In anti-Trump surge, Renewables make 18% of US electricity & impel job growth
In anti-Trump surge, Renewables make 18% of US electricity & impel job growth
By Juan Cole | Feb. 24, 2018 |
The “Sustainable Energy in America Factbook” finds that renewable energy (including hydro) was up 14% in 2017, bringing the renewables total in US electricity generation to an unprecedented 18%– twice as much as in 2008. And in 2008 renewables were almost all hydro. The rapid growth of renewable electricity generation and the decline of coal and even, slightly, of gas, took place despite a Trump administration determined to put its thumb on the scale for coal and other fossil fuels.
Some of the increased renewable energy, admittedly, came about because of a lessening of the drought in the West, which increased hydro-electric generation. But “Non-hydro renewables continued to represent the largest share of all U.S. new installations, hitting roughly 62% in 2017,” the report found.
The most important single number for human welfare is now the amount of carbon dioxide that a country farts out every year. That number tells us how bad the climate change catastrophe will be. Like hurricanes or earthquakes, climate change should be given scaled numbers. We’re looking at category 1 change now, which is bad. But if we don’t quickly curb emissions we’ll be looking at category 2 change. And if we go on like we are, we’ll be looking at a category 8 change, which is like a category 8 earthquake or a category 8 hurricane. Unlike the case in most earthquakes and hurricanes, how bad the climate change will be depends entirely on you. When you drive your gasoline car to work or you put on the air conditioning in your house burning coal to make the electricity for it, you are driving us toward category 8 climate change. That one won’t be pretty. Climate change involves rising sea levels, coastal erosion and storm surges, more intense hurricanes, risk of increased long-term drought in some areas, wildfires, and other unpleasantness.
https://www.juancole.com/2018/02/renewables-electricity-growth.html
