US Carbon Emissions Are Dropping

 This article stated a claim that even without President Obama's green agenda on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, energy-related carbon emissions dropped almost four percent last year. This is a fact claim supported by statistics and charts. As evidences of the claim, statistics showed that overall energy consumption fell by 2.4 percent last year, which was translated to a 5.1 percent drop in energy use per dollar of GDP. As a rebuttal, people doubted about the reduction of emissions because the population and per capita output were growing. However, the author refuted these opponents by giving explanations of two terms -- carbon intensity and energy intensity, which referred to the carbon emissions per dollar of GDP and energy use per dollar of GDP. As warrant, the amounts of electricity use and carbon pollution tied to these two densities’ growth were dropping. As backing of the claim, the author gave three reasons that why carbon emissions dropped. Firstly, half the cuts came from reductions in household energy use. Secondly, fuel-efficient cars made differences. Thirdly, the energy we used came from cleaner sources, like wind, as the substitution of natural gas for coal. 

http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2013/10/charts-us-carbon-emissions-are-dropping