Texas led the pack in state-level energy-related carbon dioxide emissions from 2000-2010, having produced more than 7.5 billion metric tons of CO2 over the period, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA)

The EIA has begun to provide state-level energy-related carbon dioxide emissions data, showing that over the 2000-2010 period, Texas far outpaced other states in energy-related CO2 emissions, exceeding total emissions from its closest competitor, California, by over 75%.

But Texas’ emissions also showed the largest absolute decline from 2000-2010, at 58.8 million metric tons. And on a per capita basis, Texas lagged far behind #1 emitter Wyoming in 2010, with just 25.9 million metric tons per person, compared to Wyoming’s 118.5.

Energy-related carbon dioxide emissions refers to emissions from energy consumption, not energy production. That means not only that these emissions are not produced as part of drilling, mining or other upstream  processes, it also means that when a power generation facility in one state supplies energy to another state, consumption is attributed to the state with the generation capacity.

“An analysis that attributed ‘responsibility’ for emissions with consumption rather than production of electricity, which is beyond the scope of the present paper, would yield different results,” the EIA said.

And “the overall size of a state, as well as the available fuels, types of businesses, climate, and population density, play a role in both total and per capita emissions”, said the EIA. The agency used the example of West Virginia, where coal consumption accounted for 80.8% of emissions in 2010, compared to California, where coal accounted for just 1.4% and 65.2% came from petroleum. It added that Hawaii’s share of emissions from the residential sector is just 0.3%, owing to limited heating and cooling needs.

You can find the report, and associated data, here.