The 2026 Environmental Quality Index (EQI) highlights the United States as a leading energy producer while maintaining high environmental and human freedom standards. Far from harming the planet, America’s energy abundance delivers more global economic growth and genuine environmental progress than equivalent production from any other country.
Download the full report here.
Key Findings: U.S. Production Outperforms Global Peers on Environmental Quality
Using Yale University’s 2024 Environmental Performance Index (EPI, 0–100 scale) weighted by each country’s fuel production, the EQI reveals stark contrasts:
Oil
- U.S. EPI: 57.2
- Production-weighted global average: 48.1
Natural Gas
- U.S. EPI: 57.2
- Production-weighted global average: 49.9
Coal
- U.S. EPI: 57.2
- Production-weighted global average: 38.7
Freedom Drives Environmental Performance
The EQI documents a strong positive correlation between economic and personal freedom (Cato Institute Human Freedom Index) and environmental outcomes:
- Countries in the top quintile of human freedom average an EPI score of 59.
- Environmental performance declines steadily as freedom decreases.
The United States ranks 17th globally in human freedom. By contrast:
- The next 21 largest oil producers average rank 113.42
- The next 19 largest natural gas producers average rank 102.95
Case studies of Venezuela (oil, freedom rank 159), Russia (natural gas, rank 139), and China (coal, rank 150) show how authoritarian control, weak property rights, and corruption produce economic collapse, severe environmental degradation, and systematic underreporting of ecological harm.
Why the U.S. Achieves More Energy with Less Environmental Impact
Three uniquely American factors explain simultaneous surges in production and environmental improvement:
1) Private Mineral Rights
Approximately 75% of U.S. oil and 87% of natural gas come from private or state lands, aligning landowner and producer incentives for efficient, responsible development.
2) Market-Driven Innovation
Technologies such as hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling increased U.S. oil output significantly in the past decade, while the total number of producing wells has fallen from its 2014 peak.
3) Decades of Air Quality Gains
From 1970 to 2023, U.S. emissions of six criteria air pollutants declined 78% while GDP grew 321% and energy consumption rose 42%—consistent with the Environmental Kuznets Curve and driven by wealth creation and market incentives rather than central planning.
The United States is the only nation that combines massive scale in conventional energy production with high environmental standards and robust economic freedom. Policies that expand American energy abundance—rather than restrict it—represent the fastest, most effective path to global energy security, economic prosperity, and genuine environmental progress.
Download the full report here.
