Estimated Carbon Dioxide Emissions in 2008: United States

Smith, C A ; Simon, A J ; Belles, R D

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

关键词: Natural Gas;    Energy Consumption;    Washington Dc;    Power Generation;    Air;   

DOI  :  10.2172/1022888
RP-ID  :  LLNL-TR-480261
RP-ID  :  W-7405-ENG-48
RP-ID  :  1022888

美国|英语

来源: UNT Digital Library

【 摘 要 】

Flow charts depicting carbon dioxide emissions in the United States have been constructed from publicly available data and estimates of state-level energy use patterns. Approximately 5,800 million metric tons of carbon dioxide were emitted throughout the United States for use in power production, residential, commercial, industrial, and transportation applications in 2008. Carbon dioxide is emitted from the use of three major energy resources: natural gas, coal, and petroleum. The flow patterns are represented in a compact 'visual atlas' of 52 state-level (all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and one national) carbon dioxide flow charts representing a comprehensive systems view of national CO{sub 2} emissions. Lawrence Livermore National Lab (LLNL) has published flow charts (also referred to as 'Sankey Diagrams') of important national commodities since the early 1970s. The most widely recognized of these charts is the U.S. energy flow chart (http://flowcharts.llnl.gov). LLNL has also published charts depicting carbon (or carbon dioxide potential) flow and water flow at the national level as well as energy, carbon, and water flows at the international, state, municipal, and organizational (i.e. United States Air Force) level. Flow charts are valuable as single-page references that contain quantitative data about resource, commodity, and byproduct flows in a graphical form that also convey structural information about the system that manages those flows. Data on carbon dioxide emissions from the energy sector are reported on a national level. Because carbon dioxide emissions are not reported for individual states, the carbon dioxide emissions are estimated using published energy use information. Data on energy use is compiled by the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration (U.S. EIA) in the State Energy Data System (SEDS). SEDS is updated annually and reports data from 2 years prior to the year of the update. SEDS contains data on primary resource consumption, electricity generation, and energy consumption within each economic sector. Flow charts of state-level energy usage and explanations of the calculations and assumptions utilized can be found at: http://flowcharts.llnl.gov. This information is translated into carbon dioxide emissions using ratios of carbon dioxide emissions to energy use calculated from national carbon dioxide emissions and national energy use quantities for each particular sector. These statistics are reported annually in the U.S. EIA's Annual Energy Review. Data for 2008 (US. EIA, 2010) was updated in August of 2010. This is the first presentation of a comprehensive state-level package of flow charts depicting carbon dioxide emissions for the United States.