The Patriot Post® · U.S. Leads World in Decreasing CO2 Emissions

When President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from the dubious Paris Agreement in June 2017, climate activists, world leaders, and the Democrat Media Complex immediately protested, declaring that the Trump administration was signaling its intention to increase CO₂ emissions. Fast-forward to Tuesday’s report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) evaluating CO₂ emissions around the globe. Lo and behold, the U.S. led the world in 2019 for “the largest decline in energy-related CO₂ emissions.” The IEA’s report further noted that “US emissions are now down almost 1 Gt [gross tonnage] from their peak in the year 2000, the largest absolute decline by any country over that period.” As Sen. Ted Cruz observed, that’s a “fact you will never see on the 6 o'clock news.”

In fact, far from the dire predictions since Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, the U.S. has not only continued its trend of decreasing CO₂ emissions but increased the rate of the decrease. The primary cause for this precipitous decline is not due to more government regulation; rather it has everything to do with the government getting out of the way of innovation brought on by capitalistic enterprise. “Coal-fired power plants faced even stronger competition from natural gas-fired generation, with benchmark gas prices an average of 45% lower than 2018 levels,” the report notes. This move to more natural-gas-fired power plants is thanks in large measure to increased fracking lowering the cost of natural gas — “as a result, gas increased its share in electricity generation to a record high of 37%.”

Furthermore, the dubious Paris Agreement seems to have had little effect on reining in the world’s largest CO₂-emitting country, China, which remains a signatory. As The Daily Wire observes, “The IEA noted that 80% of the increase in CO₂ emissions came from Asia and that China and India both contributed significantly to the increase.”

Meanwhile, climate alarmists like Democrat presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are calling for a national ban on fracking — the very thing responsible for reducing emissions. On Wednesday, AOC announced her legislation, the Fracking Ban Act. “Fracking is destroying our land and our water,” she asserted in her announcement. “It is wreaking havoc on our communities’ health. We must do our job to protect our future from the harms caused by the fracking industry.”

There is little evidence supporting AOC’s dubious claims of harm, but there is solid scientific evidence of the benefits fracking has afforded the U.S. As National Review reports, “The fracking boom is widely credited with turning the U.S. into a net energy exporter and reducing the country’s reliance on oil imports. While environmentalists have voiced concerns over the drilling method, fracking proponents have pointed to the economic benefit it brings to the U.S. and the industry’s increased attention to environmental concerns.”

In reality, should Warren and AOC’s fracking ban occur, it would not only end America’s energy independence but reverse the country’s decreasing rate of CO₂ emissions. Finally, if Warren and AOC were truly concerned with cutting the nation’s emissions, they would be the biggest advocates for increasing the use of nuclear power. Instead, they have called for that to be banned as well. As Warren stated last September, “In my administration, we won’t be building new nuclear plants. We will start weaning ourselves off nuclear and replace it with renewables.”

It’s clear the leftist agenda has little to do with addressing the challenges of climate change and everything to do with pushing socialism.