WASHINGTON — Carbon dioxide emissions, a major contributor to global warming, jumped nearly 3% in the United States last year while declining in other industrialized nations, according to preliminary estimates released Friday.
The new figures, compiled by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, show that the United States released 1,558 million metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in 2000, up 41 million tons from 1999. It was the biggest U.S. increase in years.
"That's an astonishingly large increase in a single year," said Robert Williams, a senior research scientist at the Princeton University Center for Energy and Environmental Studies. "The major reason is we don't have a policy to address this problem. We need to have a national target and some kinds of incentives [for business] and a regulatory system that will get us to meeting these national goals."
But Perry Lindstrom, an energy expert for the federal agency, said the 2.7% increase in carbon dioxide emissions is a "normal fluctuation" from the average annual growth rate of 1.5%.
The statistics are expected to increase pressure on the Bush administration to propose tough policies to rein in so-called greenhouse gas emissions. President Bush has been widely criticized by U.S. allies and environmentalists for his decision to end U.S. participation in the Kyoto global warming accord and for reversing a campaign pledge to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from U.S. power plants.
The agency attributed the increase in carbon dioxide emissions to several factors:
The U.S. economy continued to grow, increasing fossil fuel use across the board. Average temperatures dropped somewhat after several years of abnormally warm weather, increasing use of fossil fuels to generate heat. And a drought in the West reduced hydroelectric generation and boosted power production from fossil fuel plants.
Transportation-related emissions, mainly from cars and trucks, jumped 2.6%, while industrial emissions increased 1.8%, the agency calculated.
Williams said Americans' lifestyles are a major factor in the increased emissions.
"In transportation, we have had a major shift to sports-utility vehicles that are real intensive carbon dioxide emitters because they're gas-guzzlers," he said.
The Bush administration will have an opportunity later this summer to deal with that issue when it decides whether to tighten fuel-efficiency standards for cars and light trucks, including SUVs.
