December 15, 2021

San Francisco, Seattle Lead City Clean Energy Scorecard 

San Francisco topped the list for the first time in 2021 City Clean Energy Scorecard, followed by Seattle (#2), Washington, DC (#3), Minneapolis (#4), and Boston and New York (tied for #5). 

In the sixth edition of this report, the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) ranked 100 major U.S. cities on efforts including reducing energy waste in homes and buildings and moving toward a cleaner power grid.

The ACEEE’s 2021 report lists the cities that have improved the most and those with ample room for progress. Most large U.S. cities have yet to institute strong policies to reduce GHG emissions from transportation, and they are not on track to meet their climate goals for the sector or have yet to set any. 

San Francisco launched a new program that provides free home energy-saving kits to residents in areas that are disproportionately burdened by multiple sources of pollution and are economically disadvantaged. The city also updated its energy code for new residential and commercial buildings with requirements that will reduce their GHG  emissions and it was the top scorer on transportation policies.

Cities earned credit for policies and programs such as requiring large buildings to reduce energy waste or subsidizing access to transit and other efficient transportation options for historically marginalized groups, and for their success in reducing their overall greenhouse gas emissions.

For the first time, ACEEE assessed cities’ progress toward their climate goals for the transportation sector, which are based on either GHG emissions or vehicle miles traveled by using a comprehensive review of their reported data. Twenty-five cities have adopted such goals and only three are on track to achieve them.

“Most cities haven’t set a goal for reducing vehicle travel or transportation emissions, and of those that have, only a few show progress, so that points to a big area for improvement,” said Stefen Samarripas, local policy manager at ACEEE and lead author of the report. “From investments in transit to incentives for installing electric vehicle charging stations and zoning changes that allow dense, mixed-use development, cities have to use all their tools to support an affordable transportation system that works better for all while slashing greenhouse gas emissions.”

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