Phoenix falls 2 spots to No. 19 in energy efficiency ranking of US cities

PHOENIX – Arizona’s largest city slipped two places in an annual ranking of energy efficiency but remained in the top 20.

Phoenix checked in at No. 19 in the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy’s 2020 City Clean Energy Scorecard, which was released earlier this month.

The ACEEE scorecard ranks 100 major cities on how they “make buildings and transportation more energy efficient and scale up the use of renewable energy,” according to a press release.

Despite falling from No. 17 in the past year, Phoenix remained the highest ranked of the three Arizona cities on the list.

The other two, Tucson and Mesa, also lost ground in the rankings. Tucson was No. 68 in 2020 after coming in at No. 52 the previous year. Mesa slipped from No. 66 to No. 76 this year.

The cities on the list are home to 19% of the nation’s population.

The 2020 list was expanded to 100 cities from 75 a year ago.

The ranking is based on five policy areas: local government operations, community-wide initiatives, buildings policies, energy and water utilities and transportation policies.

New York moved up from No. 6 into the top spot overall, while Boston dropped a spot to No. 2.

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