U.S. Predicting Steady Increase for Emissions

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0303-06.htm

U.S. Predicting Steady Increase for Emissions
by Andrew C. Revkin



The Bush administration estimates that emissions by the United States of gases that contribute to global warming will grow nearly as fast through the next decade as they did the previous decade, according to a long-delayed report being completed for the United Nations.

The document, the United States Climate Action Report, emphasizes that the projections show progress toward a goal Mr. Bush laid out in a 2002 speech: that emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases grow at a slower rate than the economy. Since that speech, he has repeated his commitment to lessening “greenhouse gas intensity” without imposing formal limits on the gases.

Kristen A. Hellmer, a spokeswoman for the White House on environmental matters, said on Friday, “The Climate Action Report will show that the president’s portfolio of actions addressing climate change and his unparalleled financial commitments are working.”

But when shown the report, an assortment of experts on climate trends and policy described the projected emissions as unacceptable given the rising evidence of risks from unabated global warming.

“As governor of Texas and as a candidate, the president supported mandatory limits on carbon dioxide emissions,” said David W. Conover, who directed the administration’s Climate Change Technology Program until February 2006 and is now counsel to the National Commission on Energy Policy, a nonpartisan research group that supports limits on gases. “When he announced his voluntary greenhouse-gas intensity reduction goal in 2002, he said it would be re-evaluated in light of scientific developments. The science now clearly calls for a mandatory program that establishes a price for greenhouse-gas emissions.”

According to the new report, the administration’s climate policy will result in emissions growing 11 percent in 2012 from 2002. In the previous decade, emissions grew at a rate of 11.6 percent, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

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an increase in emissions from petroleum because there simply won't be more around. We already use 25% of the world's oil and only produce 33% of our own usage.

Reducing our dependence on coal-fired electrical generation will be easier than weaning ourselves off petroleum because there are more alternatives for generating electricity.

What this report doesn't discuss is the fact that we are also responsible for large amounts of CO2 from coal-fired power plants in developing countries like China from which we import so many industrially produced goods that used to be made here. If we merely shift production overseas, and to countries that probably will not do anything to reduce their carbon emissions, we are just fooling ourselves.