Higher natural gas consumption due to extreme summer and winter weather and increased petroleum demand in transportation in a strong economy resulted in the United States reversing in 2018 several years of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions reductions in the energy sector, the Energy Information Administration said on Tuesday. Last year, U.S. energy-related CO2 emissions increased by 2.7 percent compared to 2017, primarily due to the higher emissions from natural gas and petroleum. The emissions increase in 2018 was the first such annual rise since 2014, EIA said. U.S. emissions of CO2 in the energy sector have dropped in six of the past ten years. Even with last year’s rise, the emissions in 2018 were still 12 percent lower than the energy-related emissions back in 2005, according to EIA’s data series. The only fossil fuel with lower emissions in 2018 compared to 2017 was coal, with CO2 emissions down 4 […]