Texas saw a drop in its overall emissions of planet-warming greenhouse gases (GHG) generated by the state’s electricity sector during a 17-year period, according to a joint report out this week.
The 19% drop came even as the state increased its electricity production capacity by 32% during the same period, the report said.
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Environment America’s Research and Policy Center, the Frontier Group and the U.S. PIRG Education Fund contributed to the analysis.
Texas leads the nation in wind power and is second to California in solar energy production. However, while progress in cutting emissions from the electric sector is growing, emissions from other sectors increased, according to the report.
“While we have seen unfortunate emissions increases from industry and transportation, they have been offset by decreased electricity generation emissions thanks to the growth of clean solar and wind energy,” said Ian Seaman, a city hall advocate with Environment Texas Research and Policy Center.
Looking nationally
Overall, the United States reduced its overall GHG emissions by 15%, and per capita emissions by 25%, the report said.
Emission trends vary by state, and with The White House issuing a goal of net-zero GHG emissions by no later than 2050, the report suggests states need to step up their efforts — especially as some say incoming federal leadership on climate is grim.
At a local level, work is already underway to retire or reinvent existing coal-fired power plants. The plants are the largest source of GHG emissions in the power sector, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
CPS Energy’s J.K. Spruce coal power plant, named one of the top 50 worst environmental polluters in the United States in 2022, is expected to shut down by 2028.
In San Antonio, the transportation sector is the largest source of GHG emissions in Bexar County, according to an air quality expert with the Alamo Area Council of Governments (AACOG).
Emission reduction efforts are expected to target the transportation sector next, which is considered to be the largest source of pollution in half of the 50 states, according to the report.
Ways to mitigate the abject pollution include supporting more electric vehicles and encouraging the deployment of multimodal transportation infrastructure.
However, one source not considered renewable has drawn significant attention for its usability, especially in powering the technology sector’s growing fields of data centers populating the United States.
Nuclear power in the age of artificial intelligence
Nuclear energy has garnered the attention of the technology sector as it works to solve the problem caused by artificial intelligence’s (AI) obsession with power.
Technology giants such as Google, Microsoft and Amazon have all inked deals to source nuclear energy to power their data centers and address high-performance computing needs.
The power surge could spur a nuclear renaissance, according to Davide Castelvecchi, a senior reporter at the journal “Nature.”
Castelvecchi said the process of building the power stations is often rife with complex procedures. That is perhaps one reason why Microsoft is turning to existing nuclear infrastructure, specifically one that was the site of the world nuclear meltdown in the United States.
In late September, Microsoft inked a deal to bring back online the shuttered Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania.
Microsoft has said the deal was part of a goal to reach a 2030 carbon-negative goal, according to reporting by the Associated Press.
Moreover, on Tuesday, the Biden administration unveiled efforts to further triple nuclear capacity power. The construction of new reactors, upgrades to existing facilities and plant restarts are expected to be completed by 2050, Bloomberg reported.
The nuclear industry seemingly united the outgoing Joe Biden with President-elect Donald Trump, who voiced his support for the power source as an answer to data centers, according to the Bloomberg report.
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