CO₂ Emissions From Power Sector Rising

By 2040, carbon dioxide emissions from U.S. electric power generation will increase by 12% to 2.271 billion metric tons annually, up from 2.035 billion metric tons in 2012, says a report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. In its “Annual Energy Outlook 2014,” the agency says about 40% of the nation’s 2012 CO₂ emissions came from energy generation. Three-quarters of that was from coal-fired power plants, which will decrease to 72% by 2040. The drop is largely because of an increase in the percentage of the nation’s CO₂ emissions that come from burning natural gas, up from 24% in 2012 to 27% by 2040. This reflects the growing use of natural gas to generate electricity because of the abundant supply of low-cost natural gas extracted from shale formations. The report’s projections took into account only existing air pollution control regulations and not EPA’s recent proposal that would set standards to cut power plant CO₂ releases by 2030 to 30% lower than they were in 2005 (C&EN, June 9, page 7).