More than 60% of US CO2 emissions come from direct fossil fuel combustion in the transportation, industrial, commercial, and residential sectors. EPRI’s new report The Potential to Reduce CO2 Emissions by Expanding End-Use Applications of Electricity finds that with increasing electrification, those emissions could be cut by almost 4.4 billion tons by 2030. Us ing the Energy Information Administration’s 2008 Reference Case as a baseline, EPRI found that the residential sector had the most potential to save energy and cut emissions, followed by the industrial and commercial sectors. To avoid the most emissions, there are two critical steps: replacing old, inefficient electrical devices with efficient, smart models, and replacing fossil fuel end use devices with electrical counterparts. (Source: EPRI, July 8, 2009)
Contact: Clay C. Perry, Senior Media Relations Manager, Electric Power Research Institute, (202) 293-6184, [email protected], www.epri.com; Howard Gruenspecht, Acting Administrator, Energy Information Administration, US Department of Energy, (202) 586-6351, [email protected], www.eia.doe.gov.