Missoula News

Climate Change

Report: Global Warming Emissions Jump 292 Percent in Rocky Mountains

By Courtney Lowery, 6-20-06

The Rocky Mountain region saw a 292 perent increase in carbon dioxide emissions between 1960 and 2001, the largest percentage increase of any other region in the country, according to a study released Tuesday by the Montana Public Interest Research Group.

The report, titled, "The Carbon Boom" uses data from the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory to track carbon dioxide emissions and fossil fuel combustion across the country. In 2001, the last year for which data was available, 43 percent of emissions came from burning oil, 36 percent came from burning coal and 21 percent from natural gas. (The full report, as a large PDF, can be viewed by clicking here.)

In the Rocky Mountain West, where as Todd Wilkinson reported last week on New West, global warming is heating up, the PIRG report shows coal burning accounted for 60 percent of the increase in emissions from 1960 to 2001. The Plains region was the only region to outproduce the West in coal burning emissions with 80 percent of its increase coming from coal.

Between 1960 and 2001, the Rocky Mountain West saw an increase of 30,812 megawatts of capacity at coal-fired power plants, according the report.

At an unveiling of the report Tuesday in Missoula, as MontPIRG executive director Matt Leow spoke in front of a backdrop of photos showing the dwindling of the Grinnell Glacier in Glacier National Park, coal emmissions were on his mind. The report shows that in Montana, 79 percent of the state's 202 percent increase over the four decades was from coal burning. Leow noted that with one new coal-fired power plant already running and seven more proposed in the state, Montana is poised to increase its carbon emissions even more in the next several years.

"When you find yourself in a hole, the first thing you should do is stop digging," Leow said. "To protect future generations from the effects of global warming, we need to stop this trend of increasing pollution."

In Wyoming, the state saw a 575 percent increase in total emissions -- an increase of which coal burning accounted for 85 percent, the highest behind West Virginia.

Oil burning accounted for 28 percent of the Mountain West's increase and natural gas burning accounded for 12 percent of the increase, according to the report. Total, Rocky Mountain West saw a 170 percent increase from 1960 and 2001 in oil emissions, a number stacked up against tied to a 470 percent increase in vehicle miles traveled, according to the report.

Bruce Farling, the executive director of Montana Trout Unlimited was on hand Tuesday to talk about the effect global warming is having on what he called Montana's "snowpack economy," saying climate change isn't something that will happen to the state in a decade or two. "It's what is happening in Montana right now," he said.

Montana's agriculture, recreation and hydro-power industries all rely on water and snowpack and already, "we're changing that dramatically."

Pointing to a full-looking Clark Fork River behind him in downtwon Missoula, Farling said, "We think this is a lot of water, but this is still below normal."

State by state, here's how Rocky Mountain states look in the report:

Percent growh in emissions between 1960 and 2001:
Colorado: 221 percent.
Idaho: 98 percent.
Montana: 202 percent.
New Mexico: 218 percent.
Oregon: 144 percent.
Utah: 194 percent.
Washington: 173 percent
Wyoming: 575 percent.

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