There is a lot of bad news these days. Here is some good news.
Oil drilling is down
No one bid at the auction for companies to buy rights to drill for oil and gas in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) on Jan. 6.
In the auction, no one bid. There was a chance to drill for oil and gas in a wildlife refuge, and oil companies and fossil fuel financiers said, “No, thank you.”
In February 2025, the number of oil drilling rigs in the United States was down 4% compared to February 2024. The number of natural gas rigs was down 14%.
Oil refineries in Houston and Los Angeles will shut down in 2025.
Renewable electricity is up
In 2024, the U.S. added 49 gigawatts of electricity-generating capacity. Thirty of those added 49 gigawatts are solar, 10 are utility-scale batteries and five are wind. Three gigawatts of added capacity are natural gas.
No nuclear or gasoline-generating capacity was added. Generating capacity from coal dropped by 4 gigawatts.
In 2024,Britain burned its last pound of coal. The U.S. coal burning has dropped 64% from 1,120 million tons burned in 2008 to 400 million tons in 2024. At this rate, the U.S. will burn the last pound of coal in 2033.
In 2024, renewable electricity generation overtook coal-fired generation in China. China now has 1.4 terawatts of generating capacity from wind and solar. China has 1.2 terawatts of electricity generation capacity from coal. In China, solar is growing three times faster than coal.
Meanwhile, China added 300 gigawatts of renewable electricity generating capacity and 98 gigawatts of coal in 2024.
In the U.S., renewable electricity generation first exceeded coal-fired plants and nuclear generation in 2022. In 2024, renewables generated 945 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity, nuclear power generated 781 TWh, and coal generated 647 billion TWh.
In the European Union, solar and wind generated 28% of electricity in 2024. Hydroelectric power generated 13%, nuclear power generated 24% and natural gas generated 16%. Coal generated 10% of the electricity. Altogether, 76% of EU electricity was generated without releasing global warming gases.
In 2023, seven countries generated all of their electricity with renewable resources: Albania, Bhutan, Ethiopia, Iceland, Nepal, Paraguay and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
In the first half of 2024, Pakistani households added 13 gigawatts of electricity-generating capacity without government or utility support—just people heading over to a marketplace and buying solar panels.
Those private installations increased the electricity-generating capacity of Pakistan by 30% before July, and probably lifted it more than 50% before 2025.
Electric vehicles are up
51% of January new car sales in Sweden were plug-in electric vehicles (EVs). In Denmark and Norway, 66% and 97% were EV’s, respectively.
EV sales are accelerating worldwide, growing by 3.2 million in 2023 and by 3.5 million in 2024.
Heat pumps are up
In 2022, French families bought one and a half times as many heat pumps as natural gas or oil heating systems. That year, heat pump sales in Poland doubled compared to 2021.
In 2024, American families bought 4.1 million heat pumps, compared to 3.1 million natural gas furnaces.
No one is going to stop global warming by working alone, and we are still a country that follows Benjamin Franklin’s advice: “We must all hang together.”
Nick Maxwell is a certified climate action planner at Climate Protection NW, teaches about climate protection at the Creative Retirement Institute and serves on the Edmonds Planning Board.
Biden suspended the leases purchased in 2021. This latest auction took place before Trump took office. These projects take time years and are expensive add in rules regulations and environmental protections and to have the rug pulled out from under you like Biden did in 2021 makes it a risky venture no wonder nobody bid. The state of Alaska itself is interested in moving forward but was hamstrung by the Biden administration kind of sucks for Alaska, companies will just have to look elsewhere until there is more certainty.
Mr. Fairchild ,
Please research articles on electrification, infra structure and investments in recent Wall Street Journal publications.
Companies in the USA are moving forward to decarbonize, because it’s good investment and enough citizens want it.
Looking back from 2040, we’ll note, it turned out ok.
Durive Croake
Jim: Oil companies are not drilling in Alaska or anywhere much right now because oil prices are down for 7 weeks in a row thanks to Trump creating so much economic fear. You would think that would be good news for consumers except that a lot of our oil for our refineries comes from the heavy crude out of Canada. We will have tariffs to pay thanks to Trump. Gas prices will not drop for whole regions of the US. The light crude that comes from US fracking can only be used, I believe, by Gulf Coast refineries. So I guess you had better move to Texas. Of course if the Trump recession hits, Texas won’t be immune and who will be able to afford anything? Oil companies will have a bust cycle and drilling will cease completely. Trump is quickly ruining the strong Biden economy with his simple-minded belief in tariffs. Wall Street has not been kind. The oil companies can’t drill in a climate of fear (which suits me).
Arlene carbon emissions from fossil fuels is up again in 2024 a little less than 2023 and so on. The need is not going away anytime soon should Alaska be stricken from being able to benefit from those resources? Yes right now business doesn’t see benefit from making that commitment especially because of our countries stance, why pay Canadian tariffs if we can supply our own? The need for fossil fuels is at a high supply may be abundant now and cheaper places because of our stance are being exploited. Why would we not want Alaska to benefit from its own resources? Certainly even me knows global supply is limited and other sources of energy are going to be needed but why punish Alaska or any other state in the meantime? Our for that matter people of our own state with carbon taxation? Technology may or may not solve our problems but why punish the people in the meantime? I often wonder what would have been the effect of not requiring greater better emissions and greater fuel economy on our future, my guess would be a ice age instead of the current impending doom.
