Preface 

Emissions of Greenhouse Gases in the United States 2005 was prepared under the general direction of John Conti, Director, Office of Integrated Analysis and Forecasting, Energy Information Administration (202/586-2222; e-mail, john.conti@eia.doe.gov); and Glen Sweetnam, Director of the International, Economic and Greenhouse Gases Division (202/586-2188; e-mail, glen.sweetnam@ eia.doe.gov). General questions concerning the content of this report may be directed to the National Energy Information Center at 202/586-8800. 

Specific technical information concerning the content of the report may be obtained from Perry Lindstrom at 202/586-0934 (e-mail, perry.lindstrom@eia.doe.gov) or Paul McArdle at 202/586-4445 (e-mail, paul.mcardle @eia.doe.gov). 

Title XVI, Section 1605(a) of the Energy Policy Act of 1992 (enacted October 24, 1992) provides: 

Not later than one year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary, through the Energy Information  Administration, shall develop, based on data available to, and obtained by, the Energy Information Administration, an inventory of the national aggregate emissions of each greenhouse gas for each calendar year of the baseline period of 1987 through 1990. The Administrator of the Energy Information Administration shall annually update and analyze such inventory using available data. This subsection does not provide any new data collection authority. 

The first report in this series, Emissions of Greenhouse Gases 1985-1990, was published in September 1993. This report—the fourteenth annual report—presents the Energy Information Administration’s latest estimates of emissions for carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and other greenhouse gases. Most of these estimates are based on activity data and applied emissions factors and not on measured or metered emissions. A limited number of emissions estimates, such as for methane from coal mine ventilation, are obtained through direct measurement.

For this report, data on coal and natural gas consumption and electricity sales and losses by sector were obtained from the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA’s) October 2006 Monthly Energy Review. Additional detailed information on petroleum consumption was obtained from unpublished material in support of the Monthly Energy Review. Electric power sector emissions were obtained from data underlying EIA’s Electric Power Annual. In keeping with current international practice, this report presents data on greenhouse gas emissions in million metric tons carbon dioxide equivalent. The data can be converted to carbon equivalent units by multiplying times 12/44.