Texas has seen a decline in its overall greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions generated by the state’s electricity sector over a 17-year period, according to a report. joint report released this week.

This 19% decline occurred even as the state increased its power generation capacity by 32% during the same period, the report said.

Environment America’s Research and Policy Center, the Frontier Group, and the US PIRG Education Fund contributed to the analysis.

Texas is the nation’s leader in wind energy and second only to California in solar energy production. However, while progress in reducing emissions from the power sector has increased, emissions from other sectors have increased, according to the report.

“While we saw an unfortunate increase in emissions from industry and transportation, these were offset by a decrease in emissions from power generation thanks to the growth of clean solar and wind power,” said Ian Seaman, city hall advocate with the Environment Texas Research and Policy Center.

Nationwide

Overall, the United States reduced its overall GHG emissions by 15% and its per capita emissions by 25%, the report said.

Emissions trends vary by state, and the White House has set a target of net zero GHG emissions By 2050 at the latest, the report suggests, states need to step up their efforts — especially since some say the new federal leadership on climate is bleak.

At the local level, work is already underway to decommission or reinvent existing coal-fired power plants. Power plants are the largest source of GHG emissions in the electricity sector, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

CPS Energy’s JK Spruce coal-fired power plant, named one of the 50 worst environmental polluters in the United States in 2022, is expected to close by 2028.

In San Antonio, the transportation sector is the largest source of GHG emissions in Bexar Countyaccording to an air quality expert with the Alamo Area Council of Governments (AACOG).

Efforts to reduce emissions should then target the transportation sector, which is considered the largest source of pollution in half of the 50 states, according to the report.

Ways to mitigate this abject pollution include supporting more electric vehicles and their respective infrastructure,

However, a source not considered renewable has attracted attention due to its ease of use, particularly for powering the growing areas of technology sector data centers that populate the United States.

Nuclear power in the age of artificial intelligence

Nuclear power has attracted the attention of the technology sector as it strives to solve the problem caused by artificial intelligence (AI)’s obsession with power.

Tech giants such as Google, Microsoft and Amazon have all signed deals to source nuclear energy to power their data centers and meet high-performance computing needs.

The surge could spur a nuclear renaissanceaccording to Davide Castelvecchi, senior journalist at “Nature” magazine.

Castelvecchi said the process of building power plants is often riddled with complex procedures. This may be one reason why Microsoft is turning to existing nuclear infrastructure, particularly that which was the site of the global nuclear meltdown in the United States.

In late September, Microsoft signed an agreement to return the shuttered nuclear power plant at Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania, back into service.

Microsoft said the deal was part of a goal to reach 2030. negative carbon objectiveaccording to a report from the Associated Press.

Additionally, on Tuesday, the Biden administration unveiled efforts to further triple nuclear capacity. Construction of new reactors, upgrades to existing facilities and restarts of power plants are expected to take place by 2050, Bloomberg reported.

The nuclear industry appears to have united outgoing President Joe Biden with President-elect Donald Trump, who has expressed support for the energy source as an answer to data centers, according to the Bloomberg report.

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