The Brookings Institute has released a study that shows clearly that states can decrease carbon emissions and still grow their economies; a thing that is referred to as "Decoupling." This is something most on the Right Wing have said would be impossible over the years as the carbon problem become known.
This is certainly good news, but it still has an aspect we should be very watchful of. Most of the states indicated in this study did their decoupling by turning to natural gas and nuclear power; possibly suggesting that a less polluting fuel, but one that still puts carbon out their, or power that from the atom, which has waste we still don't know what to do with, not to mention geophysical safety concerns.
Let us also not forget that significant amounts of natural gas have been obtained by the process of fracking; a process that not only threatens groundwater, but now seems quite related to increased earthquake activity.
The problem I see here is that there may be a great temptation to jump on the band wagon of gas and nuclear which, by the way, still represent Big Money's stake in power generation; and then push much more renewable sources to the wayside. And that would be a huge mistake. Not even if they try to tell us that renewables will never have the power densities needed to power a global economy, which is patently not true (as I have tried to show repeatedly with Tornado Turbines at sea producing liquid hydrogen). As such we all need to be very vigilant on how we discern what is touted as "good news" on the energy front.
How natural gas and nuclear have made the US greener – times two
By Ben Rosen, Staff DECEMBER 8, 2016
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