Clean energy had a record-breaking year in the United States, but unless policies change dramatically, oil and gas will continue to dominate the US energy industry for the next three decades, according to two new energy reports issued these days, The Verge reports.
According to the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) annual energy outlook, the United States, the world’s largest producer of oil and gas, would continue to generate record volumes of crude oil and gas until 2050 if present trends continue. Unless something changes, petroleum and gas will continue to be the country’s “most-consumed” energy sources into the middle of the century.
“Though renewable sources are growing quicker, there is still a significant established base of fossil fuel usage that we just do not anticipate relinquishing their dominance until 2050, at least not without some type of governmental intervention,” Stephen Nalley, acting EIA administrator, said March 03 in a webinar.
The Biden administration has set a target of practically ending greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, which is consistent with the aims of the Paris climate agreement and what a large body of science has demonstrated is required internationally to avoid a much more catastrophic climate calamity. The only way to do so is to transition away from polluting fossil fuels and toward sustainable energy sources such as solar and wind farms.
There has been some progress in that direction, but not nearly enough. According to a new study issued by BloombergNEF and the Business Council for Sustainable Energy, clean energy will break multiple records in the United States in 2021.
Last year, private investment in renewable energy and batteries, electric transportation, and hydrogen and carbon capture technologies that may be able to clean up difficult-to-abate pollution from heavy industries reached a new high of $105 billion. Developers added 37 GW of wind and solar producing capacity, helping renewables set yet another record for the amount of renewable energy added to the electricity system. Electric car sales more than quadrupled between 2020 and 2021.
Nonetheless, renewable energy accounts for little more than 20% of the US power market, whereas gas accounts for over double that. That implies the Biden administration has a long way to go before reaching its goal of achieving a 100 percent renewable energy industry by 2035.
According to research issued last month by the industry group American Clean Power, yearly wind, solar, and energy storage installations must expand at about double the rate they did in 2021 in order to fulfill the 2035 target.
Last year’s bipartisan infrastructure plan included $80 billion in federal investment in renewable energy technology, including new transmission lines critical for delivering energy from remote wind and solar farms to cities and towns. However, most of Biden’s remaining ideas for cleaning up the electricity system are entwined with the troubled budget reconciliation bill, which Democrats have been wrangling over for months.
Proposals to establish government clean energy standards and punish utilities for using dirty energy have previously been abandoned. The current version of the plan still includes critical tax breaks for renewable energy, but those are in jeopardy while the package is stuck in Congress.