An EPA Document Worth Skimming, At Least
Here's an EPA document that provides quite a good overview of greenhouse gas emissions from activity across the U.S. economy. Hopefully, this compilation of GHG data (including but not limited to CO2) provides both an understanding of the range of activities that generate CO2 but also how they chage over time. I've spent some of yesterday and most of today reading through it. Here are some initial observations, mostly with an eye towards activities in and around Portland and the Tri-County Area.
Land Use decisions affect overall CO2 emissions. For example, CO2 emissions are reduced by not converting ag. and forest land to development, or demolitions. For 2015, it’s estimated that the net effect from all types of land use changes/avoiding changes was a reduction in CO2 emissions of 670MMT CO2 equivalent.
Turning to electric generation, from 1990 to 2015 overall emissions rose 4 percent while carbon intensity rose ~16 percent. Most of the increase in carbon intensity was due to coal-fired generation being replaced with gas fired generators. Over that same time period, the contribution from renewables (mostly solar and wind) rose over 500 percent but remained an almost insignificant portion of total U.S. generation, at 5 percent in 2015.
Reports indicate that electric generation is the single greatest source of GHG emissions. What this Report also illustrates is that once the output from electric generation is allocated to the end-use sector, the Industrial sector is responsible for the greatest share of GHGs, about 29 percent. A close second is transportation, at 27.5 percent.
Passenger cars produced ~42 percent of total transportation GHGs in 2015; followed by freight trucks at ~23 percent; light-duty trucks, which include sport utility vehicles, pickup trucks, and minivans at 18.0 percent; commercial aircraft at 7 percent; rail, 3 percent; other aircraft ~2 percent; pipelines at ~2 percent; and, ships and boats at ~2 percent.
Land Use decisions affect overall CO2 emissions. For example, CO2 emissions are reduced by not converting ag. and forest land to development, or demolitions. For 2015, it’s estimated that the net effect from all types of land use changes/avoiding changes was a reduction in CO2 emissions of 670MMT CO2 equivalent.
Turning to electric generation, from 1990 to 2015 overall emissions rose 4 percent while carbon intensity rose ~16 percent. Most of the increase in carbon intensity was due to coal-fired generation being replaced with gas fired generators. Over that same time period, the contribution from renewables (mostly solar and wind) rose over 500 percent but remained an almost insignificant portion of total U.S. generation, at 5 percent in 2015.
Reports indicate that electric generation is the single greatest source of GHG emissions. What this Report also illustrates is that once the output from electric generation is allocated to the end-use sector, the Industrial sector is responsible for the greatest share of GHGs, about 29 percent. A close second is transportation, at 27.5 percent.
Passenger cars produced ~42 percent of total transportation GHGs in 2015; followed by freight trucks at ~23 percent; light-duty trucks, which include sport utility vehicles, pickup trucks, and minivans at 18.0 percent; commercial aircraft at 7 percent; rail, 3 percent; other aircraft ~2 percent; pipelines at ~2 percent; and, ships and boats at ~2 percent.
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