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<TITLE>Re: [Greenbuilding] reduced energy use in USA</TITLE>
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<FONT FACE="Calibri, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:11pt'>This sounds overly positive compared to other numbers I’ve heard in the last 2 years. Emissions are down—I’ve heard generally around 4% year over year, and it’s mostly from industrial capacity reduction (recession). But the per capita could be well improved. Our economy is plenty more efficient than it was in the 70s—I’ve seen numerous studies about it but can’t quote them off-hand. And given our population growth trends over 40 years, the per capita numbers could skew positive.<BR>
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You’d like to think this is inherently b/c people have gotten on board—and as Energy Star and other programs have matured this last decade, we’ll see nice improvements in per capita numbers this coming decade--but unfortunately it’ll be primarily b/c of the recession. Not only jobs, but pollution is also offshoring.<BR>
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On 9/23/10 8:30 PM, "Reuben Deumling" <<a href="9watts@gmail.com">9watts@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<BR>
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</SPAN></FONT><BLOCKQUOTE><FONT FACE="Calibri, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:11pt'>I find this extremely unlikely. <BR>
But it is also worth noting that carbon emissions (an absolute parameter) is quite different than carbon intensity (a relative parameter if there ever was one). <BR>
The per capita energy consumption (a third slice through this issue) is also not lower now than it's been since 1970. None of these numbers sound right to me and should be easily shown to be bunk.<BR>
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On Thu, Sep 23, 2010 at 3:44 PM, Vadurro, Rob, EMNRD <<a href="rob.vadurro@state.nm.us">rob.vadurro@state.nm.us</a>> wrote:<BR>
</SPAN></FONT><BLOCKQUOTE><FONT FACE="Calibri, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:11pt'>I just read this from Rob Watson’s <I>GreenerBuildings News</I>, reporting from the Clinton Global Initiative confab:<BR>
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</SPAN><FONT SIZE="2"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:10pt'>There are some weakly positive signs on the carbon emissions front that show U.S. carbon emissions in 2009 down to 1997 levels. Clearly, the economic downturn contributed to this, but U.S. energy consumption per capita is lower than it's been since 1970, and the energy and carbon intensity of the U.S. economy is the lowest it has been since modern records have been kept.<BR>
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</SPAN></FONT><SPAN STYLE='font-size:11pt'>If this is true, it would seem more than “weakly positive” (at least to me). Can anyone verify these statements?<BR>
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