POLITICO Magazine invited me to consider the long-term effects of Barack Obama’s climate agenda. Of the environmental measures he has undertaken as president, which program or rule or deal matters most, and will have the biggest impact for future generations? Heres my answer: The biggest U.S. environmental impact of the Obama era is the one that nobody (not the president, not Congress) envisioned. It is the shale gas revolution that was made possible by the United States spending $10 billion on R&D to develop hydraulic fracturing over the past 30 years. Over the past five years, this investment has made gas much cheaper, allowing a significant shift in electricity production from coal to gas. Since gas emits less than half the carbon dioxide per energy unit than coal does, this means that in 2012, when adjusting for more wind and lower economic output, the gas switch reduced U.S. emissions by about 300 million metric tons of CO2, causing emissions to hit lowest level since 1994. At the same time, it is estimated that the economic benefit to the United States is about $283 billion per year. This compares favorably to all of Europe’s wind and solar energy, which reduces CO2 emissions by about 91 million metric tons and cost about $40 billion annually. politico/magazine/story/2014/12/how-green-is-barack-obama-113397_full.html#.VInBfXtjm14
Posted on: Thu, 11 Dec 2014 16:13:55 +0000