LEXINGTON, KY - Kentucky is the sixth most susceptible state in the country to gas price shock according to a report issued by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).
"Ranking States Oil Vulnerability: Assessing the Continued Threat of Gas Price Spikes," puts Kentucky in the company of Mississippi, Montana, Louisiana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Maine, Georgia and Idaho as the 10 most vulnerable states to oil price fluctuations based on the average percentage of the average driver's income spent on gasoline each year.
According to the NRDC findings, Kentuckians spent on average $1,583.50 on gas in 2009. In comparison, residents of Connecticut - which fared best in this report - spent $1,391.18 on gas over the same time.
While the difference in the annual average between Kentucky and Connecticut comes to only $192, the disparity is in the proportion of income going to purchases of gasoline. Kentucky residents, whose average income is far lower than that of their Connecticut counterparts are shelling out 5.02 percent of their incomes compared with 2.52 percent in Connecticut. If prices spike again as they did in 2008 when the price of unleaded topped out at more than $4, Kentuckians should expect to spend $2,758.46, 8.75 percent on average of their annual income on gas, according to the report.
Deron Lovaas, Federal Transportation Policy Director with the NRDC, said to ease the burden on residents of the most vulnerable states, and the nation as a whole, lawmakers should revisit some of the actions taken during the 2008 spike.
"People need more choices. In some places it's going to be more vehicle choices, in some places it's going to be more fuel choices and some places it's going to be more transportation choices and some places it's going to be all three," Lovaas said on a conference call with media.
The NRDC says further emissions standards and mileage requirements for the cars sold in the US teamed with an emphasis on alternative forms of transportation from bikes to mass transit will lessen the load.
"Right now consumers don't have many choices, which means they're burdened whenever changes happen in the global oil market, which is unfair to them," Lovaas said.
Pairing the threat of increasing gas prices with the downturn in the economy is a dreaded double whammy according to Bill White, an analyst with David Gardiner and Associates, which assisted the NRDC with the report.
"We are coming out of a deep recession and this vulnerability will tend to be worse in those times because folks are already under a lot of strain, economically. This threat really doesn't go away, it continues to be there," he said. Making matters worse is that US demand for oil isn't what sets prices. "It is set in a global market, we take that price, and we have to live with it," White said.
The report also urges Congress to pass a comprehensive energy bill that will "level the playing field for alternative (fuels)," according to Lovaas.
While Kentucky is in the top 10 most vulnerable, there does not appear to be much a state can do to get itself off this list, outside of supporting national legislation.
"A lack of forward thinking for a better energy and climate policy that limits emissions and heads us towards energy dependence definitely hurts consumers in states like Kentucky more than others. Hopefully lawmakers in those states would really put their shoulders to the wheel to get new policy in place rather than trying to block it," Lovaas said in response to a question about previous attempts to block carbon dioxide emission standards in Kentucky.
For the full report visit http://docs.nrdc.org/energy/files/ene_10031601a.pdf.