Emissions up…temps down. Global warming?

Even while the climate Nazi’s were screaming about the end of mankind due to hydrocarbon emissions, something interesting happened: First, temperatures stopped rising, defying the projections of supposed environmental experts; second, increased oil-and-gas drilling, fought ardently by climate change believers, actually helped reduce U.S. production of carbon dioxide emissions.

You might assume that environmental alarmists would express relief in being proven wrong or at least hail the improvements, it simply hasn’t happened. Some global warming proponents are now turning to acknowledging that warming trends stalled beginning in the late 1990s rather than possibly having to admit that climate change had lessened while hydrocarbon emissions actually went up.

The latest data shows that the revolution created by hydraulic fracturing techniques is paying dividends for those who want to reduce emissions. Thanks to increased natural gas production and associated lower prices, power plants are shifting from coal to cleaner-burning gas; as a result, U.S. carbon dioxide emissions declined 12 percent from 2005 to 2012, according to the Energy Information Administration, which also reports that national emissions are at their lowest point since 1994.

The revelation has upset some environmentalists; a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions wasn’t supposed to happen while hydrocarbon consumption went up. The only way we should be seeing a reduction in the release of carbon dioxide would be through broad acceptance of the Kyoto Protocol.

The Kyoto Protocol, a late-1990s international treaty to restrain greenhouse gas emissions, was supposed to be the cure-all for global warming at the same time being a massive weapon to bludgeon U.S. businesses and lifestyles that many left-wing groups hate. The agreement called for industrial nations to cut emissions below 1990 levels by 2012, which would have required drastic changes in the everyday lives of most Americans.

Fortunately Kyoto was never ratified the in the U.S.; in fact the U.S. Senate voted 95-0 to prevent Kyoto ratification.

Since then energy producers have unleashed a torrent of production thanks to wide acceptance of hydraulic fracturing. U.S. oil production increased by more than 800,000 barrels per day last year primarily through technological improvements that have allowed reaching resources never before accessible.

The International Energy Agency projects the United States will overtake Saudi Arabia as the world’s leading oil producer by about 2017 and become an energy independent, net oil exporter by 2030. Increased oil-and-gas production is credited with shifting power generation to natural gas and lowering U.S. carbon emissions.

The Kyoto Protocol’s restrictions notably exempted China and other “developing” countries. The Chinese ratified the protocol in 2002 even they as grew their production of energy geometrically due to their soaring economy. From 2005 to 2011, the Energy Department reports, U.S. annual emissions declined 509 million metric tons; China’s increased by 3.2 billion metric tons.

In short, overall global carbon emissions have increased 15 percent from 2005 to 2011, thanks mostly to countries such as China that ratified the Kyoto Protocol. Despite this failure to reduce hydrocarbon emissions and consumption temperatures aren’t rising, which proves the global warming crazies, like Al Gore, were dead wrong about global warming’s cause and their argument about how to address climate change, through reductions in emissions, was also wrong.

It’s now clear environmentalists should have been promoting efficient energies that are economically viable, like natural gas, instead of exempting the fasted growing nations that have taken the least efficient approach.

Don’t expect the oil haters to abandon their attacks on hydrocarbons; they’ll never let facts get in the way of their agenda.

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