More Energy; Less Carbon Dioxide 

   Last week we received a call from a man considering a well-paying job in North Dakota. He would drive a truck to remove fluids (called water) from oil drilling sites. 

   He is weighing the "shame" of working for a business that produces carbon dioxide emissions. But his role would offset the negative a bit, hauling contaminated water to safe places away from rivers etc., 12 hours a day, six days a week.   

   Meanwhile:
   The United States produced 12.9 million barrels of oil in January - largely due to fracking - compared to 3.8 million per day a similar month in 2005.
   
   Companies withdrew 114.8 million cubic feet of natural gas last October, a record high. The U.S. exported 89,000 barrels of petro last September - compared with 10 million barrels per day 10 years ago. 

   The U.S. now has an 18 percent share of global oil production, ahead of Saudi Arabia, Russia, Canada and China. 

   With all that, carbon emissions declined by 2.1 percent in 2019, mainly resulting from less use of  coal for electricity generation. (Sorry, coal miners.)

   Emissions are forecast to drop another 2 percent his year and 1.5 percent in 2021. Beginning in 2015, emissions have dropped every year except 2018, an especially cold winter. 

   Oil giant BP announced a target date of 2050 to reduce emissions from oil and gas pumped from the ground. Okay, that's 30 years from now, and BP doesn't say how it plans to accomplish that. 
   
   Note: The "man" in our first sentence is a close relative. So, relatively speaking, pray for him. 

        Jimmy