EPA: Global warming helped shrink greenhouse gas emissions

[Geee]

Washington Examiner:

Warmer winter weather, which many environmentalists blame on global warming, actually helped to cut emissions of global warming-causing greenhouse gasses to the lowest level in a decade, according to a new EPA report on climate change.

 

In the EPA's “Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks,” the agency said that greenhouse gas emissions dropped 3.4 percent in 2012 from 2011. And emissions are down to their lowest level since 1994.

 

Among the reasons cited: Less heating fuel is burned when it's warmer outside.

 

“The decrease from 2011 to 2012 was due to a decrease in the carbon intensity of fuels consumed by power producers to generate electricity due to a decrease in the price of natural gas, a decrease in transportation sector emissions attributed to a small increase in fuel efficiency across different transportation modes and limited new demand for passenger transportation, and much warmer winter conditions resulting in a decreased demand for heating fuel in the residential and commercial sectors,” the EPA said in the executive summary of the 529-page report.