Has the U.S. Really Reached an Epic Turning Point in Energy?
As the new UN climate accord pushes countries to cut carbon emissions, the United States is making progress, but will it continue, and will it be enough?
The United States is setting new milestones that suggest a fundamental, and possibly permanent, shift in its energy economy.
Consider what happened last year alone. The amount of electricity from coal-fired power plants hit a record low while that from natural gas generators hit a record high. Also, renewable energy added the most new power to the electric grid, and annual carbon emissions reached a 20-year low.
“2015 clearly marked a turning point for American energy….We’ve entered a new era here in the United States,” says Lisa Jacobson, president of the Business Council for Sustainable Energy, which released on Thursday the fourth annual Sustainable Energy in America Factbook in partnership with Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
Colleen Regan, a senior BNEF analyst, expects
