By Mike Tony, Charleston Gazette-Mail
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The climate is changing more because West Virginia’s economy is changing less.
West Virginia’s per capita energy-related carbon dioxide emissions were third-highest in the country in 2018 and decreased less than 14% from 1990 to 2018, according to a Charleston Gazette-Mail analysis of U.S. Energy Information Administration data. That’s a greater decline than only 14 other states.
The carbon intensity of West Virginia’s economy — metric tons of energy-related carbon dioxide per dollars of gross domestic product — was second-highest in the country in 2018, behind only Wyoming and nearly as much as Kentucky, Ohio and Pennsylvania combined. The carbon intensity of West Virginia’s economy declined 32.9%, a larger decrease than only 13 other states.
Coal-fired electric power plants accounted for 91% of West Virginia’s electricity net generation in 2019. But coal accounted for just 23% of the nation’s net electricity generation overall that year, according to the Energy Information Administration…
