April 30, 2008—To gain a clearer view of actual US greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, researchers at Purdue University, Colorado State University, and the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have estimated the geographic distribution of the emissions.
The project, which was funded by DOE and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), yielded some surprises for example, emissions in the Southeast are much larger than expected. Project leader Kevin Gurney notes that the project’s visual details make it “utterly clear” that CO2 emissions cannot be blamed on any one sector. Instead, he said, “everybody is responsible.”
The “Vulcan” project draws on federal government information about stationary emitters, such as power plants and industrial facilities, and combines it with estimates of GHG emissions from homes, commercial buildings, and vehicles, yielding a data set that is nearly complete, say the researchers (it currently omits aircraft and non-road vehicle use).
The Vulcan model quantifies all of the CO2 that results from the burning of fossil fuels such as coal and gasoline, and tracks the hourly outputs at the level of factories, power plants, roadways, neighborhoods, and commercial districts. The current emissions are based on information from 2002, but the Vulcan system will soon expand to more recent years, and eventually to real time.
The increased detail and accuracy of Vulcan will help lawmakers create policies to reduce CO2 emissions while also increasing scientists’ understanding of the sources and fate of carbon dioxide, researchers say.
The project data is available for download from the Vulcan Project Web site. Smaller summary data sets are also available. These can be broken down into emission categories, such as industrial, residential, transportation, power producers, or by fuel type, and are available by state, county, or cells as small as six miles (10 kilometers) across.
