Obama orders federal gov't to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 40 pct

U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday signed an executive order directing the federal government to cut its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 40 percent over the next decade from 2008 levels.

Under the executive order, the share of electricity the federal government consumes from renewable sources will increase to 30 percent by 2025, and U.S. taxpayers could eventually save up to 18 billion U.S. dollars in avoided energy costs.

Federal agencies were also directed to get 25 percent of their consumption of energy -- both electric and thermal -- from clean energy sources by 2025; reduce energy use in federal buildings by 2.5 percent per year between 2015 and 2025; reduce per-mile GHG emissions from federal fleets by 30 percent from 2014 levels by 2025 and introduce more zero-emission and hybrid vehicles into federal fleets; and reduce water intensity in federal buildings by 2 percent per year through 2025.

The federal government is the single largest consumer of energy in the nation, operating 360,000 buildings, 650,000 fleet vehicles, and spending 445 billion dollars annually on goods and services, according to the White House.

Additionally, major federal suppliers, including IBM, GE, HP and Honeywell, made a total GHG reduction commitment of 5 million tons between 2008 and 2020.

Together, the combined results of the federal government actions and new supplier commitments will reduce GHG emissions by 26 million tons by 2025 from 2008 levels, the equivalent of taking nearly 5.5 million cars off the road for a year, the White House said in a statement.

"The new commitments announced today support the United States' international commitment to cut net GHG emissions 26-28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025, which President Obama first announced in November 2014 as part of an historic agreement with China," the statement said. Endite