Well, after yesterday’s comparison of Texas and California, which are at the opposite ends of the spectrum regarding energy consumption per person per year, I thought I’d take it a bit further.

Here is a ranked list of 49 of the 50 states (missing Hawaii and Washington D.C. at the moment): Energy per capita with other factors, US 2009

The average for the entire U.S. was 308 mbtus (million British Thermal Units) per person per year for 2009. That compares favorably with Canada (427 mbtus  per capita) but not so well with Germany (250 mbtus).

However, there is more variation found within the United States than between the U.S. and other developed countries. New York has per capita energy consumption of 196 mbtus. Wyoming has consumption of 956 mbtus, higher than Kuwait, Qatar…

Because Germany is a well-developed, high infrastructure country that even has autobahns without speed limits, I think they could serve as a goal for U.S. energy efficiency enthusiasts such as myself. So it’s nice to begin this with the observation that nine U.S. states (Maryland, Florida, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Arizona, California, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New York) all have already achieved this target.

And there are really only 13 states with per capita energy consumption above 400 mbtus (Wyoming, Alaska, Louisiana, North Dakota, Iowa, Texas, South Dakota, Kentucky, Nebraska, Montana, Indiana, Alabama and Oklahoma).

There are some other points of interest:

• The median household income for the 13 worst states is $46,816. The median household income for the 9 best performing states is $58,016. Those who say that rising incomes lower energy consumption may have a point, although it could be that wealthier people prefer Connecticut to North Dakota…
• The average population density per square mile for the 13 worst states is 58.3. The average population density per square mile for the 9 top performers is 488. Urbanization is the environment’s best friend.
• The average insolation (a measurement of how much sunlight an area receives) for the 13 worst states is 3.97. The average insolation for the 9 best performing states is 4.21.
• The average residential electricity rates in the 13 worst states in 2010 was 9.85 cents per kilowatt hour. The average residential electricity rates in the 9 best performing states in 2010 was 15.29 cents per kilowatt hour. Incentive to conserve…

Have a look at the data and let me know what else you find that’s interesting.

State	Population density (2011)	Energy consumption per capita	Detached Housing	Median Income	Ave. Insolation
Wyoming	5.851	956	145,260	52,664	4.25
Alaska	1.264	907	152,688	66,953	2.09
Louisiana	105	750	1,184,167	42,492	4.76
North Dakota	9.916	661	179,821	47,827	3.68
Iowa	54.81	472	911,987	48,044	3.77
Texas	98.07	456	5,171,892	48,259	4.83
South Dakota	10.86	444	217,681	45,043	3.87
Kentucky	110	435	1,156,003	40,072	3.9
Nebraska	23.97	423	519,763	47,357	3.98
Montana	6.858	422	276,433	42,322	3.96
Indiana	181.7	409	1,802,259	45,424	3.87
Alabama	94.65	405	1,300,272	40,489	4.34
Oklahoma	55.22	404	1,080,624	41,664	4.36
West Virginia	77.06	393	583,695	37,435	3.73
Mississippi	63.5	386	791,569	36,646	3.59
Kansas	35.09	385	818,954	47,817	4.11
Arkansas	56.43	365	809,373	37,823	4.46
South Carolina	155.4	347	1,078,678	42,442	4.15
Minnesota	67.14	344	1,399,993	55,616	3.68
Tennessee	155.4	340	1,642,085	41,725	4.04
New Mexico	17.16	334	475,829	43,028	4.97
Idaho	19.15	330	369,924	44,926	4.24
Maine	43.04	327	439,459	45,734	3.82
Ohio	281.9	315	3,221,505	45,395	3.83
Wisconsin	105.2	309	1,531,612	49,993	3.69
88.08 inhabitants per square mile (34.01 /km2)		308
Washington	102.6	305	1,527,867	56,548	3.53
Missouri	87.26	304	1,679,585	45,229	4.09
Virginia	204.5	303	1,810,353	59,330	3.9
Georgia	169.5	301	2,107,317	47,590	4.37
Illinois	231.5	296	2,831,011	53,966	3.72
Colorado	49.33	290	1,122,331	55,430	4.55
Pennsylvania	284.3	290	2,935,248	49,520	3.84
Delaware	464.3	288	191,688	56,860	3.84
Oregon	40.33	279	911,595	48,457	3.82
New Jersey	1,189	275	1,794,967	68,342	3.63
North Carolina	198.2	272	2,267,890	43,674	4.2
Michigan	173.9	271	2,988,818	45,255	3.58
Utah	34.3	271	520,101	55,117	4.53
Nevada	24.8	268	432,437	53,341	5.3
Vermont	67.73	254	193,229	51,618	3.43
Maryland	596.3	251	1,097,673	69,272	3.98
Florida	353.4	232	3,816,527	44,736	5.26
New Hampshire	147	229	341,299	60,567	3.58
Connecticut	739.1	224	816,706	67,034	3.59
Arizona	57.05	221	1,244,172	48,745	5.38
California	241.7	217	6,883,493	58,931	5.4
Massachusetts	840.2	216	1,374,479	64,081	3.58
Rhode Island	1,006	207	241,202	54,119	3.64
New York	412.3	196	3,198,486	54,659	3.53

Original Article on 3000 Quads