U.S. energy production drops amid coal's sharp decline

PanARMENIAN.Net - On Friday, March 31, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported that U.S. energy production in 2016 fell by 4 percent, with fossil fuel production contributing to most of that decline, Ars Technica reports.

The numbers are not terribly surprising. Global carbon emissions have been stalled for years even as economic activity has increased (although that doesn’t mean the U.S. is not still emitting massive amounts of carbon into the atmosphere). The U.S. has also seen big shifts in the market for fossil fuels—cheap natural gas is beating coal dramatically and renewables like wind and solar are starting to be cheap enough to compete with more traditional energy sources. And the EIA found recently that energy intensity, which is defined as units of energy per unit of GDP, has fallen by a third in the last 25 years. That means economic output needs less energy than it did before.

According to the EIA’s numbers, the U.S. produced 84.1 quadrillion British thermal units (Btu) of energy in 2016, down 4 percent from 2015. That's the first time energy production has been down year-over-year since 2009. Fossil fuel-related energy production, which includes coal, natural gas, and petroleum, was responsible for most of that, dropping from 7 percent from the previous year. Even natural gas-related energy production dropped 2 percent from the previous year, and petroleum dropped 5 percent. Coal-related energy production dropped a dramatic 18 percent.

On the other hand, renewable energy production was up 7 percent in 2015, beating 2015’s slight decrease in renewable energy production. While wind and solar capacity additions made up most of the increase, intense rain in the west boosted hydroelectric production up from where it had been in previous years.

The decrease in domestic energy production didn’t adversely affect total energy exports, though. Exports increased 7 percent year-over year, especially natural gas, which saw a 30-percent increase in exports. Coal exports declined 19 percent, however. The EIA writes:

For the first time on record, gross exports of natural gas from the United States exceeded those of coal in energy-equivalent terms. EIA projects that the United States will become a net exporter of natural gas on an annual basis by 2018, as domestic production continues to grow and additional natural gas export capacity, particularly to Mexico, comes online.