D.C. region produces more carbon dioxide than many countries

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Washington region, with its crawling traffic and several coal-fired power plants, produces more carbon dioxide than several medium-size European countries, according to a new study of pollution.

Estimates produced by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments show 65.6 million metric tons of carbon dioxide were emitted in the region in 2005 — more than in all of Hungary, Finland, Sweden, Denmark or Switzerland. And each of those countries have more people than the Washington area.

"It's not a surprise that we compete with entire countries in Scandinavia," said Mike Tidwell, who heads the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, an environmental group. "What this data does is point up just how huge America's contribution to climate change is. .. if our one capital region is emitting on par with other industrialized countries."

The study is one of the first to inventory pollution for an entire metropolitan area, rather than just looking at individual states and cities. It has some surprising results for how carbon emissions are produced across political boundaries. The Maryland suburbs, often thought of as more liberal and environmentally friendly, produce more carbon dioxide than either the Virginia suburbs or the District of Columbia, according to the estimates.

Coal-burning power plants are among the biggest polluters, and nearby Maryland counties have three of them. When compared with a similar study of the San Francisco Bay area, Washington doesn't shape up much better. San Francisco produces more carbon dioxide than Washington at 69.7 million metric tons, but it also has more people. That means the D.C. area produces more carbon emissions on a per capita basis.

"We're kind of like a country — you know, a small country," said Judi Greenwald, director of innovative solutions at the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, a non-profit group. She said that if Washington cleaned up, the world would notice. "We can take action that is globally significant," Greenwald said.

Local governments are already working to become more "green." Arlington, Fairfax and Montgomery counties have joined a "cool counties" program that calls for more "green" buildings and hybrid cars in county fleets, and the D.C. government has mandated energy-saving features in some new buildings.

But the region's continuing growth means carbon emissions are still expected to increase 35% by 2030. So the solution may have to come from a new technology or other changes to reduce pollution while the population grows. "We don't know how we're going to meet the very, very. .. intense goal" of sharp reductions in the coming decades, said Stuart Freudberg, director of environmental programs for council of governments. "It's not going to be something we figure out — you know, six months from now, we have the answer."

http://www.usatoday.com/weather/environment/2007-09-30-dc-emissions_N.htm