Energy Use In Rhode Island
Energy use in Rhode Island is divided into four sectors: Residential, Transportation, Industrial and Commerical. This site focuses on the residential and transportation sectors for several reasons. These two areas present many opportunities for individuals to change their behavior and create opportunites for energy efficiency. In addition, the transportation and residential sectors combined make up the largest portion of energy use in Rhode Island. These two areas account for long term energy consumption patterns such as scale of consumption (population, number of cars and size of houses), the efficiency with which energy is used in equipment (cars, power plants, steel mills and light bulbs) and consumer behavior (walking,bicycling and telecommuting instead of driving).
The EPA has found that, on a national scale, emissions are growing faster than national population, thereby indicating a worsening or higher greenhouse emitting intensity on a per capita. As a result of this trend, the majority of our data is reported in Metric Tons of Carbon Emitted (MTCE) to illustrate that even our every day activities in our households and cars affect climate change and greenhouse gases. This unit of measurement allows for comparison with the national Greenhouse Gas Inventory and is the IPCC standard.* As climate change becomes a more pressing issue for state and national governments it is useful to begin to examine trends in terms that reflect climate change standards. Throughout the site there are links if you would like to view the information in terms other than MTCE.
Also included in this site is a list of past energy policy recommendations and how they compare to each other.
* MTCE or MMTCE was the unit used for the national Greenhouse Gas Inventory at the writing of this site. However, this has since been changed to Teragrams of CO2 Equivalent (TgCO2Eq.). The equation for converting to TgCO2Eq is: TgCO2Eq = MMTCE X (44/12).
Sources:
EPA Draft Inventory of US Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks 1990-1997. Jan. 9, 2001