The chart above shows transportation based carbon dioxide emissions in US states. One-quarter of all carbon dioxide emissions from transportation use come from three states: Texas, California, and Florida.
Findings
- The difference between the state with the most emissions, Texas, and the state with the least, Vermont, is 199 million metric tons.
- Texas emits 63 times the carbon dioxide that Vermont does.
- Ten out of 50 states are responsible for half of the carbon dioxide emitted from transportation sources.
- Only three states emit less than five million metric tons: Delaware, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
- The mean number of metric tons emitted in the US from transportation sources is 34,786,000, and the median 26,850,000.
Caveats
- Emissions data is from 2013.
- Washington DC is excluded from the list but emits one million metric tons.
Details
Only three states emit more than a quarter of the next highest emitting state: California (99% more than Florida), South Dakota (59% more than Delaware), and Florida (45% more than New York).
The United States as a whole emits 1,739,300,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide from transportation sources annually.
Sources
United States Department of Transportation. 2015. "State Transportation by the Numbers." Accessed March 21, 2018. https://www.bts.gov/sites/bts.dot.gov/files/legacy/_entire.pdf.