Federal grants add momentum to Wyo carbon capture movement
Basin Electric Cooperative’s Dry Fork Station, shown here last summer, is the newest coal-fired power plant in the nation. Wyoming’s Integrated Test Center is attached to the plant, where researchers hope to come up with uses for carbon emissions. (Andrew Graham, WyoFile)
The United States Department of Energy last Friday announced $99 million in grants to study technology that removes carbon from industrial exhaust and uses it for other purposes, like manufacturing. More than half that money went to Wyoming’s Integrated Test Center, a facility based out of the Dry Fork Power Station in Gillette.
Study Identifies Drivers of Reduction in US Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Written by AZoCleantechMay 6 2021
In 2005, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from residential energy use hit an all-time high in the United States. Each year since, emissions have dropped at an average annual rate of 2 percent.
In a study published in
Environmental Research Letters, Drivers of change in US residential energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, 1990-2015, a team of researchers from the Yale School of the Environment (YSE) outlined several factors that have contributed to this decrease, highlighting efficiencies in new home construction, energy consumption and household appliances, as well as less emissions in electric generation.
Coal Phase-Down Has Lowered, Not Eliminated Health Risks From Building Energy, Study Says
Biomass and natural gas have become an increasingly large share of the health burden of fueling buildings and factories.
May 7, 2021
The Los Angeles skyline is seen during twilight on Aug. 21, 2013 in California. Credit: Joe Klamar/AFP via Getty Images
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Thanks to the phase-down of coal, the risk of premature death in the United States due to the burning of fuels for electricity, homes and businesses fell 54 to 60 percent from 2008 to 2017, Harvard researchers found in a new study.
But their results showed that fuel use in buildings still accounts for a significant health burden, causing an estimated 48,000 to 64,000 premature deaths in 2017, with the hazards of burning biomass, natural gas and wood now surpassing those of coal.
Pollution from natural gas is now responsible for more deaths and greater health costs than coal in Illinois, according to a new study highlighting another hazard of burning fossil fuels that are scrambling the planet’s climate. Researchers at Harvard University found that a shift away from coal during the past decade saved thousands of lives and dramatically reduced health impacts from .
The report, published Thursday by the Climate and Clear Coalition and the U.N. Environment Programme, represents a shift in the worldwide conversation on how to best address the climate crisis, which has focused on longer-term carbon dioxide reduction.
Methane is 84 times more potent than carbon and doesn t last as long in the atmosphere before it breaks down. This makes it a critical target for reducing global warming more quickly while simultaneously working to reduce other greenhouse gases.
More than half of global methane emissions come from oil and gas extraction in the fossil fuel industry, landfills and wastewater from the waste sector, and livestock emissions from manure and enteric fermentation in the agricultural sector.