EPA: US Greenhouse Gas Emissions Rose 1.4% in 2007
15 April 2009
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released the national greenhouse gas inventory, which finds that overall emissions during 2007 increased by 1.4% from the previous year. The report, Inventory of US Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks: 1990-2007, is the latest annual report that the United States has submitted to the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Total emissions of the six main greenhouse gases in 2007 were equivalent to 7,150 Tg of carbon dioxide. These gases include carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulfur hexafluoride. The report indicates that overall emissions have grown by 17.2 percent from 1990 to 2007.
The transportation end-use sector accounted for 1,924.6 Tg of CO2 in 2007, which represented 33% of CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion, 26% of CH4 emissions from fossil fuel combustion, and 67% of N2O emissions from fossil fuel combustion, respectively. Fuel purchased in the US for international aircraft and marine travel accounted for an additional 108.8 Tg CO2 in 2007; these emissions are recorded as international bunkers and are not included in US totals according to UNFCCC reporting protocols.
Among domestic transportation sources, light duty vehicles represented 61% of CO2 emissions, medium- and heavy-duty trucks 22%, commercial aircraft 8%, and other sources 10%. Other findings:
From 1990 to 2007, transportation emissions rose by 29% due, in large part, to increased demand for travel and the stagnation of fuel efficiency across the US vehicle fleet.
The number of vehicle miles traveled by light duty motor vehicles (passenger cars and light-duty trucks) increased 40% from 1990 to 2007, as a result of a confluence of factors including population growth, economic growth, urban sprawl, and low fuel prices over much of this period.
The primary driver of transportation-related emissions was CO2 from fossil fuel combustion, which increased by 29% from 1990 to 2007. This rise in CO2 emissions, combined with an increase in HFCs from virtually no emissions in 1990 to 67.0 Tg CO2 Eq. in 2007, led to an increase in overall emissions from transportation activities of 28%.
Domestic transportation CO2 emissions increased by 27% (404.7 Tg) between 1990 and 2007, an annualized increase of 1.5%.
Since 2005, the growth rate of emissions has slowed considerably; transportation CO2 emissions increased by just 0.3% in total between 2005 and 2007. Almost all of the energy consumed by the transportation sector is petroleum-based, including motor gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel, and residual oil.
Carbon dioxide emissions from passenger cars and light-duty trucks totaled 1,147.0 Tg in 2007, an increase of 21% percent (197.5 Tg) from 1990. CO2 emissions from passenger cars and light-duty trucks peaked at 1,181.3 Tg in 2004, and since then have declined about 3%. Over the 1990s through early this decade, growth in vehicle travel substantially outweighed improvements in vehicle fuel economy; however, the rate of Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) growth slowed considerably starting in 2005 while average vehicle fuel economy increased.
Among new vehicles sold annually, average fuel economy gradually declined from 1990 to 2004, reflecting substantial growth in sales of light-duty trucks relative to passenger cars. New vehicle fuel economy improved beginning in 2005, largely due to higher light-duty truck fuel economy standards, which have risen each year since 2005. The overall increase in fuel economy is also due to a slightly lower light-duty truck market share, which peaked in 2004 at 52% and declined to 48% in 2007.
The increase in overall emissions in 2007 was due primarily to an increase in carbon dioxide emissions associated with fuel and electricity consumption. The following factors were primary contributors to this increase:
Increased demand for heating fuels and electricity due to cooler winter and warmer summer conditions in 2007 than in 2006;
Increased consumption of fossil fuels to generate electricity; and
A significant decrease (14.2%) in hydropower generation used to meet this demand.
The inventory tracks annual greenhouse gas emissions at the national level and presents historical emissions from 1990 to 2007. The inventory also calculates carbon dioxide emissions that are removed from the atmosphere by “sinks,” e.g., through the uptake of carbon by forests, vegetation and soils.
Resources
Hmmm. Don't suppose that adding 2.8 million to the U.S. population had anything to do with this, do you? This ought to be mentioned everytime the causes are discussed for these types of increases.
