US Energy use: New technologies and policies in response to global warming
Energy use and production accounts for by far the largest portion of emissions of greenhouse gases in the United States and the world. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has estimated that, worldwide, these activities were responsible for 57% of greenhouse warming in the 1980s. Other activities and their respective contributions as shown in Fig. 1 include agriculture, 14%; land use and modification, 9%; chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) use, 17%; and other (nonenergy) industry, 3%. Given this importance of energy activities, it is appropriate that efforts to forestall global warming have focused on these activities. Because the United States consumes the largest share of world energy and thus produces the largest share of greenhouse gas emissions, it is the target of many such efforts. A number of US government responses to global warming have been proposed or are now under way. For example, the 101st Congress has seen 11 bills dealing with global warming issues; a research program on climate change has been promised $190 million for 1990; and the United States has signed the Montreal Protocol to control CFCs. The paper that follows discusses US energy and related emissions of greenhouse gases. Energy use in each sector is briefly characterized and several new technologies for energy use in that sector are described. Finally, national and state policies that offer potential to reduce energy use are discussed. This discussion is limited by space considerations to only a sampling of the many technologies under development and policy options that have been proposed. 20 refs., 12 figs., 6 tabs.
- Research Organization:
- Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- DOE/ER
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-31109-ENG-38
- OSTI ID:
- 5415121
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-8906244-1; ON: DE90002170
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Conference on responding to the threat of global warming: options for the Pacific and Asia, Honolulu, HI (USA), 21-27 Jun 1989
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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