Tag: Energy Information Agency (EIA)

Report: The US power grid is already halfway to carbon neutrality, and it’s saving lives

Popular Science: The US power grid is already halfway to carbon neutrality, and it’s saving lives. We’re seeing fewer pollution-related deaths a year. Renewable energy’s rapid growth is accelerating a national shift to a carbon-free electric power system.

So far 17 states plus Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico, have adopted laws or executive orders setting goals for reaching 100-percent clean electricity by 2050 or sooner. And 46 US utilities have pledged to go carbon-free. Now the Biden administration and some members of Congress are proposing to decarbonize the power sector by 2035.

While this much change in 15 years seems ambitious, our new report, “Halfway to Zero,” looks back at the past 15 and finds that power sector emissions are half of what they were projected to be.

We analyzed the “business as usual” projection in the 2005 Annual Energy Outlook published by the Energy Information Administration, the US government’s official agency for data collection and analysis. It projected that annual carbon dioxide emissions from the electric power sector would rise from 2,400 million to 3,000 million metric tons from 2005 to 2020.

Multiple articles on coal

Gizmodo discusses How Coal’s Doing During the Pandemic. Big Oil has hogged the spotlight of fossil fuels in decline since the coronavirus pandemic began. Which, sure, it’s news that some of the richest companies on Earth have floundered once everyone decided to stay home. But we’re big believers in equal opportunity here at Earther so let’s take a look at what’s going on with the largest coal company in the US: Peabody Energy. It reported quarterly earnings on Wednesday and dear lord are they bad. The company ate a record loss of $1.54 billion and wrote down the value of its largest mine by $1.42 billion. Those are very large numbers that do not bode well for Peabody’s future success.

The Guardian discusses how India plans to fell ancient forest to create 40 new coalfields. Narendra Modi’s dream of a ‘self-reliant India’ comes at a terrible price for its indigenous population. Over the past decade, Umeshwar Singh Amra has witnessed his homeland descend into a battleground. The war being waged in Hasdeo Arand, a rich and biodiverse Indian forest, has pitted indigenous people, ancient trees, elephants and sloths against the might of bulldozers, trucks and hydraulic jacks, fighting with a single purpose: the extraction of coal. Yet under a new “self-reliant India” plan by the prime minister, Narendra Modi, to boost the economy post-Covid-19 and reduce costly imports, 40 new coalfields in some of India’s most ecologically sensitive forests are to be opened up for commercial mining.

The Hill discusses why 2019 coal production hit lowest level since 1978. Last year, coal production fell to the lowest level since 1978, according to data released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Tuesday.

Mongabay discusses how business risk and COVID-19 are pushing Asian financiers away from coal.

The Tyee discusses an Alberta Coal Grab: What Is the Sound of One Group Lobbying? Ask the Coal Association, the only group listened to before Kenney dropped barriers to open-pit mining on the Rockies’ eastern slope.

Report: For the First Time, Renewable Energy Is Poised to Eclipse Coal in U.S.

The New York Times discusses how, for the first time, renewable energy is poised to eclipse coal in U.S. The coronavirus has pushed the coal industry to once-unthinkable lows, and the consequences for climate change are big.

The United States is on track to produce more electricity this year from renewable power than from coal for the first time on record, new government projections show, a transformation partly driven by the coronavirus pandemic, with profound implications in the fight against climate change.

It is a milestone that seemed all but unthinkable a decade ago, when coal was so dominant that it provided nearly half the nation’s electricity. And it comes despite the Trump administration’s three-year push to try to revive the ailing industry by weakening pollution rules on coal-burning power plants.

Those efforts, however, failed to halt the powerful economic forces that have led electric utilities to retire hundreds of aging coal plants since 2010 and run their remaining plants less frequently. The cost of building large wind farms has declined more than 40 percent in that time, while solar costs have dropped more than 80 percent. And the price of natural gas, a cleaner-burning alternative to coal, has fallen to historic lows as a result of the fracking boom.

The latest report from the Energy Information Administration estimates that America’s total coal consumption will fall by nearly one-quarter this year, and coal plants are expected to provide just 19 percent of the nation’s electricity, dropping for the first time below both nuclear power and renewable power, a category that includes wind, solar, hydroelectric dams, geothermal and biomass.

Report: 2 articles on the woes facing the Coal industry

The Guardian discusses why Coal industry will never recover after coronavirus pandemic, say experts. Crisis has proved renewable energy is now a safer investment, and accelerated the shift.

This week, a new report by the US Energy Information Administration projected the US would produce more electricity this year from renewables than from coal for the first time. Industry analysts predict coal’s share of US electricity generation could fall to just 10% in five years, down from 50% a decade ago. Despite Donald Trump’s campaign pledge to “dig coal”, there are now more job losses and closures in the industry than at any time since Eisenhower’s presidency 60 years ago. Among the latest has been Great River Energy’s plan to shut down a 1.1-gigawatt thermal plant in North Dakota and replace it with wind and gas.

Thomson Reuters Foundation discusses how the world’s largest wealth fund blacklists Glencore, other giants over coal use.