China and India use all forms of Energy while US is stuck with climate taxes and high energy costs. The current administration is committed to helping people have affordable energy. Say no to the Carbon scams.
Thanks Nick!
Glad to hear progress has not slowed down throughout the world. Sometimes it feels like an uphill battle with all the resistance. Imagine what we could accomplish if everyone was heading in the same direction.
Thanks for pulling this information together in one place so we can see the worldwide trends.
Hi Nick, Thanks for all the stats. I’m rooting for deep geothermal to tap the heat in the earth a dozen miles down, which can be accessed from almost anywhere (like right where old coal and gas plant turbines already exist). It isn’t dependent on volcanic steam fields close to the surface. MIT is working on fusion drilling to be able to drill that deep into the heat. This seems like a natural sidestep for oil companies to take, if they had any sense, since they have such expertise in drilling and their industry is a dead end. I suppose Trump will try to quash any of the
research funding though because he will call it “woke” and China will charge ahead and dominate the field again. Here is a link to an article about it: https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/a64075571/deepest-hole-geothermal-energy/
Thanks! That’s good to see. I used to say that geothermal would be very important for covering demand during a night without wind. The direction we’re headed now is enormous batteries that can power a city like Edmonds for 12 hours. I would think that, here in the Pacific Northwest, hydroelectricity will cover those gaps. Even so, several utility-scale batteries have been installed in places like Sedro Woolley.
Nick I kind of wonder why in a place like sedro wooliiey why they would build a environmental disaster like a battery plant instead of using excess electricity to pump water back up hill to be used in times of need? Reservoirs can be created at a much smaller environmental cost and most likely a smaller economic cost. I wonder why this option wasn’t given greater consideration? Do batteries need to be the answer?
I don’t get it either, Jim. Currently, hydroelectric generates most of the electricity that we use in Washington State. Once we add plenty of wind and solar, even though we add cars and home heating, we will have more than enough hydroelectric generating capacity to cover those no-wind nights. And hydro is great at filling in at a moment’s notice. The fastest startup time for generating plants is hydroelectric.
So why would they install batteries in Sedro Woolley or anywhere near hydroelectric dams? I don’t know. There’s got to be a reason, but I haven’t seen an explanation yet (and I’ve search some). Maybe someone else reading this does know what the thinking was?
And I feel the same way about places that can support geothermal. Why would you add utility-scale batteries there?
Nick.. I took a tour of the micro grid in Arlington and they said the batteries are being used to help avoid steep prices for those times to when the PUD has to buy expensive power on the open market. Batteries help even out the pricing. Right now it is difficult to increase hydro beyond the present capacity so the expansion potential comes from batteries. Hydro is susceptible to climate change induced drought and smaller snowpack storage from warming. There are lots of new battery types being explored that would be suitable for large stationary storage (as in not for cars or smaller home storage).
Got it. Thanks!
Even though it would be nice to have clean ways of generating electricity or other forms of methods for powering our stuff, it will be still a long way until this is reality. Right now it’s a pipe dream pushed by scam artists making loads of money out of it.
Europe is importing natural gas (and look from whom) in record amounts due to its policies towards shutting down conventional power sources because the renewable (arguable) isn’t cutting it. Germany had to recommission or build new coal power plants after shutting down its nuclear plants. Other countries shut down geothermal after experiencing increase in mini ground shakes and sink holes increase.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jan/09/european-imports-of-liquefied-natural-gas-from-russia-at-record-levels
Here in the US, several companies (e.g. Microsoft, Google, Amazon, etc.) have been investing heavily in modular nuclear reactors to power their datacenters. Where do you think those reactors, to be operated by profit-driven corporations will be located and how about their operation costs (savings) will be installed?
Energy isn’t created. It comes from somewhere and there’s no way to cheat physics. As the population spends more energy, it will have to come out of several sources.
Thank you, Nick, for the data. Good news is welcome, and ramps up the energy to do even more!
The transition to carbon free energy has had a profoundly negative effect on many European economies. The cost of energy for commercial and home use In Germany has approximately doubled. Many other European economies have also similarly suffered the for same reason. In addition, we have seen the same thing occurring here in America during the inflation resulting in significant degree by Biden’s war on energy.
Second: if you intend to have a carbon free nationwide transportation system, build an infrastructure first not later.
Third: if you want emission free energy, build nuclear power plants.
Fourth: Allow an open debate about the causes and optimal ways to manage climate change. So far, evidence challenging the “accepted wisdom” of climate change has been suppressed or ridiculed by most information outlets in America and across the globe. In addition, scientists with opposing evidenced have been cancelled. However, despite what the experts claim. the science of climate change is not “settled”.