As Biden addresses climate change, KY lags behind US states on the issue. Here’s why

As residents across the country face heat waves and some areas, including Kentucky, see droughts, President Joe Biden announced executive action designed to combat climate change Wednesday.

The president did not declare a formal climate emergency, but introduced three primary initiatives aiming to “protect communities from extreme heat and climate impacts,” lower cooling costs and create offshore energy jobs.

While many people who are concerned about the climate have urged more widespread federal action to protect the environment, some states have fared better in green policies than others.

A recent ranking from Wise Voter, a website founded in 2020 focusing on voter education, put Kentucky in 41st place in the U.S. for metrics aiming to combat climate change.

The June 20 report, Best & Worst States for Climate Change, evaluated the 50 states on five main categories and 43 metrics. The five broad categories were carbon emissions, green technology adoption, landfill usage, recycling and green policies.

The ranking put the commonwealth in 43rd place for green tech adoption, 40th in landfill usage, 41st in recycling and 37th for green policies. Kentucky secured a 25th place spot for carbon emissions.

While Kentucky overall performed worse than most of the nation, there was one category in which it received the best score out of every state: most reduction in individual CO2 emissions.

Kentucky’s metric for reduction in individual emissions was 28 times higher than the last place state’s for that category, which was Idaho.

There were some areas where Kentucky fell closer to the middle of the pack, such as clean car standards (27 out of the 50 states), clean energy policies (29), food waste (26) and landfill availability (28).

The commonwealth’s overall score was 39.66 on a 100-point scale. The highest ranking state was given a score of 68.75.

How did other states perform?

Here’s the full ranking of Best & Worst States for Climate Change, from Wise Voter:

1. California

2. Maine

3. New York

4. Vermont

5. Massachusetts

6. Maryland

7. Connecticut

8. New Jersey

9. Oregon

10. Washington

11. Minnesota

12. New Hampshire

13. North Carolina

14. Delaware

15. Pennsylvania

16. Rhode Island

17. Virginia

18. Hawaii

19. Wisconsin

20. Michigan

21. Colorado

22. Iowa

23. South Dakota

24. Georgia

25. Florida

26. Utah

27. South Carolina

28. Nevada

29. Texas

30. Missouri

31. Indiana

32. Oklahoma

33. Ohio

34. Arizona

35. New Mexico

36. North Dakota

37. Kansas

38. Illinois

39. Montana

40. Tennessee

41. Kentucky

42. Arkansas

43. Alabama

44. Idaho

45. Wyoming

46. Nebraska

47. West Virginia

48. Mississippi

49. Alaska

50. Louisiana

According to Wise Voter, the ranking used data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Census Bureau and other organizations.

Do you have a question about the environment or climate change in Kentucky for our service journalism team? We’d like to hear from you. Fill out our Know Your Kentucky form or email ask@herald-leader.com.

Meredith Howard

Belleville News-Democrat

Meredith Howard is a service journalist with the Belleville News-Democrat. She is a Baylor University graduate and has previously freelanced with the Illinois Times and the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. Support my work with a digital subscription