Posted on 01/07/2013 10:17:57 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Instapundit points to this bit of happy news culled from John Hanger, a Democrat who is running for governonr of Pennsylvania, where has been secretary of the state department of the environment and a commissioner of the public utility commission:
US energy related carbon emissions in 2012 will fall below 5,300 million tons or down about 12%, compared to the peak emissions of 6,023 million tons in 2007. Through this September, carbon emissions have been down every month in 2012, when compared to each of the first 9 months of 2011 and 2010. No other country matches that record. www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data/monthly/pdf/sec12_3.pdf/sec12_3.pdf/.
US GDP has grown every quarter since July 1, 2009, and today our economy is bigger than it was in 2007, the peak carbon emission year. Yet, even with an economy in 2012 that is bigger than in 2007, our carbon emissions will be 12% lower than they were in 2007....
Only the USA has had a shale gas boom and only the USA has cut substantially its carbon emissions since 2006....the shale gas boom substantially decreased US carbon emissions. Moreover, US electricity prices in 2012 have barely increased and natural gas prices have plummeted.
Hanger further notes that the U.S. is at around 1995 levels for energy-related carbon emissions. And note that lower emissions aren't simply an artifact of the rotten economy (which however bad it is is larger than in 2007).
The shale gas boom is a product of fracking, a technology which has not only been around for decades but has apparently been found to be safe in a controversial and not-officially-released analysis prepared for New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Cuomo has been sitting on the report while deciding whether to allow expansive fracking in the Empire State.
Back in 2011 - long before Matt Damon's anti-fracking movie Promised Land was even a glimmer in the bank account of eventual funders in the oil-rich UAE - Reason's Science Correspondent Ronald Bailey explained fracking (including how much greens used to love it until its success and safety record starting imperiling interest in subsidizing solar and wind tech).
CLICK ABOVE LINK TO VIEW THE VIDEO: "THE TRUTH ABOUT FRACKING"
The “Kill America First” crowd is not going to stand for this.
Funny how the energy sector is resourceful enough to work around all these roadblocks that the Enviro-nuts keep putting up.
Al Gore must be deeply saddened.
Does the STILL sh-tty economy have anything to do with this reduction as well?
The lefts anti-fracking position has nothing to do with protecting the environment and everything to do with their desire to kill capitalism.
Global Warming on Free Republic
Global Warming on Free Republic
Europe increased its coal purchases by 32% in 2012 in order to fuel power plants that were once run on nuclear energy.
So much for Europe, Kyoto, and “green.”
RE: Europe increased its coal purchases by 32% in 2012 in order to fuel power plants that were once run on nuclear energy.
What the heck happened to their Solar and Wind energy projects?
According to that chart, the GDP hasn't been in positive growth territory since around 2004. So the economy is only "growing" and "larger than 2007" in the fevered imaginations of federal bureaucrats.
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