Greenhouse gas emissions from the largest US industrial plants fell 2.7% in 2017 | Hacker News Reader

Greenhouse gas emissions from the largest US industrial plants fell 2.7% in 2017

reuters.com

25 pointsDoreenMichele11 comments

Bottom line, clean energy is getting cheaper so it cuts emissions of bigger emitters. Purely economical side-effect.

I think the bigger picture would be to look at solar panel installments and their overall contribution in the energy package of the US.

Hints: "Solar accounts for 55% of all US electricity added so far in 2018." Source: https://www.businessinsider.com/more-solar-power-than-any-ty...

And in the same article: Solar cost lower than coal in North America since 2013: https://amp.businessinsider.com/images/5af0a65e19ee8624008b4...

So basically US is moving in the right direction regardless of the Paris agreement?

2.7% is not enough.

No. Withdrawal of the Paris agreement led to other political initiatives such as oil and gas projects, such as Keystone XL or new EPA (de)regulations, that could have been avoided.

Here again, a consequential drop in emissions does not mean that there is a political effect. Policies such as the Paris agreement are looking for long-term effects, rather than fluctuation deriving from a specific economical situation.

It’s annoying that most studies, statistics, laws, etc. related to coal plants omit things like coal fired cement plants which are also huge contributors to pollution.

It's not irrelevant, but the cement industry only consumes around 4% of global coal production.

Further, coal fired cement plants are rather efficient because they can directly use the high temperature heat energy vs converting it to electricity. Prioritizing alternative sources of electricity first is simply a better use of resources.

That said, in aggregate such things are important.

Good to know (especially the second part)... I hadn’t thought about it that way.

In related news:

9 October, 2018:

"One of oldest coal companies in US files for bankruptcy"

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/one-of-oldest-us-coa...

17 October, 2018:

"Mission Coal files for bankruptcy—5th coal company in 3 years"

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mission-coal-bankruptcy-marks-5...

Title is misleading. Overall emissions didn't fall, rather, "Greenhouse gases emissions from the largest U.S. industrial plants fell 2.7 percent in 2017"

Ok, we'll use that above.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenhouse_gas_emissions_by_th...

https://www.statista.com/statistics/183943/us-carbon-dioxide...

Looks like its going down to me. This is energy only.

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