Greenhouse gas emissions from power plants rose last year partly because of an increase in coal used for generating electricity, the Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday.
In all, emissions from large facilities across all industrial and economic sectors rose 0.6 percent in 2013, the EPA said in the release of its annual Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program data. Power plants are the largest source of emissions, sending roughly 2 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and comprising 32 percent of the nation’s emissions.
The news comes just days after the Energy Department said carbon dioxide emissions rose 2.7 percent the first six months of this year compared with the first half of 2013. The EPA has floated a proposal to reduce power plant emissions 30 percent below 2005 levels by 2030.
However, emissions from the oil and gas sector, the second-largest facility covered by the program, declined 1 percent.
Reductions in emissions of methane — a short-lived, but potent, gas that is 25 times more efficient at trapping heat than carbon dioxide — yielded positive news. Those emissions were down 12 percent since 2011, with a 73 percent reduction at hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, well sites.
That’s key because environmental groups have worried that methane leaks during the fracking process could erase the climate benefits of natural gas, which is half as carbon dense as coal. It’s also good news for an industry that could be looking at potential new regulations — the Obama administration is due to release a strategy for tackling methane emissions in the fall, though it hasn’t said whether regulations will be part of the plan.
EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said the figures brought urgency to the Obama administration’s climate policies, which aim to ratchet down greenhouse emissions that many scientists say drive manmade global warming — largely through burning fossil fuels.
“Climate change, fueled by greenhouse gas pollution, is threatening our health, our economy, and our way of life — increasing our risks from intense extreme weather, air pollution, drought and disease,” McCarthy said. “EPA is supporting the President’s Climate Action Plan by providing high-quality greenhouse gas data to inform effective climate action.”
