Re:Germany lays out a path to quit coal by 2038
by roenxi on Sunday January 27, 2019 @06:17AM
(#19011290)
> Not aware of any bans or unaffordability issues there
Well, crude oil prices went from $35 -> $70 around 2005 and have generally been floating around there since, with short periods of time (a year or two) where they drop down [0], coal did something similar from $50 -> $80 [1]. In the US, coal use for electricity immediately started dropping off, and Natural Gas has been replacing capacity [2]. There was a 5 year period where gas (ie, car fuel) prices were just out of control, and a long period of time where they were just high.
Most of the US's energy is sourced from petroleum and coal [3, 4]. I'd say there is some evidence here that the drop in per capita use was more due to the price rising by a very large margin than some sort of efficiency gain, and the EIA article you reference is, in my view, somewhat optimistic if they think that sort of price movement doesn't cause people to change their lifestyles. This all times in roughly with when per capita energy use started to level off then fall. I'd suggest that although cheap natural gas has absorbed some of the shock, there is evidence of cost pressure if you care to look.
Well, crude oil prices went from $35 -> $70 around 2005 and have generally been floating around there since, with short periods of time (a year or two) where they drop down [0], coal did something similar from $50 -> $80 [1]. In the US, coal use for electricity immediately started dropping off, and Natural Gas has been replacing capacity [2]. There was a 5 year period where gas (ie, car fuel) prices were just out of control, and a long period of time where they were just high.
Most of the US's energy is sourced from petroleum and coal [3, 4]. I'd say there is some evidence here that the drop in per capita use was more due to the price rising by a very large margin than some sort of efficiency gain, and the EIA article you reference is, in my view, somewhat optimistic if they think that sort of price movement doesn't cause people to change their lifestyles. This all times in roughly with when per capita energy use started to level off then fall. I'd suggest that although cheap natural gas has absorbed some of the shock, there is evidence of cost pressure if you care to look.
[0] https://www.macrotrends.net/1369/crude-oil-price-history-cha... [1] https://www.indexmundi.com/commodities/?commodity=coal-austr... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:US_Electricity_by_type.pn... [3] https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=10 [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Energy_Flow_US_2017.png [5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_in_the_United_States#Su...