Dave Gardner
Producer/Director
Hooked on Growth: Our Misguided Quest for Prosperity
www.growthbusters.com
Posted by: Growthbuster | 15 April 2009 at 02:11 PM
Uh oh... But hey! If we get our CO2 content to a whopping 600ppm we get a 171% increase in biomass of Oryza sativa L. er, commonly known as rice. That would be a major food staple of the world.
http://www.co2science.org/data/plant_growth/dry/o/oryzas.php
This is REALLY scary.
Posted by: Reel$$ | 15 April 2009 at 05:06 PM
"...overall emissions during 2007 increased by 1.4% from the previous year..."
And global temperatures have been dropping. This **is** really scary to the GLobalwarmists since they claim, without proof, that higher CO2 = higher temperatures.
How DARE this be published!!!
Posted by: The Goracle | 15 April 2009 at 06:57 PM
Changes for 2008, 2009 and 2010 will most probably be -2.5%, -3.5% and - 3.0%respectively, recession oblige.
After 2011, the arrival of more efficient ICE vehicles, HEVs, PHEVs and BEVs may progressively lower GHG emissions by up to 3% every year.
Posted by: HarveyD | 15 April 2009 at 07:06 PM
Those results are for plants growing under controlled, laboratory conditions. Of course they grow more - why do you think they pump CO2 into greenhouses?
In your reductionist fantasy world, do you really believe that the results from hydroponically grown plants in growth chambers will translate into a 600ppm world? The climate is not a laboratory; it doesn't have simple, controlled inputs and outputs.
Posted by: Scatter | 16 April 2009 at 01:44 AM
Rice needs a reliable fresh water supply, which is becoming more and more erratic, with some areas suffering droughts with intermittent floods, while others lose their riverflow from diminishing snowpack.
Can't grow enough rice in laboratories to feed the world's population...
Posted by: Will S | 16 April 2009 at 08:48 AM
This si all on man-made production basis without allowing for any sequestration or increases in sequestration to mar these phony numbers.
NASA reports that the USA and all of North America is "greening up" from the stunted fauna without sufficient CO2, and land use set-asides made for wilderness and parkland and abandoned farms. Over the last thirty years the amount of increased fauna is about 30-40% percent according to NASA satellite studies. If you don'think that is a large area, consider that the USA over the years, has set-aside more acreage than was in the the area of the thirteen original States, at the time of the Revolution.
The natural sequestration and consumption of CO2 from that 30-40% percent larger fauna bio-mass is never accounted for in these figures. It makes the figures a statistical lie.
As they say figures don't lie, but liars can figure. The Greens loons are too stupid to be able to count, so they don't see the intrinsic falsehoods here.
Princeton conducted a study in 1999 to determine what the CO2 patterns in the USA were. They were surprised to discover that the air blowing in from the Pacific was higher in CO2 and as it blew over the USA West-to-East as the prevailing wind patterns do, when it exited over the Atlantic, it turned out to be cleaner of CO2 than the incoming wind from Asia blowing in from the Pacific.
They discovered that despite the addition of CO2 on the populated West coast and decreases until the industrial Midwest boostered levels again, that North America already sequesters more than all the CO2 it produces, by man and Nature, and than some from elsewhere on the Planet.
It is too bad that the NASA satellite launched to monitor these patterns worldwide failed to achieve orbit earlier this year. That would have driven the last nail into the green loon and cynical rentiers attempts to continue the CO2 fantasy here.
Posted by: ExDemo | 16 April 2009 at 10:06 AM
"Since 2005, the growth rate of emissions has slowed considerably; transportation CO2 emissions increased by just 0.3% in total between 2005 and 2007."
OMFG... eeeek!
Posted by: Reel$$ | 18 April 2009 at 09:17 AM
@Scatter:
Yours is a primary indication of why the AGW cult is failing so badly. When confronted with clear, experimental evidence, designed to answer specific questions about Earth's atmosphere (FACE studies)- you claim it inapplicable.
Hence the failure of AGW cult before the truth.
Posted by: Reel$$ | 18 April 2009 at 06:25 PM
Reel, the cult of denialism is the one dying. As more and more observations come in, AGW is just getting stronger.
It is supported by every internationaly recognized scientific organization. Maybe you should read their reasons instead of trying desperately to shore up yours.
Posted by: aym | 20 June 2009 at 12:36 PM