Surprise!
(WRAL) In a surprising turnaround, the amount of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere in the U.S. has fallen dramatically to its lowest level in 20 years, and government officials say the biggest reason is that cheap and plentiful natural gas has led many power plant operators to switch from dirtier-burning coal.
Many of the world’s leading climate scientists didn’t see the drop coming, in large part because it happened as a result of market forces rather than direct government action against carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that traps heat in the atmosphere.
Those dastardly market forces! How dare they interfere with gubbment forces! Anyhow, funny how they never seem to see real world things happening, eh?
Michael Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Penn State University, said the shift away from coal is reason for “cautious optimism” about potential ways to deal with climate change. He said it demonstrates that “ultimately people follow their wallets” on global warming.
Except, Warmists are trying to kill the use of natural gas, too. People are following their wallets, just not for any globull warming reasons.
PS: Mann doesn’t actually have a degree in “climate science”.
[…] H/T Pirates Cove […]
Coldists are trying to increase the use of coal because they are terrified that a new Ice Age is coming. Teach, could the increase in solar wind and hydro ALSO be partly responsible for the decrease in CO2 Remember the cost of solar watts is dropping steadily. I don’t think that will be true in the long run for fossil fuels. ?
The cost of wind and solar is incredibly higher than coal, gas, and natural gas, John. The only reason is seems less is because government is dumping tons of tax payer money into subsidies to go with the tax breaks (fossil fuels get tax breaks, not subsidies. So does Hollywood)
So, we are to be impressed that our share of solar, wind, and hydro-electric output has moved from 3% to 3%?
Yeah, massive ramping there.
Btw, there is something to blame for this. Liberals in government who enacted stupid regulations, red tape, stimulated massive debt, forced the downturn in our economies, and killed jobs worldwide.