Obama sets greenhouse gas reduction target

The federal government will reduce its greenhouse gas pollution by 28 percent by 2020, U.S. President Barack Obama said Friday.

Hitting the pollution reduction target will reduce the government’s energy use by the equivalent of 646 trillion BTUs — equal to 205 million barrels of oil and taking 17 million cars off the road for a year, Obama said in a statement.

“As the single largest energy consumer in the U.S. economy, the federal government spent more than $24.5 billion on electricity and fuel in 2008 alone,” he said.

The president said the cumulative saving would be the equivalent of $8 billion to $11 billion in avoided energy costs through 2020.

UPI