Press Release

April 12, 2007

Contact: Rose Garr, U.S. PIRG, 202-546-9707; Vivian Stockman, OVEC, 304-522-0246

New Report: West Virginia’s Global Warming Pollution Up 7% Since 1990
Power Plants Cited As Main Culprits

Washington, DC—Global warming pollution in West Virginia increased by 7% between 1990 and 2004, according to The Carbon Boom, a new analysis of state fossil fuel consumption data released today by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (U.S. PIRG). This is the first time that 2004 state-by-state data on carbon dioxide emissions have been released.

“Given the risks from global warming, it’s incredibly irresponsible to allow West Virginia’s global warming pollution to increase. It’s like the doctor telling you that you need to go on a serious diet, but instead you go straight for the Ben & Jerry’s,” said Rose Garr, mid-Atlantic field organizer for U.S. PIRG.

U.S. PIRG’s report comes less than a week after the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a U.N. body charged with assessing the scientific record on global warming, released its consensus report on the current and projected impacts of global warming. The report warned of increasing droughts, floods, heat waves, water stress, forest fires, and coastal flooding in the United States but concluded that “many impacts can be avoided, reduced, or delayed” by quickly and significantly reducing global warming pollution.

“With West Virginia’s strong ties to coal production, it’s not going to be easy for our state to provide leadership in the fight against global warming. But considering the urgency and magnitude of the threat, we have to turn this challenge into an opportunity,” said Vivian Stockman of the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition. “If our leaders in Congress muster the will, West Virginia can be a leader in renewable energy production, creating both jobs and beginning to stabilize global warming emissions. The same billions politicians want to spend on coal-to-liquid – a Nazi-era technology that produces huge volumes of global warming gases – can be spent instead on renewable energy production."

Using data compiled by the U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. PIRG’s new report examines trends in carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel consumption between 1990 and 2004, the most recent year for which state-by-state data are available.

Major findings of the report include:

West Virginia’s carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel consumption grew from 105.3 million metric tons to 112.4 million metric tons between 1990 and 2004, an increase of 7%.

In West Virginia, carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants jumped by 16% between 1990 and 2004, rising from 70.2 million metric tons to 81.6 million metric tons. West Virginia ranked 7th nationwide in 2004 for carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants.

Nationwide, emissions of carbon dioxide from fossil fuel consumption increased by 18% between 1990 and 2004. Coal-fired power plants and the transportation sector—especially cars and SUVs—drove this emissions increase.

“The good news is that we have the technology at our fingertips to cut global warming pollution and forge a cleaner, more secure energy future,” said Garr.

The United States could substantially reduce its global warming pollution by using existing technologies to make power plants, businesses, homes, and cars more efficient and increasing the use of clean, renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar power.

The Safe Climate Act (H.R. 1590), introduced by Representative Henry Waxman (CA) in the House, and the Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act (S. 309), introduced by Senators Bernie Sanders (VT) and Barbara Boxer (CA) in the Senate, would limit global warming pollution to levels that current science says are needed to prevent the worst effects of global warming. The bills would freeze U.S. global warming emissions in 2010 and reduce emissions by about 15% by 2020 and by 80% by 2050.

“Our leaders must take decisive action to cut global warming pollution. We’re urging West Virginia’s Congressional delegation to co-sponsor the only bills that do what scientists say needs to get done—the Safe Climate Act in the House and the Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act in the Senate.” said Garr.

###

U.S. PIRG is a national non-profit, non-partisan public interest advocacy group with over 500 citizen members in West Virginia. www.uspirg.org.

The Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, based in Huntington, WV, is beginning work on webpages dedicated to exploring global warming and West Virginia.

See www.ohvec.org/globalwarming/.