Washington ranks high on human health, trails in energy efficiency and smart growth
New regional scorecard marks state's progress in seven critical trends
Washington boasts increasingly long lifespans and improved forest stewardship, but lags significantly in energy efficiency and smart growth. That's according to the first edition of the Cascadia Scorecard, a new gauge of regional progress released today by Seattle-based research center Northwest Environment Watch. Overall, the state--and the Northwest as a whole--has made gains since 1990, according to the Scorecard, but its record is marred by failures. For example, Washington residents still consume nearly as much energy as Texans; and Spokane and Seattle are decades away from becoming as compact as British Columbia's largest cities.
"Celebrity scandal and stock prices make headlines," says NEW research director, Clark Williams-Derry. "But to be more successful as a region, we need to pay attention to critical, slow-changing trends that more dramatically affect our future." The report--Cascadia Scorecard: Seven Key Trends Shaping the Northwest--details how Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and British Columbia are doing and spotlights places that "score" best in each trend.
Selected during a three-year research process from a list of nearly 1,000 candidate indicators, the seven trends include health, economy, population, energy, sprawl, forests, and pollution. Highlights of the findings are:
- Low "score" on energy efficiency: Measuring use of highway fuels and nonindustrial electricity as a proxy for overall energy use, the Scorecard gives northwesterners low marks in energy efficiency. The typical Washington resident uses more energy than a Californian and nearly as much as a Texan. Although the region has moderated per capita energy consumption by 4 percent since 1999, the decline hasn't been enough to budge it off the high plateau where it has been stuck since the 1970s. Washingtonians use more than 50 percent more gasoline per person than BC residents, and about one-third more energy overall.
