Looking for a silver lining amid bleak news about the economy? Here it is ...
America’s emissions of carbon dioxide from energy use – our biggest source of global warming pollution – declined in 2009 by an astounding 6.6 percent, according to preliminary numbers from the U.S. Department of Energy. Going back to 2007, emissions are down by more than 9 percent.
Incredibly, America is now emitting less carbon dioxide than we did in 1996, when Bill Clinton was president, the World Wide Web was new, and The Macarena was a number one hit. (More on why after the jump ...)
Before celebrating too much, it's worth acknowledging that, yes, the economic recession is the main cause of the decline. When factories aren't running, the demand for energy goes down, and so do emissions. No surprise there.
But just because emissions have fallen during the recession doesn’t mean they have to bounce right back when the economy recovers. It *is* possible to grow the economy while producing less pollution.
In fact, we’ve already been doing it. While the U.S. emitted less carbon dioxide last year than in 1996, our real (inflation adjusted) gross domestic product was 38 percent higher. For years, America has been moving toward an economy that is more energy efficient and less polluting. Too slowly, but still moving.
Meanwhile, the recent green energy boom is making a real dent in emissions. The biggest contributor to the decline in emissions last year was a dramatic dip in production at coal-fired power plants. Most of that reduction was due to the economy, but about a third of it was due to increased production of electricity from low- or zero-emitting sources – especially natural gas and wind (which saw a 28 percent jump last year alone). At the same time, states across the country have been ramping up their energy efficiency efforts, resulting in further reductions in electricity consumption.
Strong clean energy policies, such as the energy efficiency provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the Obama administration’s recently announced Clean Cars Program (more here), and state commitments to renewable energy (such as Colorado’s recently accelerated goal of getting 30 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020), will help keep the growth of emissions at bay. Indeed, the Department of Energy forecasts that emissions in 2011 will still be below 1999 levels, even as the economy recovers.
But of course that’s not enough. Science tells us that we need to cut our carbon dioxide pollution even farther and even faster (by roughly 35 percent below 2005 levels by 2020) if we are going have a chance to stop the worst impacts of global warming. By investing in renewable energy and energy efficiency – and by enacting strong limits on global warming pollution – we can create jobs to get America growing again, and ensure that as our economy recovers we continue to reduce our impact on the climate.
Cross-posted from the Frontier Group blog.