December 11th, 2008 · No Comments

By John DeFore

To judge from the coverage of Earth-friendly measures and green innovations in the news, you might think that ever since An Inconvenient Truth Americans have been moving, however slowly, toward addressing the causes of climate change.

Not so fast. According to the Department of Energy’s independent number-crunching agency the Energy Information Administration, greenhouse gas emissions in the United States actually rose in 2007 to a level 1.4 percent above the previous year. What’s more, that growth was higher than the average annual growth recorded since 1990.

The report, summarized in a press release and readable in full here, finds that “total U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions were 7,282 million metric tons carbon dioxide equivalent” (including non-CO2 gases like methane) during the year, although “GHG intensity,” or the ratio of emissions to the nation’s gross domestic product, fell.

“Since 1990, U.S. GHG emissions have grown at an average annual rate of 0.9 percent” the summary reports, making 2007’s 1.4% figure quite a spike. In part, the researchers attribute the rise to “unfavorable weather patterns, where both heating and cooling degree-days were higher in 2007 than 2006, and an increase in the carbon intensity of electricity generation, driven by decreased availability of hydropower.”

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