Here's a nice surprise for all you environmentalists out there: The United States enjoys the unique distinction of being the lone non-signatory to the Kyoto protocol and the only major industrial nation to meet the goals it contained.
This was not accomplished due to the passage of a carbon tax, cap and trade, or any policy favored by environmentalists. It was met (mostly) due to something that many environmentalists opposed: the advent of fracking, which has significantly lowered the price of natural gas. This has resulted in a significant increase in the use of natural gas for the generation of electricity and a decrease in the use of coal.
Since natural gas releases only about half the carbon of coal, as we replace more and more coal fired power plants with natural gas power plants our CO2 emissions go down. That, combined with the economy tanking and continuing to flounder under the Obama administration, has US CO2 emissions at their lowest level since 1994.
USA meets Kyoto protocol goal – without ever embracing it | Watts Up With That?