Skip to footer

Carbon emissions from US power industry falls to 25-year low

Carbon-dioxide emissions from electricity generation during the first six months of 2016 were the lowest since 1991, according to the EIA.

|
Tiffany Rushing/The Courier/AP
Traer Municipal Utilities' wind turbine just east of the solar farm on the south side of Traer in Traer, Iowa.

While automakers work to meet stricter carbon-emissions standards, another sector of the U.S. economy has already made notable progress in reducing ts emissions.

Carbon-dioxide (CO2) emissions from electricity generation during the first six months of 2016 were the lowest since 1991, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

The EIA attributes this partly to the short-term impact of mild weather, but also to the replacement of fossil fuels with renewable energy sources.

In addition to noting the 25-year low for carbon emissions in the first six months of the year, the EIA believes the full-year total for 2016 will be the lowest since 1992.

U.S. energy-related CO2 emissions totaled 2,530 million metric tons in the first six months of 2016, and the EIA expects the total for the entire year to be 5,179 million metric tons.

The agency attributes the decrease in emissions to both weather and changes in the energy-consumption mix.

Thanks to mild weather last winter, the first six months of 2016 saw the lowest number of "heating degree days"—an indicator of home heating demand—since at least 1949, according to the EIA.

Overall, the total primary energy consumption for the first six months of 2016 was 2 percent lower than the same period in 2015.

At the same time, coal and natural gas consumption decreased compared to the first six months of 2015.

Coal saw the more dramatic decline, with consumption decreasing by 18 percent, compared to 1 percent for natural gas.

The decreases for these fossil fuels more than offset a 1 percent increase in petroleum use, notes the EIA, which attributes the increase to low gasoline prices.

While coal and natural gas declined, use of renewable-energy sources increased 9 percent during the first six months of 2016, compared to the same period in 2015.

Wind power accounted for nearly half of that increase, while hydroelectric power also saw gains as drought conditions in Western states eased, according to the EIA.

Hydroelectric power accounted for 35 percent of the increase, while solar power accounted for 13 percent.

However, the EIA expects solar energy to see the largest capacity additions of any power source in 2016.

The decrease in carbon emissions from power generation is good news for electric cars charged from the grid, since their carbon impact falls as the sources of electricity get cleaner.

So the more renewable sources utilities use, the lower the impact of electric cars in their areas of operation.

Measuring emissions per mile, an electric car driven in California now emits only as much CO2 as a 90-mpg gasoline car—which, of course, doesn't exist.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Carbon emissions from US power industry falls to 25-year low
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/In-Gear/2016/1017/Carbon-emissions-from-US-power-industry-falls-to-25-year-low
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe