The United States is pivoting away from fossil fuels and toward wind, solar and other renewable energy, even in areas dominated by the oil and gas industries.
  • Diplomjodler@feddit.de
    8·
    11 months ago

    Renewable is clearly the way to go, regardless of whether you look at the issue from an environmental or economic angle. The only people that stand to lose are the oligarchs that are heavily invested in fossil fuels. Unfortunately those will do anything at all to hang on to their obscene profits, including literally overthrowing the democratic system to install a fascist dictatorship.

    • Goopadrew@beehaw.org
      1·
      9 months ago

      Yeah, when I worked for an energy company, their stance was: why wouldn’t we build as much renewable energy as we can? It’s cheaper than power plants and basically just sits there making them money with minimal upkeep

  • Thevenin@beehaw.orgEnglish
    2·
    11 months ago

    From 2005 to 2021, US energy grid GHG emissions dropped by ≈40%. At first, this was due to the pivot away from coal, but now it’s being driven by renewables. From 2015 to 2021, wind power doubled and solar quadrupled, fueled by the inexorable pull of cheap power. https://www.cbo.gov/publication/58860

    By my read of the situation, US electricity generation (in isolation) is on-track for the IPCC AR6 C2 and C1 pathways. Other sectors aren’t, but electrification can rapidly bring them in line with the energy grid. https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg3/figures/summary-for-policymakers/figure-spm-5/

    I’m a bit of a broken record on this subject, but we’re tantalizingly close to having a way out of this without sending us back to the stone age. The technology is here, the money is here, and we now know what systems are responsible. With the multi-pronged approach of collective and individual action, we can actually do this.

    We have the tools, the only thing we lack is the resolve to use them.