AP IMPACT: CO2 emissions in US drop to 20-year low – Yahoo! News:
CO2 from the US is down. WOW!. See the full EIA report on CO2 Emissions.
The last time we had that was in 2009, we all assumed that was mainly because of the economic slowdown. But apparently, even then, part of it was because of the switching to NatGas.
“[T]he U.S. Energy Information Agency, a part of the Energy Department, said this month that energy related U.S. CO2 emissions for the first four months of this year fell to about 1992 levels. Energy emissions make up about 98 percent of the total.“
So the big reasons for the CO2 emissions reduction is primarily because of the switch to NatGas from coal in energy generation! … The slowing of economic growth down to 1.8% is another reason.
What’s amazing about this is that the switch to natgas is primarily driven by market forces. The power industry has been wining endlessly about the big food of the EPA on the juggler veins of the power industry… and of course the US economy. Yet, the move happened way ahead of schedule.
Low prices of nat gas make it, well, irresponsible, not to switch to clean gas away from dirty coal.
Health benefits (fewer deaths and injuries in mining). Massive improvement in air and water quality. No coal ash to deal with.
This would all be a good thing, if it weren’t for the massive increase in coal consumption from China and India. Where, exactly, is the benefit of us cutting back on coal when we simply ship it to China and they burn it. And they don’t worry about scrubbing it as much as we.
China now burns half the coal in the world, and rising quickly.
Sorry for looking good news in the eye and sounding skeptical. We sometimes simply need a little good news here and there and just to enjoy it.
Ahhhh, NatGas, A cleaner addiction to a unsustainable problem.
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