Texas is the largest U.S. carbon emittor

The Associated Press analyzed U.S. state CO2 emissions since 2003 and the review shows big differences in their relative contributions. Texas came in at number one, primarily due to the burning of high-carbon coal to produce cheap electricity. Instead of trying to wean themselves from coal, Texas government officials went out of their way to encourage the state's biggest utility, TXU Corp., to plan for 11 new coal-burning power plants that would have produced even more CO2. The initiative collapsed when an investor group buying TXU made a deal with environmentalists to drop plans to build most of the coal plants.

Emissions from generating electricity account for the largest portion of U.S. greenhouse gases at about 40 percent. Transportation emissions are next, accounting for about 33%. States with mass transit and cities like New York actually come out cleaner than states with wide expanses that rely solely on cars, trucks and airplanes, like Alaska.

For more information and interesting fact about state carbon emissions, see Blame coal: Texas leads carbon emissions.