Energy-related CO2 emissions at lowest level since 1991
WASHINGTON, Oct. 20, 2016 - In the first six months of 2016,
energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the U.S. totaled 2,530 million
metric tons, the lowest
emissions level for the first six months of the year since 1991, according
to new data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA).
EIA attributes the decline to mild weather, as well as
changes in the fuel mix used to generate electricity.
In the first six months of 2016, the agency says the U.S.
had the fewest heating
degree days since at least 1949, with warmer weather reducing the
demand for heating fuels such as natural gas, distillate heating oil and
electricity.
EIA’s data show that total primary energy consumption was 2
percent lower compared with the first six months of 2015.
Most notable was the decline in the residential and electric
power sectors, EIA says, where primary energy consumption decreased 9 percent
and 3 percent, respectively.
Coal and natural gas consumption each decreased compared to
the first six months of 2015, the agency says, noting that the decrease was
greater for coal, which generates more carbon
emissions when burned than natural gas.
Coal consumption fell 18 percent, the data show, while
natural gas consumption declined 1 percent. These declines “more than offset” a
1 percent increase in total petroleum consumption, which rose during that
period as a result of low gasoline prices.
The consumption of renewable fuels, which do not produce carbon dioxide, increased 9 percent during the first six months of 2016 compared with the same period in 2015, with wind energy seeing the largest electricity generating capacity additions of any fuel in 2015 and accounting for nearly half the increase.
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Hydroelectric power, which has increased with the easing of drought
conditions on the West Coast, accounted for 35 percent.
EIA forecasts that solar energy, which accounted for 13
percent of the increase in renewable fuels use, will see the largest capacity
additions of any fuel in 2016.
EIA’s Short-Term
Energy Outlook also projects that energy-associated CO2 emissions will
fall to 5,179 million metric tons in 2016, the lowest annual level since 1992.
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