Brace yourselves, greenies. Maine ranks 25th on a new list of America’s greenest states. That’s right, perfectly average.

Forbes magazine just published the rankings, which are based on pro-environment public policies, energy efficiency programs, air quality and other things.

Vermont, Oregon and Washington are numbers one, two and three on the list. No surprises there. Also in the top 10 and comfortably ahead of Maine are Connecticut (6), New Jersey (7), Rhode Island (8) and New York (9).

Ouch.

We Mainers regard ourselves as greener than the average American partly because we enjoy being around so much undeveloped forestland and coastline. But this ranking wasn’t about recreational opportunities and quality of life.

Forbes scored each state in six categories: carbon footprint, air quality, water quality, hazardous waste management, policy initiatives and energy consumption.

You can file an appeal with the folks at Forbes if you like, but Maine is far from the most energy-efficient state. We drive our cars and pickups many more miles than the average American, for example.

There's always next year.

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