This makes Montana one of the nation’s 11 states that are “net exporters” of energy. The top net exporting states are Wyoming, West Virginia, Louisiana, New Mexico, Alaska, and Kentucky, ranked in that order. All are net exporters of over 1,000 trillion Btus a year. Of the five Rocky Mountain West states, four are net energy exporters including Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and Montana. Idaho is a net energy importer.
Interestingly, being a large net exporter of energy does not necessarily translate into economic prosperity for a state’s residents. This is particularly the case when the source of a state’s net energy exports is primarily coal. For example, West Virginia is a huge exporter of coal and the 2nd highest net energy exporting state, but ranked 49th in per capita income in 2006 when these energy data were compiled. Kentucky, also a large exporter of coal, ranked 45th in per capita income. West Virginia also had the 4th highest poverty rate among states while Kentucky had the 6th highest.
On the other hand, Wyoming and Alaska, both sparsely populated energy exporters, including exports of oil and gas, ranked 6th and 16th, respectively, in per capita income in 2006. The other two large net energy exporting states, Louisiana and New Mexico, ranked 29th and 46th in per capita income, but had the 2nd and 3rd highest poverty rates, respectively, among states. Montana, the nation’s 9th ranked net exporter of energy, ranked 41st in per capita income. North Dakota, 10th in net energy production, ranked 38th in per capita income. Utah, 11th in net energy production, ranked 47th. Clearly, there is no clear evidence that so-called “energy independence” for a given state translates into economic prosperity. Many, many other factors are involved.
-Larry Swanson, O’Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West, U. of MT