Fracking Has Done More To Reduce Carbon Emissions Than The EPA, Al Gore And Wind Turbines Combined
Not only has fracking reduced America’s carbon emissions, but the energy jobs created by the oil/gas industry are one of the few bright spots in a stagnant national economy and dropping prices for natural gas are saving Americans billions in energy costs.
From the Financial Times (via Mark Perry):
he shale gas boom in the U.S. has led to a big drop in carbon emissions, as power generators switch from coal to cheap gas. According to the International Energy Agency, U.S. energy-related emissions of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, fell by 450m tons over the past five years – the largest drop among all countries surveyed.
Fatih Birol, IEA chief economist, attributed the fall to improvements in fuel efficiency in the transport sector and a “major shift” from coal to gas in the power sector. “This is a success story based on a combination of policy and technology – policy driving greater efficiency and technology making shale gas production viable,” Mr Birol told the Financial Times.
Gas is fast becoming the new fuel of choice for the US power sector: in the past 12 months, coal generation has slumped by 19 per cent while gas generation has increased by 38 per cent, according to U.S. Department of Energy figures. A gas-fired plant produces half the CO2 emissions of a coal-fired one.
In the name of global warming and pollution control, the environmentalist left has been trying to hamstring the coal industry for decades. But right now America’s dependence on coal-fired energy is being reduced, and not by heavily-subsidized, expensive and unreliable alternatives like solar and wind power but by reliable and cheaper natural gas.
The free energy market is doing what the activists and the politicians couldn’t.
Tags: carbon emissions, fracking, natural gas, oil
