Environmental Group Seeks Greenhouse Gas Inventory Comments

The draft report shows that overall emissions during 2007 increased by 1.4 percent from the previous year. This trend was due primarily to an increase in carbon dioxide emissions associated with fuel and electricity consumption. The total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions were about 7,125 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent. Overall, emissions have grown by 17.1 percent from 1990 to 2007.

The inventory tracks annual greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 to 2007 at the national level. The gases covered by this inventory include carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, and sulfur hexafluoride. The inventory also calculates carbon dioxide emissions that are removed from the atmosphere by “sinks,” e.g., through the uptake of carbon by forests, vegetation, and soils.

This annual report is prepared by EPA in collaboration with experts from multiple federal agencies. After responding to public comments, the U.S. government will submit the final inventory report to the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The report will fulfill the annual requirement of the UNFCCC international treaty, ratified by the United States in 1992, which sets an overall framework for intergovernmental efforts to tackle the challenge posed by climate change.

Information on the draft report and how to submit public comments:
http://epa.gov/climatechange/emissions/usinventoryreport.html

By EPA

LA Times reports that "California regulators Thursday adopted the world's first mandatory measures to control highly potent greenhouse gases emitted by the computer manufacturing industry.

"The new rules would cover 85 plants, mostly in Silicon Valley. They require most computer chip makers to slash releases of sulfur hexafluoride and other fluorinated gases by more than half over the next three years.

"A single pound of sulfur hexafluoride has the same heat-trapping potential as 10 metric tons of carbon dioxide, or an automobile trip around the Earth."