U.S. says greenhouse emissions fell 1.5 percent in 2006

By Timothy Gardner

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. emissions of the gases blamed for global warming fell 1.5 percent in 2006 on mild weather and high fossil fuel prices, the statistics arm of the Department of Energy estimated on Wednesday.

President George W. Bush said in a release that the drop kept the country "well ahead" of his greenhouse gas intensity goal, as measured by the amount of such gases emitted per unit of economic activity.

But U.S. emissions remained much higher than they were in 1990, a key year in international efforts to fight climate change because it is the baseline year for the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol. Rich countries that signed the pact have to cut their emissions at least 5 percent under their 1990 levels by 2008 to 2012.

U.S. greenhouse gas emissions last year fell to about 7.08 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, the DOE's Energy Information Administration estimated. It was the first annual fall in U.S. emissions since 2001, when tourism travel slowed after the airplane attacks in New York and Washington, and the third since 1990.

Unseasonably cool weather in the summer and warm weather in the winter kept power demand flat last year which reduced emissions of CO2 from power plants, while higher prices for energy cut emissions from industry and cars, the report said.

The annual report was released ahead of a meeting of delegates from 190 countries in Bali, Indonesia, next month to decide how to bind outsiders including the United States and China into a U.N.-led fight against climate change.

"United States looks forward to working with partners to reach consensus on a 'Bali Roadmap' at the upcoming U.N. meeting on climate change in Indonesia," Bush said in the release.

U.S. TACTICS