US CO2 Emissions Plummet Towards 1990 Levels

CO2 emissions in the US have been in decline since 2005. That is without a carbon tax, without a cap and trade system, and without mandatory, Kyoto style limits and a global carbon treaty. In Europe CO2 emissions are not falling — and Germany is even moving back to coal. What made the difference? The revolution in natural gas. Natural gas is a cleaner burning fuel than, for example, coal and the natural gas bonanza in the US is making cleaner energy sources cheaper than their rivals. –Walter Russell Mead, The American Interest, 6 May 2012

The U.S. Energy Information Administration / Monthly Energy Review June 2012 backs up the claim

More Shockingly Good News from Shale Gas: CO2 Emissions Will Likely Fall This Year to 1991 Levels

John Hanger points out on his energy blog that energy-related carbon dioxide emissions have fallen so sharply in the first three months of 2012 according to new data from the EIA, that total CO2 emissions this year are on track to drop to the lowest level since 1991, see chart above.

Dr. Mark J. Perry, professor of economics and finance in the School of Management at the Flint campus of the University of Michigan, notes:

As the chart above shows, it took 16 years for CO2 emissions to rise from 5,000 to 6,000 million metric tons, and then thanks to the shale gas revolution, only five years to go from 6,000 back down to 5,000 million metric tons.