America's Cities Have Smaller-Than-Average Carbon Footprint, No Thanks to Nashville

From the AP:

WASHINGTON — While cities are hot spots for global warming, people living in them turn out to be greener than their country cousins.

Each resident of the largest 100 largest metropolitans areas is responsible on average for 2.47 tons of carbon dioxide in energy consumption each year, 14% below the 2.87 ton U.S. average, researchers at the Brookings Institution say in a report being released Thursday.

Nashvillians, unfortunately, cannot take any credit for the greening of America's cities. The Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro statistical area has the nation's sixth largest per capita carbon footprint, at 3.222 tons—well above the national average. Indianapolis, the town in which I was born and raised, is even worse; Naptown is second, at 3.364 tons. View the Brookings study here.