Charts of the day: Historic energy/environmental milestones Carpe Diem

September 28, 2019

The top chart above shows CO2 emissions in the US frm the electric power sector for the first half of every year, which fell this year to a 35-year low for the January-June period, the lowest since 1984. That was back when Ronald Reagan was re-elected to a second term, Apple aired its famous “1984” Macintosh commercial, the Soviet Union boycotted the Olympics, crack cocaine showed up in LA, and Ghostbusters was the No. 1 movie.

What do we have to thank for that significant “greening of America” that brought CO2 emissions in the US to a 35-year low this year for the January-June period? A carbon tax? Government energy policy? A reduction in electric power generation? Nope. An increase in the use of renewables like solar and wind for generating electricity? Perhaps, since the combined contribution of solar and wind for electric power has increased from 6.7% in 2016 to about 10% this year through June.

But one of the biggest factors that has contributed to the significant decline in CO2 emissions from electric power over the last decade has been the gradual but increasing substitution of natural gas for coal to generate the nation’s electric power. The second chart above shows that substitution of natural gas for coal, which now provides a record low 24% share of electric power while the share of natural gas has increased to a record high of 36.6% this year through June.

So at the same time that climate alarmists like Greta Thunberg and AOC (Karla Marx) lecture us about reducing our carbon footprint to prevent a pending environmental collapse, carbon emissions in the US have fallen to a level not seen since before AOC was born in 1989. And that reduction in CO2 is largely due to free-market capitalism that brought us the advanced technologies of fracking and horizontal drilling that accessed oceans of affordable shale gas. Unfortunately, Greta and AOC want to squash the very free market forces that helped bring CO2 to a 35-year low and instead replace market forces with massive increases in command-and-control government power. To paraphrase Steve Horwitz, it is precisely this sort of contempt for the market and embrace of the heavy hand of government that will destroy the very forces that have pulled human beings from abject poverty and enabled us to have the resources to address environmental concerns.

Bonus graphics below.