EIA: U.S. Companies Achieving Greater Cuts in Greenhouse Gases

March 2, 2005

A total of 234 U.S. companies and other entities have reported undertaking 2,188 projects in 2003 to reduce or sequester greenhouse gases, DOE's Energy Information Administration (EIA) announced in late February. The companies, participants in EIA's Voluntary Reporting of Greenhouse Gases Program, reduced their emissions by the equivalent to 268 million metric tons of carbon dioxide through direct emission reductions, 81 million metric tons through indirect emission reductions, and 7 million metric tons through carbon sequestration. Indirect emission reductions are reductions from sources not owned or leased by the reporting entity, but occurring as a result of the entity's activities. Relative to 2002, the cut in direct emissions increased by 1.2 percent, while the cut in indirect reductions increased by 1.1 percent. See the EIA press release.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released its draft inventory of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and sinks for 1990 through 2003. The draft report finds that U.S. greenhouse gas emissions increased by 0.6 percent in 2003, slightly less than the EIA had reported in mid-December. See the EPA draft report and the related EIA press release.