Report: America’s renewable energy sources have produced more electricity that coal every day for 40 days straight

Newsweek discusses how America’s renewable energy sources have produced more electricity that coal every day for 40 days straight.

enewable sources including solar, wind and hydropower generated more electricity than coal-based plants every single day in April, a new report says.

Analysis shared by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEFA), based on data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), said the finding marks a major “milestone” in an energy transition that is now underway.

The move away from coal for electricity generation in the U.S. accelerated in 2020 due to lower gas prices, warmer weather and a “significant amount” of new renewable capacity being connected to the grid late last year, the report suggested.

It acknowledged that lower power demands resulting from economic slowdown sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic has also played a role in coal’s decline.

Study: Hospital Visits Declined After Sulfur Dioxide Reductions from Louisville-Area Coal Plants

Inside Climate News discusses how Hospital Visits Declined After Sulfur Dioxide Reductions from Louisville-Area Coal Plants. A new study found a 55 percent reduction in lung-irritating pollutants and 400 fewer hospital admissions after one coal plant closed and others added scrubbers.

By taking advantage of a “natural experiment” brought on by the closure of one coal-fired power plant and the addition of new pollution controls at others in the area, health researchers have documented how lowering air pollution improves the lives of asthma patients.

Led by Columbia University’s Joan A. Casey, an environmental health sciences professor, the team calculated a 55 percent reduction in the amount of lung-irritating pollutants in the air over Louisville beginning in the spring of 2015. The reduction came after the closure of Louisville Gas and Electric’s Cane Run facility and the installation of sulfur dioxide scrubbers at its Mill Creek plant and another, separately owned plant in Rockport, Indiana.

The researchers found that there were nearly 400 fewer hospital admissions or emergency room visits for asthma attacks in Louisville in the year following the closure and the addition of pollution controls.

The team’s paper was published Monday in the peer-reviewed science journal, Nature Energy. The study has 15 authors, including researchers from the University of California, Berkeley; Harvard University; University of Texas; and Propeller Health, in San Francisco.

These States Are Winning on Clean Energy

NRDC discusses which states are doing the best job adopting clean energy.

To take on the climate crisis, the United States needs to build a lot of renewable energy, and fast. While the power sector—which accounts for 28 percent of the nation’s climate pollution—has been getting cleaner every year as renewable energy becomes the cheapest form of new electricity, new data shows some states are moving faster than others.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) power sector data released last week offers the first official state-by-state look at 2019—what was built last year, what was closed, and what it means for our nation’s power mix and emissions. With some politicians promising radically different futures for the country—from a coal-powered renaissance to a 100 percent clean future—EIA’s new release shines a light on how these futures stack up relative to today.

As climate fight intensifies, U.S. states seek to block local natural-gas bans

Reuters discusses how, as climate fight intensifies, U.S. states seek to block local natural-gas bans. Lawmakers in at least five U.S. states have proposed bills since mid-February to prevent cities from banning natural gas as an energy source in new buildings, marking an escalation in the national battle over the fuel’s role in fighting climate change.

The new bills, backed by business and utility interests, come as a growing number of cities in California and the Northeast vote to electrify their building sectors to avoid gas, a fossil fuel that contributes to global warming but which the drilling industry says is cleaner than alternatives like coal.

The stakes for the gas industry are huge: Direct gas consumption by residential and commercial buildings amounted to about 8.45 trillion cubic feet in 2018, rivaling the 10.63 tcf used by utilities to power the grid, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

The recent bills prohibiting such bans on gas use by buildings were introduced by lawmakers in Missouri, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Mississippi, many of them using near-identical language. Arizona last month became the first state in the country to pass such legislation.

Texas Wind Energy Production and Jobs Are Growing, Coal Is Dying

This Reform Austin article discusses how Texas and wind energy jobs are replacing dying coal.

Renewable energy is one of the key components in fighting the progression of climate change caused by manmade sources. Despite its legendary status as a fossil fuel producer, Texas is making incredible strides to meet the demand for clean energy produced by wind and solar.

Wind power has been booming in the state. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) reported recently that the state’s production of wind energy surpassed that of coal energy for the first time ever. Granted, it is by a tiny amount. Just 21.78 percent of the state’s power in 2019 was wind, barely topping the 21.37 percent generated by coal.

Still, it is a milestone that is indicative of the changes Texas has made to its energy plans over the last several years. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, Texas produces more wind energy than any other state, and the ERCOT says that if all the new wind-producing projects currently under review are approved, Texas would double its output in that regard. By contrast, no new coal plants in Texas have been approved yet.

Solar and wind energy trounced the forecasts. Can they do it again?

This Christian Science Monitor article discusses how solar and wind energy trounced the forecasts. Can they do it again?

Last year, for the first time, wind overtook coal as a power source in Texas. It lasted only a few months, but soon it may be the permanent reality. And it symbolizes major shifts underway beyond Texas.

The renewable energy industry’s growth has been consistently outpacing forecasts. In 2000, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) predicted the nation would generate 15 billion kilowatt hours of electricity from wind and solar in 2020. The actual amount today is already 33 times that amount, with nonhydro renewables making up about 12% of total U.S. power generation.