November 2022

Corrigenda and Data Caveats in using the Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and
Sinks by State: 1990-2020

State-level GHG Data Corrigenda

1.	Consistent with international reporting conventions, EPA presents both gross and net GHG total
estimates in the data tables below the charts in the GHG Data Explorer for the national and state-
level GHG data. Per convention and consistent with the national GHG Inventory, state-level gross
total estimates should exclude the LULUCF sector and include only estimates from the Energy, IPPU,
Agriculture, and Waste sectors. State-level net total GHG estimates include the net emissions and
removals from all sectors, including the LULUCF sector. In the recently published state data, for
states where the LULUCF sector resulted in net emissions in any given year, the net and gross GHG
estimate totals were the same in the GHG Data Explorer but should have differed by the net
contribution from LULUCF sector (gross estimates were not excluding the LULUCF sector). This error
impacted the presentation of annual state-level gross GHG total estimates for AK, AZ, CO, HI, ID, MT,
NM, NV, SD, UT, and WV in years where the LULUCF sector resulted in net emissions. This error has
now been corrected so gross total GHG estimates for these states (when gross total GHG estimates
are presented) no longer include emissions and removals from the LULUCF sector. This correction
has also been reflected in the standalone excel tables posted on these pages
https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/state-ghg-emissions-and-removals and

https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/methodologv-report-inventorv-us-greenhouse-gas-emissions-
and-sinks-state-1990-2020.

2.	The state estimates in GHG Data Explorer included N20 emissions from nitrogen additions to forest
soils. These estimates should have been excluded from the estimates as they were preliminary data,
and not final data. These preliminary data have been excluded from the state-level estimates in the
GHG Data Explorer and we hope to include this data the next version of the data, noting the next
version of the data covering 1990-2021. This correction only applies to the following states: AL, AK,
FL, GA, LA, MS, NC, OR, SC, TN, TX, VA, WA. This correction has also been reflected in the standalone
excel tables posted on these pages https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/state-ghg-emissions-and-
removals and https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/methodologv-report-inventory-us-greenhouse-
gas-emissions-and-sinks-state-1990-2020.

State-level GHG Data Caveats

The state-level estimates were developed to be consistent with the national Inventory, meaning they
were compiled to avoid double counting or gaps in emissions coverage between States. This was done
to ensure that State totals, when summed, would equal totals in the national Inventory.

However, there were some instances where either lack of data or updates in data sources used resulted
in state-level totals that did not add up to the national totals for the categories listed. This was true for
the following source and/or sink categories:

Sector/Emission and/or Sink
Category

Years

where

Different

% Difference State totals
vs. national Total

Reason

Energy- FFC CO2

2020

0.002% (% differences
within a sector are higher)

The state-level estimates are
based on updated energy use

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November 2022







data that will be incorporated
into the next version of the
National Inventory.

Energy - NEU CO2

All

Max 0.001%

Rounding, adjustments made to
match up state-level and
national-level NEU values.

IPPU - Electrical Transmission
and Distribution

All years

For 2019, the difference
was 1.5%. For all other
years, the difference was
0.2% or less.

There are two errors affecting
the national totals. For 2019,
there was an error in the
estimation methodology for non-
reporters. For all years, there
was a unit conversion error.
These errors were corrected in
the state-level estimates.

LULUCF -

•	Forest land (harvested
wood pools)

•	Forest land (N2O from
Forest Soils)

•	Coastal Wetlands (N2O from
aquaculture)

All years

~3% reduction in the net
LULUCF sector total in
2020 but will vary across
time series.

Note: While a percentage
is provided, it is a
percentage of net
emissions and sinks in the
LULUCF sector, so may not
accurately reflect relative
sectoral contribution in a
year, including 2020.

State-level estimates do not
include emission and removals
from carbon stock changes
associated with harvested wood
products (HWP), emissions from
N additions (N2O) to Forest Soils,
and they also do not include N2O
emissions from aquaculture as
disaggregation of these sources
to the state level will require
further assessment of potential
methods and/or appropriate
surrogate data to allocate
national estimates to states.

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