August 9, 2012. Tokyo Electric Power Co. and nine other Japanese power companies emitted a record amount of carbon dioxide in the year ended March 31 as the Fukushima Dai-Ichi disaster spurred a surge in crude and fuel oil consumption. The regional power companies produced about 439 million tons of CO2 for the year, up 17 percent from 374 million tons in the year ended in March 2011. Kansai Electric Power Co., the Japanese utility that relied most on nuclear power, discharged 65.7 million tons, a 40 percent increase in CO2 emissions. Japan was forced to find alternative to nuclear power, which produces virtually no greenhouse gas emissions linked to climate change, after last year's earthquake and tsunami caused the worst radioactive contamination since Chernobyl in the 1980s. With all but two of the country's 50 nuclear reactors offline and no date set to restart them, Japan is using record amounts of liquefied natural gas and sharply higher levels of fuel oil and crude to generate power. The increased use of fossil fuels, especially fuel oil and crude, is making it harder for Japan to meet its target of a 25 percent reduction in greenhouse gases by the end of the decade. Japan has pledged to reduce carbon dioxide by an average 6 percent from 2008 through 2012 from 1990 levels under the Kyoto Protocol, which limits releases by industrial countries. The 10 regional utilities used about 30 million tons of carbon credits to offset their emissions in the last fiscal year, compared with 57 million tons a year earlier, according to calculations based on the companies' data.