Los Angeles Tops Annual List of Greenest U.S. Cities

By: Selena Robinson, Freelance Journalist for WorldNewsVine

Washington, D.C. – Earlier today, the Environmental Protection Agency published its list of the 25 U.S. cities with the most environmentally friendly buildings and the City of Angels came out on top. L.A. has 293 buildings that have been granted the “Energy Star” label, meaning that the facility scores in the top 25 percent of the criteria used by the EPA National Energy Performance Rating System.

Buildings in almost all fields of industry can qualify for an Energy Star label, including bank branches, hospitals, schools, supermarkets, retailers, offices, auto assembly plants, pharmaceutical manufacturing plants and even petroleum refineries. Based on Los Angeles’ number of energy-efficient buildings, the EPA estimates that the energy saved last year amounted to $93.9 million in L.A. alone. According to the agency’s report, that’s enough to provide electricity to 34,800 homes for a year.

D.C. itself came in second on the list with 204 buildings. San Francisco was third, Denver was fourth and Chicago rounded out the top five. Even the concrete jungle, New York City, was in the top ten. In the EPA press release, Gina McCarthy, assistant administrator for the EPA office of Air and Radiation, said, “These cities see the importance of taking action on climate change. Communities from Los Angeles to Louisville (#25 on the list) are reducing greenhouse gases and cutting energy bills with buildings that have earned EPA’s Energy Star.”

The EPA says that almost 3,900 commercial buildings earned the Energy Star label last year, “representing annual savings of more than $900 million in utility bills and more than 4.7 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions.” The number of buildings that received the designation increased 40% from 2008.

Posted by on March 23, 2010. Filed under Environment,Green Technologies,National News,News,News and Opinions with Selena Robinson,WorldNewsVine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.