New Jersey: The Green State?

[pinelandpaddler]

Green State

Interesting, but I'm skeptical. The whole carbon footprint thing - I'm not buying it:

In only five states did people travel fewer miles in their vehicles than they did in New Jersey in 2005, the most recent year for which government data is available.

Aren't there other factors to consider, such as how many cars are on the road at any given time in this State?

 

[MarkBNJ]

Green State

Interesting, but I'm skeptical. The whole carbon footprint thing - I'm not buying it:



Aren't there other factors to consider, such as how many cars are on the road at any given time in this State?

I buy it. People drive fewer miles in congested suburban settings, and even fewer in urban settings.

 

[pinelandpaddler]

I hear you, but aren't there other factors to consider, such as how many cars are on the road at any given time in this State?

 

[Ben Ruset]

There can be a billion cars, if they all travel less it's the same as few cars driving more.

 

[pinelandpaddler]

What about the effects of idling and stop-and-go traffic? Perhaps I'm misunderstanding the article, but I'm thinking in terms of carbon emmissions locally.

 

[Ben Ruset]

I guess you could make an argument saying that idling and stop-and-go traffic would have an effect on the results, but how would you quantify that scientifically? There are days that I drive into NYC and there is awful stop and go traffic, and there are days that I breeze right through the Holland Tunnel.

I guess by only looking at distance traveled they try to keep the playing field level between all of the other states. Problem is, however, that cars are far less efficient idiling then when they are screaming down the interstate at 4000 RPM.

The other thing to consider is that this is just one of the factors that they used to determine the score.

Honestly, without a real scientific report behind it, it's a fluff piece.

 

[relayer]

Seems to me green can be defined several different ways and I suspect that according to most of those ways NJ would hardly be considered a green state. In any case, here is an article about CA, its efforts to be be green and the alleged unforseen consequences of those efforts.
http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=12244
Enjoy or something
relayer

 

[Dragonfly]

The carbon footprint number in the article is reported as a PER CAPITA, so isn't comparing NJ, which is #1 in population density per square mile in the country, to other states with much lower rankings, wrong somehow?

 

[pinelandpaddler]

The carbon footprint number in the article is reported as a PER CAPITA, so isn't comparing NJ, which is #1 in population density per square mile in the country, to other states with much lower rankings, wrong somehow?

That's what I was thinking.