USEPA reported this week that total U.S. emissions rose 17.1 percent from 1990 to 2007. Emissions accelerated in the last year of that period, (1.4%). Primary contributors to the higher ending emission rate were: a cooler winter and warmer summer, greater electricity consumption, and a 14.2% fall-off in hydro-electric power generation, which, of course, was made up for with fossil fuel. Drought would be the root cause of lower hydro-power output. And the root cause of drought would be…climate change.
Emissions from iron and steel production way down – went to China. If globalization collapses from the economic downturn and political upheavals, a subsequent recovery will bring those emissions back up in the USA.
– from treehugger