Power-sector Emissions Drop Despite Trump Policies ($)

Carbon emissions tied to U.S. electricity generation have dropped 28 percent since 2005 to a total of 1,744 million metric tons last year — the lowest since 1987 — according to data the U.S. Energy Information Administration posted publicly, reports Greenwire. The nation's power sector continues to march toward meeting and surpassing the goals of the Obama-era Clean Power Plan, which the Trump administration has moved to water down.

"We always knew the Clean Power Plan was sort of riding the coattails of state public policies and private-sector clean energy demand, and those drivers aren't going away," said Konschnik, director of the climate and energy program at Duke University's Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions. "If anything, they have intensified. I think we're just on this trajectory that EPA saw and tried to harness with the Clean Power Plan."