In the News
America’s love for flying is negating the benefits of phasing out coal
The numbers are in, and it’s not all good news. In 2017, despite president Donald Trump’s best efforts, the US burned less coal than the year before. As a result, the country avoided producing 23.3 million metric tons of carbon emissions that it would have put into the atmosphere had it burned the same amount of coal as in 2016, according analysis by Impact Lab partners at the Rhodium Group. The bad news, however, is the benefits of phasing out coal were partly counteracted by America’s growing love for flying. The country’s emissions from burning jet fuel increased 9.2 million metric tons from 2016 to 2017, offsetting about 40% of the gains from the decline of coal.
Quartz
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March 30, 2018