Can climate change affect the US' power supply capacity?

US' power supply has capacity to adapt to climate change

Climate change scientists warn that the continued burning of fossil fuels is likely to cause major disruptions to the global climate system leading to more extreme weather, sea level rise, and biodiversity loss. The changes also will compromise our capacity to generate electricity. In recent decades, capacity losses at United States power plants occurred infrequently, but scientists warn that the warming climate may increase their regularity and magnitude. This instability could interrupt power supply to homes, hospitals, transportation systems, and other critical institutions and infrastructure at a potentially high financial cost.

A new paper written by City University of New York (CUNY) scientists -- "Climate and Water Resource Change Impacts and Adaptation Potential for U.S. Power Supply," published in Nature Climate Change -- has found that climate change ultimately will have a negative effect on the reliability of electricity generation in the United States, but today's infrastructure may be more adaptable to future climate conditions than previously thought. Read more...

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