A Progress Report on State-Level Oil Dependence

states460.gifNRDC’s depiction of how hard states are hit by gas costs, ranked by percentage of income spent.

America’s oil addiction is readily acknowledged, even by its biggest enablers. But what is the nation actually doing to kick the habit and embrace a safer, healthier, more realistic energy future? 

An attempt to answer that question was released today [PDF]
by the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), which has ranked the
"oil vulnerability" of the 50 states for three years running.

On
its face, the list is unsurprising: Mississippi remains in first place,
with the average driver spending more than 9 percent of annual income
on gas, while Massachusetts, New York, and Connecticut were rated the
least oil-dependent states. Yet NRDC’s analysis also offers some
instructive tidbits:

  • New York is the overwhelming
    leader in transit — but not much else. The state dedicated 41 percent
    of its federal transportation money to transit as opposed to roads in
    2007, making it the benchmark by which NRDC measured all others. Yet
    that was only enough to hit No. 6 on the overall scale of sustainable
    energy use, thanks to the state’s lack of a low-carbon or renewable
    fuel standard, action on smart growth, and incentives for hybrid
    vehicles.
  • New Jersey’s transit spending
    may not be getting through to some of its drivers. The state ranked
    second behind New York with 30 percent of transport cash used on
    transit, but the state’s average driver spent $2,286 on gas last year
    compared with $1,654 in New York. It’s not due to a high state gas tax;
    New Jersey’s is one of the lowest in the nation. 
  • Capitol
    Hill can set the pace for reducing vehicle miles traveled (VMT). Only
    six states have set targets for shrinking their VMT, a goal that
    Transportation Secretary LaHood has called essential to fighting climate change. Without congressional passage of legislation
    making VMT reduction a national priority, it’s difficult to see a
    majority of states taking action individually in the near term.
  • Reputations may be deceiving. Georgia, where all but 23 of 5,400 DOT employees focus on roads, saw its federal transit grants frozen
    this month due to financial mismanagement and spends less than 7
    percent of its transport budget on transit. But the state ranked 17th
    on NRDC’s list, just ahead of Minnesota — the progressive-leaning home
    of House infrastructure committee chairman Jim Oberstar (D).
  • soylatte

    Focusing on personal gasoline expenses is an extremely myopic viewpoint, though it pays off politically I imagine. Transportation is only one part of our oil addiction. What about agriculture, construction, manufacturing, transportation of goods, and even being on the internet? It ALL runs on oil.

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