This increase, which occurred during a period of economic expansion, was due primarily to an increase in carbon dioxide emissions associated with fuel and electricity consumption, the EPA says.
The report shows that both methane and nitrous oxide emissions have decreased from 1990 levels by 10 percent and two percent, respectively.
Fossil fuel combustion was the largest source of emissions, accounting for 80 percent of the total. While the U.S. economy expanded by 51 percent from 1990 to 2004, emissions have grown by only 15.8 percent over the same period, the report indicates.
The report is the latest in an annual set of reports that the United States submits to the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which sets an overall framework for intergovernmental efforts to tackle the challenge posed by climate change.
According to the EPA, the goal is to cut greenhouse gas intensity by 18 percent by 2012.
