U.S. GHG Emissions Down

From the Financial Times:

Emissions of greenhouse gases from the US fell for the first time in more than a decade between 2000 and 2003 following a shift in heavy manufacturing away from US shores to cheaper locations such as China.

James Connaughton, chairman of the White House's Council on Environmental Quality, said on Tuesday the decrease of 0.8 per cent in gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide had been unexpected: "This was not something we would have projected."

The slight fall had come even as the US population grew by 8.6m, and increased its gross domestic product by the worth of the economy of China, Mr Connaughton said.

For more from the CEQ, click here.

Technorati tags: Environment, Energy, Politics, Technology, Economics, GHG

Comments

Rod Adams said…

I guess that lowering US greenhouse gas emissions in this manner is good news unless you used to have a good job in the manufacturing industry. Of course, it is also bad news for the world if the new producers are less energy efficient producers that depend on cheap energy, reduced environmental regulations, and cheap labor for their price advantage.

Though I left the plastics business in 1999 for a better opportunity, I was saddened when I found out that the little company that I used to manage had recently gone out of business - partially due to dramatic raw material price increases.

The volume of gas that has been diverted from industrial uses to electricity production has caused price increases that have forced hundreds of manufacturing enterprises either overseas or out of business.

Since manufacturing enterprises are also good electricity customers, the overall impact on the power business has been an increase in power costs and a loss of sales to large, profitable customers.

Wonder when utility executive heads will roll for their decision to spend so large a portion of their capital budget on gas plants?

November 27, 2005 at 5:34 AM

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