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A shift away from coal and reduced gasoline demand coupled with a mild winter led to an 8 percent drop in U.S. carbon dioxide emissions during the first quarter of 2012, reports the Energy Information Administration.

Emissions between January and March 2012 were the lowest since 1992.

Emissions from coal were down 18% to 387 million metric tons, the lowest for any quarter since April-June 1986. Low natural gas prices have led more utilities burn less coal for electricity generation.

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[...] The question is whether the shift is just one bright spot in a big, gloomy picture, or a potentially larger trend.

Coal and energy use are still growing rapidly in other countries, particularly China, and CO2 levels globally are rising, not falling. Moreover, changes in the marketplace — a boom in the economy, a fall in coal prices, a rise in natural gas — could stall or even reverse the shift. For example, U.S. emissions fell in 2008 and 2009, then rose in 2010 before falling again last year.

Also, while natural gas burns cleaner than coal, it still emits some CO2. And drilling has its own environmental consequences, which are not yet fully understood.

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Some worry that cheap gas could hurt renewable energy efforts.

"Installation of new renewable energy facilities has now all but dried up, unable to compete on a grid now flooded with a low-cost, high-energy fuel," two experts from Colorado's Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute said in an essay posted this week on Environment360, a Yale University website.

How much further the shift from coal to natural gas can go is unclear. Bentek says that power companies plan to retire 175 coal-fired plants over the next five years. That could bring coal's CO2 emissions down to 1980 levels. However, the [Energy Information Agency] predicts prices of natural gas will start to rise a bit next year, and then more about eight years from now. [...]

read more: http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/ap-impact-co2-emissions-1501292.h
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Cleaner-burning natural gas was cheaper than coal, so folks used it.

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Originally posted by kpo:

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Cleaner-burning natural gas was cheaper than coal, so folks used it.

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Due to shale gas, and fracking. Thank technology, not the market.

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