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IF CORPORATIONS WERE NATIONS: 
A COMPARISON OF CORPORATE & INTERNATIONAL GREENHOUSE EMISSIONS

October, 2003


            The United States is far and away the largest emitter of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, accounting for 25% of both world carbon emissions and world energy consumption, according to the Energy Information Administration.[1] U.S. energy use is so high, in fact, that the U.S. outpaces China , the next largest emitter by volume internationally, by a factor of almost 10 times (22 metric tons of CO2 to 2.4 metric tons) in per capita carbon emissions.[2] A closer look at freely available statistics from U.S. government sources paints a startling picture of U.S. greenhouse emissions with respect to those of the rest of the world. A few examples:

·            American Electric Power Co. emitted more carbon dioxide in 2000 than
o        all of Scandinavia ( Sweden , Denmark , Finland , Norway , and Iceland ), or:
o        all of mainland southeast Asia ( Thailand , Vietnam , Cambodia , Laos , and Burma ), or: 
o        all of northwestern South America ( Venezuela , Colombia , Peru , Ecuador ).[3]

·         Southern Company, Inc. produces more CO2 annually than Egypt , Malaysia , Belgium , Venezuela , or Argentina .[4]

·            Miller Brewing Company directly emitted more carbon dioxide in 2001 than Greece , the Czech Republic , or Pakistan .[5]

·            Xcel Energy produced more CO2 in 2000 than all major members of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), including Nigeria , one of the world’s largest oil exporters, as well as Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire .[6]

·            In 2000, Cinergy Corp. released more CO2 than Kuwait , Israel , Austria , Denmark , or Portugal .[7]

·            The entire country of Cuba barely managed to produce more carbon dioxide than the Dow Chemical Company in 2001.[8]

·            FirstEnergy Corp reported more 2001 carbon dioxide emissions than all of New Zealand .[9]

·            Duke Energy’s 2001 CO2 emissions exceeded the total emissions from Chile or Yugoslavia .

·            FPL Group Inc. (including principal subsidiary Florida Power & Light) emitted more carbon dioxide in 2001 than either Switzerland or Ireland .

·            In 2001, the 665 million metric tons of carbon dioxide released by the combined operations of 13 other US energy suppliers outpaced the total emission of CO2 from all of Saudi Arabia , Iraq , Qatar , Bahrain , The United Arab Emirates, and Oman combined.[10]

DATA SOURCES

Table 1. 2000 CO2 Emissions of electric generation entities, EPA eGRID Database (http://www.epa.gov/cleanenergy/egrid/index.html)

Rank

Electric Generation Entity

2000 Direct CO2 Emissions (MMT)

1

American Electric Power Co Inc

225.88

2

Southern Company Inc

149.60

3

Xcel Energy Inc

103.14

4

Cinergy Corp

66.77

5

Edison International

58.10

6

Progress Energy

56.64

7

Ameren Corp

54.33

8

AES Corp

53.80

9

ScottishPower PLC

52.39

10

Entergy Corporation

50.78

11

Duke Energy Corporation

50.72

12

Dominion

50.34

13

Allegheny Energy Inc

50.08

14

CenterPoint Energy

48.19

15

FPL Group, Inc

45.03

16

DTE Energy/Detroit Edison

42.81

17

FirstEnergy Corporation

42.11

Because the EPA compiles so much data for their eGRID database, the latest complete mandatory data set is 2000.

 

Table 2. 2001 CO2 Emissions of all voluntarily-reporting entities, Energy Information Administration, Form EIA-1605, reported in “Voluntary Reporting of Greenhouse Gases 2001 (http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/1605/vrrpt/table_26.html)

Rank

Reporting Entity

Reported 2001 Direct CO2 Emissions (MMT)

1

Miller Brewing Company

107.1

2

Tennessee Valley Authority

80.1

3

Cinergy Corp.

57.8

4

Duke Energy Corporation

54.9

5

FPL Group

51.8

6

PacifiCorp

46.8

7

Entergy Services, Inc.

45.0

8

DTE Energy/ Detroit Edison

39.6

9

FirstEnergy Corporation

36.9

10

Reliant Energy - HL&P

35.9

11

The Dow Chemical Company

26.2

12

PG&E Corporation

23.3

13

Florida Power Corporation

22.8

14

NiSource/NIPSCO

20.1



 

Table 3. World Carbon Dioxide Emissions from the Consumption and Flaring of Fossil Fuels, 2001 (2000 statistics also available)
(http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/international/iealf/ tableh1.xls)

Country

2001 Total CO2  Emissions (MMT) 

Bermuda

0.56

Canada

572.69

Greenland

0.56

Mexico

352.17

Saint Pierre and Miquelon

0.09

United States

5739.48

North America

6665.56

Antarctica

0.23

Antigua and Barbuda

0.52

Argentina

127.78

Aruba

0.95

Bahamas , The

3.58

Barbados

1.70

Belize

0.69

Bolivia

9.60

Brazil

351.16

Cayman Islands

0.34

Chile

54.10

Colombia

54.98

Costa Rica

5.08

Cuba

27.60

Dominica

0.08

Dominican Republic

18.32

Ecuador

19.75

El Salvador

5.59

Falkland Islands

0.03

French Guiana

1.01

Grenada

0.12

Guadeloupe

1.87

Guatemala

9.22

Guyana

1.70

Haiti

1.60

Honduras

4.65

Jamaica

10.77

Martinique

2.06

Montserrat

0.06

Netherlands Antilles

10.79

Nicaragua

3.73

Panama

8.28

Paraguay

3.51

Peru

26.34

Puerto Rico

26.49

Saint Kitts and Nevis

0.11

Saint Lucia

0.34

Saint Vincent/Grenadines

0.17

Suriname

1.54

Trinidad and Tobago

29.81

Turks and Caicos Islands

0.00

Uruguay

6.19

Venezuela

141.36

Virgin Islands,  U.S.

9.75

Virgin Islands, British

0.06

Central and South America

983.64

Austria

66.70

Belgium

144.32

Bosnia and Herzegovina

15.93

Croatia

20.85

Denmark

59.55

Faroe Islands

0.67

Finland

52.82

France

396.46

Germany

818.55

Gibraltar

7.38

Greece

102.96

Iceland

3.25

Ireland

40.88

Italy

445.49

Luxembourg

9.05

Macedonia

9.42

Malta

3.93

Netherlands

247.57

Norway

41.98

Portugal

59.58

Slovenia

14.89

Spain

303.31

Sweden

53.48

Switzerland

44.98

Turkey

183.61

United Kingdom

565.86

Yugoslavia

40.74

Western Europe

3754.20

Albania

3.40

Armenia

3.60

Azerbaijan

33.50

Belarus

70.88

Bulgaria

56.75

Czech Republic

106.36

Estonia

7.11

Georgia

6.56

Hungary

56.92

Kazakhstan

122.34

Kyrgyzstan

8.98

Latvia

9.73

Lithuania

15.88

Moldova

7.93

Poland

288.23

Romania

95.22

Russia

1614.29

Slovakia

39.69

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