PROVIDENCE – Carbon-dioxide emissions in Rhode Island increased 24 percent from 1997 to 2007, according to a report released Thursday by the nonprofit Environment Rhode Island that also found that Rhode Island’s total emissions rank among the lowest in the nation.
Environment Rhode Island attributed the rise in emissions to growing demand for electricity. But since the state relies primarily on natural gas to generate electricity, it avoided emissions associated with dirtier methods such as coal, the organization said.
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The state recorded the second-lowest emissions on a per capita basis, behind Washington, D.C., the report said.
Still, Environment Rhode Island criticized the Ocean State for allowing emissions to rise from 2004 to 2007, a period when more than one-third of states managed to cut pollution.
“More pollution than ever before is not the record we want to set,” Caitlin Seeley, federal field organizer for Environment Rhode Island, said in a statement. “It’s time to take back control of our energy future. By harnessing the power of the wind and the sun, we can cut pollution and transition to clean energy sources that don’t harm the environment, never run out, and create new, local jobs.”
In the report, which was based on federal data, Texas remained the nation’s top emitter of carbon from burning fossil fuels in 2007, followed by California, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida.
Wyoming produced the most carbon dioxide pollution per capita, followed by North Dakota, West Virginia, Alaska and Louisiana.
Besides Rhode Island and Washington, D.C., the states that produced the lowest pollution on a per capita basis were New York, Vermont, Idaho and California.
The full report is available at environmentrhodeisland.org.
