Energy-Economy Decoupling and the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative

americanthinker.com ^ | 6/12/2014 | Sierra Rayne

[rktman]

The Obama administration's latest climate regulations have sent supporters of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emission cuts on the prowl for conclusive evidence that making such emission cuts will not substantially damage the economy. Arguments are being made that "historically, the demand for electricity was closely tied to growth in the economy; only recently have the two decoupled." It is far too early to be making conclusive claims that American economic growth has become decoupled from electricity demand. The following plot shows normalized real per capita GDP and per capita electric power consumption in the United States since 1960.

[rktman]

Hey, at least we're savin' the planet. One power bill at a time.

[thackney]

[theBuckwheat]

If a suburbanite buys a battery powered car and recharges it at home overnight, given that over 50% of electricity is produced by burning coal he probably will produce more CO2 than before.

The other factor is that with every new battery powered car, the recharging draws so much additional energy that it brings the whole grid that much closer to collapse.

Thanks libs!