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New data from the U.S. Energy Information Agency’s (EIA) was released Wednesday under the headline “Energy-related CO2 emissions from natural gas surpass coal as fuel use patterns change.” Here’s why that’s a good thing: it means dramatically lower overall greenhouse gas emissions.

This, of course, is because “natural gas consumption was 81% higher than coal consumption, and their emissions were nearly equal” as EIA points out in the new report – which goes to show much higher emissions would be if natural gas were not ramping up in electricity generation.  EIA also notes “Although use of natural gas and petroleum have increased in recent years … U.S. total carbon intensity [has decreased] from 60 MMmtCO2/quad Btu in 2005 to 54 MMmtCO2/quad Btu in 2015.” In other words, that significant decline in greenhouse gas emissions took place while natural gas and petroleum production dramatically increased.

Natural gas consumption has hit record levels and that’s why the United States is the only country in the world to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions – a 9 percent decrease since 2005 according to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) data. EIA has also recently projected that U.S. energy-related CO2 emissions will collectively plummet to their lowest levels since 1992, as natural gas use continues to increase.

EIA Administrator Adam Sieminski made natural gas’ role in pretty clear when he recently said,

“The drop in CO2 emissions is largely the result of low natural gas prices, which have contributed to natural gas displacing a large amount of coal used for electricity generation.”

Of course, this is all made possible by shale development, through technological advances in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing technology, which has unleashed a historic supply of natural...