Clean energy just had a record year in the United States, but without a drastic change in policies, oil and gas will continue to dominate the U.S. energy sector over the next three decades, according to two new energy reports released today.
The Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) annual energy forecast is that the United States, the world’s largest oil and gas producer, will continue to produce record crude oil and gas until 2050. if he continues on his current path. Oil and gas will also continue to be the “most consumed” energy sources in the country until the middle of the century, unless something changes. “Although renewables are growing faster, there is still a large established fossil fuel base that we simply do not see losing its dominance by 2050, at least without some form of political action,” said Stephen Nally, acting EIA administrator, in a webinar today.
Oil and gas will also continue to be the “most consumed” energy sources in the country
The Biden administration has set itself the goal of virtually eliminating greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, in line with the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement and what a huge number of studies show is needed worldwide to prevent much more severe climate crisis. The only way to achieve this is to move from dirty fossil fuels to clean energy sources such as solar and wind farms.
There are some significant ones movement in this direction, but not enough. Clean energy broke several records in the United States in 2021, according to another analysis published today by BloombergNEF and the Business Council for Sustainable Energy trade group.
Last year, there was a record $ 105 billion in private investment in renewable energy and batteries, electric transportation, and hydrogen and carbon capture technologies that may be able to clean up heavy-duty pollution from heavy industry. The developers built an additional 37 GW of wind and solar power generation, helping renewables break a new record for how much renewable energy has contributed to the grid. Sales of electric vehicles also doubled from 2020 to 2021.
A record $ 105 billion in private investment last year
However, renewable energy still accounts for just over 20 percent of the US energy sector, while gas is almost double. This means that the Biden administration has a long way to go to achieve its goal of a 100% clean energy sector by 2035. A report published last month by the American Clean Power industry group found that annual wind and solar installations and energy storage must grow at about twice the rate of 2021 to achieve this 2035 target.
The bipartisan infrastructure law, passed last year, includes $ 80 billion in federal investment in clean energy technologies, including new transmission lines that are crucial to delivering energy from distant wind and solar farms to cities. However, much of Biden’s other plans to clean up the power grid are tied to the besieged budget reconciliation bill, which Democrats have been arguing about for months. Proposals to set federal standards for clean energy and sanction utility services for adhering to dirty energy have already been dropped. The latest iteration of the bill still includes key tax incentives for clean energy, but they are still unknown as the bill remains stagnant in Congress.