Stating the obvious: EPA finds pandemic decreased emissions

In another example of “stating the obvious” from a government agency, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found that the 2020 pandemic shutdown led to a sharp decrease in carbon emissions in the U.S.

The agency’s analysis, which spans 841 pages, discovered that U.S. emissions decreased by 9% between 2019 to 2020. Specifically, net emissions went down 10.6% from 2019 to 2020 due to “the impacts of the coronavirus (COVID-19) on travel and economic activity.”

EPA’s analysis also pointed out that there was a 13.3% decrease in transportation sector emissions due to less travel, and a 10.4 decrease “in emissions in the electric power sector.”

The report noted, to the chagrin of climate change alarmists, that U.S. emissions have gone down by 7.3% from 1990 to 2020. Meaning, the U.S. is getting better at emitting less greenhouse gases over time and thus it negates the climate change alarmist view that the U.S. is not making enough progress.

Many negative impacts happened because of the coronavirus pandemic, but one of the silver linings, at least potentially in the minds of climate change alarmists, is that U.S. emissions went down due to the pandemic-inspired lockdown policies.

The EPA analysis is submitted every year to the United Nations and typically takes over a year to produce and submit.

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