
4. Maryland
5. California
6. Massachusetts
7. Minnesota
8. Connecticut
9. South Dakota
10. Maine
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