Workers build an electrical substation for a new Facebook data center under construction on May 29, 2019 in Eagle Mountain, Utah.
George Frey/Getty Images/Getty Images North America
George Frey/Getty Images/Getty Images North America
The United States is poised to burn a lot more natural gas in the coming years to meet soaring electricity demand, potentially locking in decades of emissions that are raising global temperatures. U.S. greenhouse gas emissions barely budged in 2024, despite huge investments the country has made in clean energy under the Inflation Reduction Act, a landmark climate law President Joe Biden signed. Market analysts say America’s goal to cut heat-trapping pollution in half from 2005 levels by the end of the decade is now all but out of reach. For power companies charged with keeping the lights on, natural gas looks like a reliable way to boost energy supplies for new data centers and factories, as well as consumer goods like electric vehicles and heat pumps. Sponsor Message
Utilities have to “meet demand no matter what,” says Ben King, an associate director at the Rhodium Group, an energy research firm. “And the way that they feel most comfortable and confident doing that is by [using] the same stuff that they’ve always put on the grid.” Failing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will have its own consequences. The UN says the world needs to eliminate or offset all greenhouse gas emissions by midcentury to avoid more catastrophic impacts from climate change. Natural gas creates fewer emissions than coal when it’s burned, but producing and transporting gas can release huge amounts of methane, a potent climate pollutant. “The projections for business as usual are pretty dire in terms of changes in [the] climate,” says Daniel Jacob, a professor of atmospheric chemistry and environmental engineering at Harvard University. “I don’t view this as apocalyptic,” Jacob says. “But it makes a mess of our society.” Companies say they want clean energy, but they take what they can get Over the next five years, U.S. electricity demand isexpected to grow by almost 16%, according to Grid Strategies, a consulting firm. That’s massive for an industry that saw power consumption increase less than 1% annually over the past 20 years. There are already signs that a construction boom is coming in the natural gas industry. GE Vernova, a manufacturer of gas turbines, expected to finish last year with 20 gigawatts of orders globally, almost double what it booked in 2023, Scott Strazik, the company’s chief executive, said at a meeting with Wall Street analysts in December. “I can’t think of a time that the gas business has had more fun than they’re having right now,” Strazik said. The industry is also celebrating the election of Donald Trump, who promised to boost the country’s fossil