By Regina,
posted on Friday, May 07, 2010.
Financial Times' EnergySource blog has some big news this week.
According to the Energy Information Administration, "US carbon
emissions fell 7 percent in 2009 - the biggest fall since the
records began in 1949."
How did this clean break happen? In addition to a down economy,
it's "the rise of natural gas," notes the Financial Times,
and "the decline of coal-fired generation."
The EIA has three data categories to illustrate how emissions
are generated and quantified - Gross Domestic Product, energy
intensity and carbon intensity of the energy supply. If we check
out the statistics for carbon intensity, we find some interesting
data in support of natural gas.
Carbon intensity is segmented into five potential sources:
transportation, electric power generation, commercial, residential
and industrial. Electric power generation had the largest decline
last year, despite past reports that "carbon intensity of energy
supply is normally fairly stable" across sectors.
What explains this conundrum? In fact, "a big decline in coal -
often substituted with cheaper natural gas," Kate Mackenzie
explains in her FT blog.
Here's exactly what EIA had to say:
"The carbon content of natural gas is about 45 percent lower
than the carbon content of coal and modern natural gas generation
plants that can complete to supply base load electricity often use
significantly less energy input to produce a kilowatt-hour of
electricity than a typical coal-fired generation plant."
That's a huge pat on the back for our favorite clean power
source. And, it's not just electricity generation that has seen a
decline in carbon output. Industrial energy carbon intensity
experienced a similar fall, dropping by 12 percent.
Natural gas is twice as clean and up to 58% more efficient than
coal-and this new age of U.S. natural gas abundance is making this
made-in-America energy source affordable, reliable and sustainable
for generations to come.