|
Press Releases | |
|---|---|
|
U.S. ENERGY INFORMATION ADMINISTRATION Voluntary Reports of Projects to Lower Greenhouse Gas Emissions Showed More Direct Reductions in 2005 A total of 221 U.S. companies and other entities reported to the Energy Information Administration's (EIA) Voluntary Reporting of Greenhouse Gases Program that they had undertaken 2,379 projects to reduce or sequester greenhouse gases in 2005, according to Voluntary Reporting of Greenhouse Gases 2005 Summary, released today by EIA. Reported direct emission reductions were 6.1 percent higher in 2005 than in 2004. Project-level emission reductions included 294 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MMTCO2e) in direct emission reductions, 67 MMTCO2e in indirect emission reductions, and 8 MMTCO2e of reductions from carbon sequestration. Direct reductions are emission reductions from sources owned or leased by the reporting entity, while indirect reductions are emission reductions from sources not owned or leased by the reporting entity but that occur as a result of the entity's activities. In addition, 13 MMTCO2e of reductions were reported under the EIA 1605EZ form, which does not ask whether reported reductions are direct reductions or indirect reductions. The figure below illustrates the growth in reported reductions since the Program's inception in 1994. The Voluntary Reporting of Greenhouse Gases Program, required by Section 1605(b) of the Energy Policy Act of 1992, is intended to encourage and recognize innovative, low-cost, and nonregulatory approaches to limit emissions of greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gases, which include carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6), absorb infrared energy and prevent it from leaving the atmosphere. Total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in 2005 were estimated by EIA to be 7,147 MMTCO2e. Reports were received from participants in 24 different industries or services. The electric power sector, with 97 companies reporting, continues to provide the largest number of participants to the program (44 percent). The number of participants from outside the electric power sector (124 reporters) was nine times the number that reported for 1994, the first year of the Program. These companies now comprise more than half (56 percent) of the reporters to the program and include firms engaged in automobile manufacturing, petroleum production and refining, coal mining, food processing, textile manufacturing, primary metals production, electronic and electrical equipment manufacturing, and the chemical industry. Alternative energy providers, agriculture and forestry organizations, and organizations in other sectors (government, commercial, and residential) also reported. The report on voluntary reductions in 2005 released today will be the last under the original October 1994 guidelines. Revised guidelines for the Program became effective in June 2006 and, as a result, EIA is presently developing a new reporting form and associated software that EIA will make available in 2007 for reporting of reductions data for 2006 and subsequent years.
An electronic version of the report Voluntary Reporting of Greenhouse Gases 2005 Summary, can be downloaded from EIA's website at: http://www.eia.gov/oiaf/1605/vrrpt/summary/index.html. Printed copies of the Summary report are expected to be available in late January 2007, from EIA's National Energy Information Center, 202/586-8800.
EIA Program Contact: Paul McArdle, 202/586-4445; Stephen Calopedis, 202/586-1156 EIA Press Contact: National Energy Information Center, 202/586-8800 EIA-2006-09 Contact:
|
