The score

91 years behind targets (worst-performing indicator in the Scorecard)

The trend

Stuck in high gear

Soundbite

The Northwest states send $53 million a day out of the region to pay for oil and gas.

Picture it

Map: The United States of Climate Change
Counter: The 2007 Energy Counter

2007 results at a glance

• Energy is the worst-performing indicator in the Scorecard. Counting highway fuels and electricity use, Cascadians consume the energy-equivalent of 2.1 gallons of gasoline every day—nearly double the Scorecard model, Germany.
• Measured as the per capita consumption of highway fuels and the use of electricity in homes and businesses, the energy indicator reveals a region every bit as ineffiicient today as it was three decades ago.
• But the flat line for overall energy use conceals three divergent trends. Per capita gasoline consumption has fallen for seven years, while electricity use rose last year, reversing several years of progress. Meanwhile, diesel fuel use continued a half-century-long ascent.

2007 results in detail

• Total gasoline consumption in Cascadia has remained flat since 1999, even as the region’s population has grown by 9 percent. These two trends have combined to reduce per capita gasoline consumption to its lowest level since 1967.
• High gas prices are likely at the root of declining per-person consumption. Prices have risen by about 10 percent a year since the 1990s, creating financial strains and changing driving habits.
  
• Transit ridership and sales of fuel-efficient vehicles have increased, while gas-guzzling vehicle sales and the number of miles driven in Oregon and Washington have declined.
• But unlike gasoline use, increases in diesel fuel prices have not prevented an upswing in per capita diesel use: annual consumption was just under 100 gallons per person a decade ago, but it rose to 119 gallons last year.
• The biggest source of concern in this indicator is the recent rise in electricity consumption--between 2003 and 2006, total electricity consumption by Cascadia’s homes and businesses rose by roughly 7 percent. Additionally, following the closure of Washington’s Centralia coal mine in 2006, the Northwest states now import virtually all fossil fuels used to produce electricity.
  
  

Solutions: Pass energy-smart policy

• Cascadia can follow Germany’s lead in aggressively pursuing policy that promotes efficient and renewable energy use.
  
• British Columbia recently passed an ambitious program to curb coal-fired power plants and reduce carbon emissions, and Oregon and Washington are considering similar steps.
• A critical next step in accelerating such progress is to make energy prices tell the truth. As expensive as a gallon of gasoline may seem, the price still fails to cover the costs of global warming, air pollution, and petroleum-related military spending.
• To do this, we need to implement a regional climate pricing program that will help us meet ambitious goals for slashing global warming pollution and that is fair to consumers.
  

More information:

• "Climate Fairness" blog series
  
• Energy chapter of Scorecard (pdf, go to p.29)
• Sightline's climate policy project
• Sightline's energy counter
• Cascadia Scorecard 2007 press kit

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