US gross greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions totaling 6,472 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e) in 2017 came in 21.1 million tCO2e, or 0.3% less, than 2016’s 6,493 million tCO2e, the US Environmental Protection Agency reported.
The year-to-year decline was driven partly by a drop in CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion to 4,920 million tCO2e, which was a result of factors including a continued shift to natural gas from coal to generate electric power, more use of renewable fuel technologies at power plants, and milder weather that reduced demand, EPA said in its latest US Greenhouse Gas Inventory.
Total gross domestic GHG emissions in 2017 were 1.6% more than the 6,373 million tCO2e in 1990, the inventory’s baseline year, it noted. The 2017 amount was 14.1% less than 10 years earlier, when the inventory hit its peak of 7,371 million tCO2e.
Petroleum was the largest single fossil fuel combustion source, with a 44.6% share, followed by 29.5% for gas, and 25.8% for coal, EPA’s GHG inventory indicated.
Responding to this latest EPA report, Howard J. Feldman, American Petroleum Institute senior director for regulatory and scientific affairs, said the findings continue to reflect falling methane emissions per unit of US oil and gas production.
“The increased use of gas has reduced carbon emissions, lowered costs to American consumers, and increased our nation’s manufacturing competitiveness,” Feldman said. “US industrial electricity costs are lower than those of our foreign competitors, giving manufacturers—including producers of steel, chemicals, refined fuels, plastics, fertilizers, and numerous other products—a major competitive advantage.”
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