Obama Advisor Can’t Change the Facts: Natural Gas Deserves Credit for Declining GHG Emissions
Wednesday October 12, 2016
Data clearly show natural gas has done more to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions than any other government scheme or agreement. But that didn’t keep President Obama’s senior advisor on energy and climate policy from claiming on Tuesday that government policies deserve much of the credit.
As Morning Consult reported, Obama senior advisor Brian Deese argued at an event organized by Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy that tax credits for wind and solar power and investments in clean energy research should largely be credited for U.S. greenhouse emissions dropping to their lowest levels in more than two decades.
“It’s not an accident of history,” Deese said. “In fact, it is directly linked to policies that have now changed the trajectory of where we are projected to go.”
Though Deese did give some credit to the increased natural gas use that has been made possible by the shale boom, he indicated the government will have to take the lead from here on out for the trend to be sustainable.
The facts show otherwise.
As the following EID graphic illustrates, CO2 emissions have plummeted at the same time the economy has grown significantly.
This simply would not have happened without an abundant supply of clean burning natural ...