Indeed, natural gas has just passed an important milestone. As noted by John Hanger, energy expert and former secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection: "As of April, gas tied coal at 32% of the electric power generation market, nearly ending coal's 100-year reign on top of electricity markets."
There are other factors, of course. For one, a slow economy tends to use less energy, especially oil. And despite President Obama's two — or is it three — "summers of recovery," this economy is going nowhere fast.
The economic slowdown appears to be causing a gradual decline in petroleum-related carbon dioxide emissions, which also peaked in 2007 and then began to fall, albeit at a slower pace than the total emissions decline.
Even so, all facets of the energy industry have been working to reduce carbon emissions, and those efforts are beginning to pay off.
The refining industry, for example, reports that between 1990 and 2008 it spent $112 billion — and $20 billion in 2010 alone — to get emissions in compliance with regulations. As a result, the industry has reduced sulfur levels in gasoline by 90% since 2004 and a similar reduction in diesel since 2005.
That task is made more difficult when refiners have to rely on upgrading existing plants to meet new federal regulations rather than building new ones, leading several northeast refineries to shut down recently.
The reason for the lack of new refineries is the EPA refused to grant any new building permits.
The good news, according to the Associated Press, is that the EPA has just granted "final permit approval" to three Native American tribes in North Dakota to build a new refinery — the first permit in the lower 48 states in 41 years. It's a start, but only a start.
So energy-related carbon dioxide emissions are way down, and it's mostly because of private sector innovations in energy production. It's a huge success story; just don't expect the EPA, or the media, to be telling it.
Matthews is a resident scholar with the Institute for Policy Innovation in Dallas.