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Phoenix666 [soylentnews.org] writes:

US carbon emissions were down slightly in 2015 [arstechnica.com], continuing a period in which economic growth has been accompanied by relatively flat emissions. Compared to 2005, however, the current numbers represent a 12 percent drop. The Energy Information Agency (EIA) indicates this has largely been caused by the transition from coal to natural gas.
...
The EIA ascribes the majority of this decade-long drop—70 percent—to changes in fuel use in the electrical industry. Cheap natural gas, available due to fracking, has displaced significant amounts of coal from the energy landscape, resulting in a drop in coal production of more than 20 percent in the US (and the bankruptcy of a number of coal companies). Other contributing factors include more efficient energy use and a relatively mild winter, which lowered the energy devoted to heating.

Solar and wind are growing rapidly, but still represent a small portion of the overall energy mix. Presumably aggregate carbon emissions will nosedive as that trend really takes hold. Studies [greentechmedia.com] have emerged [cleantechnica.com] in the last couple of years suggesting that grid parity for residential solar has already been reached in 20 states and that number will climb to 40 by 2020.

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