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http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/07/19/546471/have-us-co2-emissions-peaked-as-we-predicted-breaking-down-the-good-and-bad-drivers/

U.S. leads the world in cutting CO2 emissions — so why aren’t we talking about it?

Lots of energy- and GW- related maps and graphs, here. Well worth a look.

Contrary to popular belief, the U.S. is making progress on climate change.

We have cut our carbon emissions more than any other country in the world in recent years — 7.7 percent since 2006. U.S. emissions fell 1.9 percent last year and are projected to fall 1.9 percent again this year, which will put us back at 1996 levels. It will not be easy to achieve the reductions Obama promised in Copenhagen — 17 percent (from 2005 levels) by 2020 — but that goal no longer looks out of reach, even in the absence of comprehensive legislation.

I will hazzard a guess right now and say with the changes in American climate policy this optimistic take on future emissions is no longer valid.

US CO2 emissions have been dropping since 2005 back in the Bush administration. Fracking shale produces lots of NG, and CO2 is going down mainly because coal-fired power plants are shifting to NG because its cheaper.

There is no reason this should change just because Trump is now president. He can fulminate all he wants to about imaginary "clean coal", but NG is cheaper and more and more coal-fired plants are going to convert to NG to save money.



I think looking only at CO2 is a misleading metric anyway, because the more NG that gets used, the CH4 leaks into the atmosphere---and CH4 is ca. 70X more powerful then CO2 as a greenhouse gas.

We are also setting records with the use of renewable energy. California achieved this grid power peak within the past week and after Trump was in office. On March 23 at 11:25 AM, California's grid power was 56.3% from renewable sources, from hydro, solar, and wind in that order. The total consumed power during that 24 hour period was from 33% renewable sources.

California has a bill in our assembly to achieve an agressive goal of 100% grid power from renewables by 2045. Come on, all you other states including Texas - dump the coal/oil/gas, and let us prove that you can run a major country entirely on renewable energy, and not just some smallish Scandihoovian islands.

We are after all, Americans. This is a lower hurdle than the moon shot.