"Carbon dioxide emissions from energy production in the United States fell to 5.29 billion metric tons in 2012 -- its lowest level since 1994 -- despite a growing economy and rising population, according to government data released on Monday."

"The Energy Information Administration, the statistics arm of the Department of Energy, said there was a 3.8 percent drop from the previous year.

That marked the largest decline in a non-recession year since EIA started tracking the data.

The latest decline came amid a large drop in energy intensity, the amount of energy consumed relative to GDP."
 
Valerie Volcovici reports for Reuters October 22, 2013. [2]