Both the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Energy Information Administration (EIA) produce estimated annual U.S.
GHG emissions data. EPA is responsible for producing the official inventory of U.S. emissions, as required under the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change. Both agencies use EIA fuel consumption data as a basis for estimating most GHG emissions but differences in their
methodologies can result in different datasets.1 EIA usually releases its data about six months before EPA does. EPA provides more detail of interest
to transportation, such as emissions by mode. EIA presents emissions in million metric tons of carbon equivalent (mmtce), while EPA uses teragrams
of carbon dioxide equivalent (TgCO2Eq) as required under the Convention. [1 TgCO2Eq = 1 mmtce x
(44/12)].
1 For further information, see U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of
Transportation Statistics, Transportation Statistics Annual Report 2001 (Washington
DC: 2002), page 239.
