Energy-related carbon dioxide emissions decreased nearly 1 percent last year as the nation shifted further away from coal-fired power generation and more toward cleaner sources of electricity, including natural gas and renewable energy sources like wind and solar, The Houston Chronicle reports.
Power producers cut their emissions of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that traps heat in the atmosphere and increases worldwide temperatures, for the seventh time in the past 10 years, according to the Energy Department.
Last year alone, U.S. energy-related carbon dioxide emissions decreased 47 million metric tons, a year in which the U.S. economy grew 2.3% as measured by the inflation-adjusted gross domestic product.
Wind and solar power accounted for 22% of non‐carbon electricity generation last year, surpassing hydropower which historically has been the primary source of renewable power generation, the government reported. In 1997, hydropower produced 34% of the nation’s non-carbon electricity generation but by last year, it was producing just 20%.
