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The size of this year's update to the Sustainable Energy in America Factbook is a testament to just how strong the renewable energy market is these days. Published by Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) with underwriting from the Business Council for Sustainable Energy, the Factbook is 144 well-packed pages of data that attests the vibrancy of an energy sector that only two years ago could be summarized in something just bigger than a brochure.
This year's version, however, shouts out those changes -- underscoring, as BNEF says, that "the U.S. energy sector is decarbonizing." It's a concept as well as a term that was almost nonexistent at the turn of the 21st century -- and now seems to sum up the state of power generation in this country.
Accomplishments that made the list this year include:
The Factbook offers a pretty broad overview of factors related to green business practices -- many more than can be listed here: from a breakdown of the current leaders in power generation to the cost of ownership of today's more popular vehicles. The message one gets from this year's Factbook is that green living isn't about choosing which fuel offers the least carbon emissions or how much we don't drive, but rather how we factor those reductions into the innovative and holistic strategies we use to meet our sustainability goals.
* The report does not distinguish in this statement whether it is referring to non-renewable natural gas or renewable natural gas in the executive summary (pg 8), but since the distinction was not made in its footnote, we will assume it is referring to infrastructure related to non-renewable gas sources.
Image courtesy of Bloomberg Finance L.P. and the Business Council for Sustainable Energy
Jan Lee is a former news editor and award-winning editorial writer whose non-fiction and fiction have been published in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, the U.K. and Australia. Her articles and posts can be found on TriplePundit, JustMeans, and her blog, The Multicultural Jew, as well as other publications. She currently splits her residence between the city of Vancouver, British Columbia and the rural farmlands of Idaho.