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UN Chief Says Rich Countries 'Signing Away Our Future' With Fossil Fuel Development.
(www.commondreams.org)
this post was submitted on 26 Jul 2024
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In 2023, the US consumed 26 thousand terrawatt-hours of energy. 80% of that came from coal, gas, and oil. The thing is, we can't just immediately turn off all the coal and natural gas power plants, ground all the jet planes, and stop all the diesel and gasoline powered vehicles from driving. So, we have to keep producing fuel for those machines so long as they remain in use.
The hope is that the coal and natural gas power plants will be replaced with renewables and nuclear plants, all the cars, trucks, and buses will be replaced with electric vehicles, and that all other fossil fuel machines will be replaced with a non fossil fuel powered alternatives. But that's just not happening, at least not very quickly.
Sure, EV sales have increased over the last several years, but EVs still only account for about 8% of new car sales. And, sure, many, many solar and wind farms have been built over the past several years, but those two energy sources only account for about 6% of our total energy consumption. That jumps up to about 14% if you include nuclear, but the amount of energy we get from nuclear has actually gone down over the past decade. Sure, we are also getting far less of our energy from coal, which is a good thing, but most of the shuttered coal plants have been replaced with natural gas plants.
The non fossil fuel machines and equipment just aren't being adopted quickly enough, and in some sectors, like air travel, non fossil fuel alternatives just don't exist yet. What this means is that fossil fuel consumption is going to remain for the foreseeable future.
Sources?
US energy consumption by source , EVs as a percentage of new car sales