Not easy being 'green:' 94 percent of U.S. electricity came from fossil fuels, coal last year

By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM)
3/31/2014 (4 years ago)
Catholic Online (https://www.catholic.org)

Electrical cars whizzing on the thoroughfares are supposed to represent developed nations weaning themselves off of fossil fuels for a more environmentally friendly future. In the United States, however, much, much work remains to be done. It's been determined that a whopping 94 percent of all electricity generated last year came from coal burning, fossil fuels and nuclear reactors.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - According to a new report from the U.S. government's Energy Information Administration, the vast majority of electricity in the U.S. last year came from nuclear reactors, dams, and fossil fuels. This including petroleum, natural gas, other gases and coal.

Regretfully, only 0.2 percent of U.S. electricity during the year came from solar-power sources, and another 4.1 percent came from wind power.

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The United States generated a net of 4,058,209 million kilowatt hours of electricity in 2013, which was up slightly, 0.26 percent from the 4,047,765 million KWH generated in 2012. The figure is still less than 4,156,745 million KWH generated in 2007, which remains the peak year for U.S. electricity generation.

Rebounding last year after two years of decline, coal-fired electricity production was the nation's leading source of electricity in 2013. It produced 1,585,998 million KWH, up 4.8 percent from the 1,514,043 million KWH produced in 2012.

Coal-produced electricity in 2013 was still down 21.3 percent from its peak in 2007, when coal plants in the U.S. produced 2,016,456 million KWH.

Natural gas was the second greatest source of U.S. electricity last year, producing 1,113,665 million KWH. Nuclear power plants were the third largest source, producing 789,017 million KWH. And conventional hydroelectric power was the fourth greatest source, producing 269,136 million KWH hours.

Wood-burning electricity sources actually out-produced solar power. With wood generating 39,937 million KWH of electricity in 2013 and solar producing 9,252 million KWH.

Wind power generated by windmills dotting hillsides outside of any communities, was the fifth greatest source of electricity in the U.S.-following hydro-electric-generating 167,665 million KWH.

The combined output from all wind and solar power sources in the United States was 176,917 million KWH-or about 4.36 percent of the nation's total supply.

The U.S. has a long way to go before coming up with a viable, green source of electricity. According to the report, the U.S. would have to multiply its present solar and wind power resources 26 times in order to produce the total volume of electricity generated in the country last year.

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