4/8/13, "Carbon-Dioxide Emissions Falling, But Is That Enough?," Dan Lashoff, NRDC, livescience.com
"The official U.S. energy-data keeper, the Energy Information Administration (EIA), recently released full-year data for 2012 that show a nearly 4 percent reduction in carbon-dioxide emissions from fossil-fuel combustion compared to 2011 levels.
The findings from the report show U.S. carbon-dioxide emissions were at a level 12 percent below the level seen in 2005....
Another perspective on the carbon-dioxide emissions reduction comes from comparing what actually happened in 2012 to a scenario that considers the effects from a recession, a shift in energy sources or improvements in energy efficiency. The Council of Economic Advisors performed such an analysis, which is included in the 2013 Economic Report of the President.
That analysis found that 2012 carbon-dioxide emissions were 17 percent below the business-as-usual baseline constructed by the council (as opposed to 12 percent below actual 2005 emissions). The council concluded that 52 percent of the reduction was due to the recession, 40 percent was due to cleaner fuelsand 8 percent was due to accelerated improvements in energy efficiency. Note that this decomposition significantly understates the overall role of energy efficiency because the council only counted the acceleration of energy-efficiency improvements relative to their business-as-usual forecast, which already assumed that energy use per dollar of gross domestic product would fall by just more than 1.5 percent per year....
By now, many commentators have noted that low natural-gas prices have reduced power-plant pollution as gas-fired generation has replaced higher-emitting coal-fired power. Indeed, in April 2012, generation from natural gas equaled generation from coal for the first time since EIA started keeping track in 1973. For the year as a whole, coal supplied less than 40 percent of U.S. electricity, and natural gas supplied more than 30 percent for the first time since EIA began keeping records....
At the same time, there was a significant increase in renewable energy generation, particularly from wind, which produced 3.5 percent of total net generation in 2012, compared with less than 3 percent in 2011 and less than 0.5 percent in 2005.
Emissions from vehicles are also declining.... U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data show that carbon-dioxide emissions from new passenger vehicles fell to 374 grams per mile (13.9 ounces per mile) in 2012 — a 6 percent reduction since 2011 and a remarkable 16 percent reduction since 2005....
In addition, EIA data show that ethanol use has increased from just more than 1 percent to more than 4 percent of transportation energy consumption. (EIA treats ethanol combustion as if it were carbon neutral, even though the life-cycle emissions from producing and using ethanol can be higher than those from gasoline.)"...
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6/4/12, “Climate change stunner: USA leads world in CO2 cuts since 2006,” Vancouver Observer, Saxifrage
“Not only that, but as my top chart shows, US CO2 emissions are falling even faster than what President Obama pledged in the global Copenhagen Accord.…
Here is the biggest shocker of all: the average American’s CO2 emissions are down to levels not seen since 1964 --over half a century ago. …Coal is the number two source of CO2 for Americans. Today the average American burns an amount similar to what they did in 1955, and even less than they did in the 1940s. …It is exactly America’s historical role of biggest and dirtiest that makes their sharp decline in CO2 pollution so noteworthy and potentially game changing at the global level.”...
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News of US CO2 plunge has been described as:
- “Surprising,“
- “little noticed,“
- “dramatic,“
- “stunner,“
- “most people are surprised to learn,“
- “quiet but tremendous progress,”
- “major long term implications,”
- “game changing,”
- “shocker,”
- “huge contrast to the forecast.”
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