When it come to most energy efficient cities in America, count Louisiana in bottom third. And that’s being kind given that New Orleans is ranked 67th and Baton Rouge is dead last at 100.
The scores appear on the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy 2021 scorecard.
Crime ridden San Francisco came in first, followed by Seattle, Washington D.C., and Minneapolis. Boston and New York City tied for fifth place.
According to the Times-Picayune/New Orleans Advocate, cities at the top of the list put an emphasis on public transportation and support of electric vehicles.
It’s also one of the reason New Orleans did much better in the rankings than Baton Rouge.
With community initiatives, support for solar power, and rapidly expanding green infrastructure New Orleans was powered to 67th place.
NOLA scored significantly lower in other categories such as transportation policy, water and utility management and municipal operations.
Adding up these categories and New Orleans is in the same territory as Stockton, California and Mesa, Arizona.
The Council says New Orleans is not keeping up with other cities in supporting and implementing new and better codes for buildings, support for solar power, and electric vehicle charging ports.
New Orleans also scored low for not focusing energy efficiency programs toward low income and minority groups.
One major point is that 21% of New Orleans low income home owners have access to ‘high quality transit’ like street cars, buses, ferries and trains. Cities like Chicago, Portland and Atlanta have scored much higher for their emphasis on dependable public transit.
And if you think New Orleans isn’t doing very well, Baton Rouge scored even worse: a Zero score for community initiatives and city operations.
Its overall score was 3.5 out of a 100.
This is despite leading in electric vehicle charging stations with 16.3 vehicle ports per 100,000 population compared to New Orleans 4.9 ports per 100,000.
