US greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reached 6,511.3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CDE) in 2016, about 2.4% higher than in 1990 but 126.8 million tonnes CDE, or 1.9%, less than in 2015, the US Environmental Protection Agency said on Apr. 18 in its latest annual US greenhouse gas inventory.
The year-to-year decline was driven largely by a decrease in carbon dioxide releases from fossil fuel operations, EPA said. It attributed this to several factors, including moves from coal to natural gas and nonfossil sources to generate electricity, and warmer winter weather in 2016, which reduced commercial and residential heating fuel demand.
“The US has reduced greenhouse gas emissions more than any country on earth over the last decade,” EPA Administrator E. Scott Pruitt said. “American ingenuity and technological breakthroughs, not top-down government mandates, have made the US the world leader in achieving energy dominance while reducing emissions—one of the great environmental successes of our time.”
Energy-related activities accounted for 83.8% of total US GHG emissions in 2016, including 97% of the CO2, 43% of the methane, and 10% of the nitrous oxide, the inventory said.
“Energy-related CO2 emissions alone constituted 78.9% of national emissions from all sources on a [CDE] basis, while the non-CO2 emissions from energy-related activities represented a much smaller portion of total national emissions (4.9%),” it noted.
The latest EPA greenhouse gas inventory shows a continued downward trend in methane emissions even as US oil and gas production rose dramatically, an American Petroleum Institute official said on Apr. 19.
“According to the report, methane emissions from natural gas and petroleum systems decreased 14% between 1990 and 2016, at a time when gas output increased by more than 50%,” said Howard J. Feldman, API’s regulatory and scientific affairs senior director.
“It is clear that hydraulic fracturing and other advanced technologies are continuing to help America become the world leader in reducing emissions. This is in addition to the US continuing to lead the world in reducing carbon emissions, which are near 25-year lows,” he said.
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