But China is making considerable efforts to boost the amount of energy produced by non-fossil fuels.
In 1996 the United States used the equivalent of 4.6m barrels a day of non-fossil fuel.
Globally, coal-fired electricity generation rose by an estimated 6% from 2010 to 2012 , faster than non-fossil energy.
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The aim: increase the non-fossil fuel supply component to 15% of the total primary energy demand by 2020.
To address either issue, finding a renewable (non-fossil) source of methane is encouraged.
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Non-fossil fuel consumption, on the other hand increased about 2 percent.
The future energy picture for the U.S. or the planet is not constrained by the availability of supplies, either fossil or non-fossil, but by efficiency gains in generation and consumption.
Most people know that the United States is the biggest user of fossil-fuel energy, but few realise that it is also the largest user of non-fossil-fuel energy and by a wide margin.
Specifically, to the extent that we continue to progress in making non-fossil-fuels technology cheaper and more effective for an ever wider array of applications, we can accelerate the ongoing de-carbonization of our economy.
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And what about those alternative non-fossil transportation possibilities?
China will "endeavor" to cut emissions of carbon dioxide -- the most prevalent of the greenhouse gases that cause climate change -- by "a notable margin" in coming years, Hu said, adding that China also will "vigorously develop renewable energy and nuclear energy" with the goal of increasing the share of non-fossil fuels in total energy consumption to 15 percent by 2020.
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For both of those reasons, there is ample justification to continue developing a non fossil-based energy future.
Almost all of the increase in fossil-energy production will occur in non-OECD countries.
Costs not captured include electrical grid upgrade, connectivity of renewables and buffering of their intermittency by rapid cycling of fossil fuel plants as presently practiced in this country, and non-carbon-tax externalities such as pollution and health care costs associated with energy sources, especially for coal.
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