WhatFinger


The United States has already radically cut carbon dioxide emissions—more than any country on earth since 2006

America's Self-Destructive Energy Policy



America's Self-Destructive Energy Policy
Which of the following headlines stand out as contrary to what the rest of the world is doing? If it isn't at first clear to you, they are marked in capital letters.
  • - India to double coal production by 2020
  • - Over 60% of Africans without power- will build coal power plants
  • - China: the coal monster
  • - Japan's new coal plants threaten emission cuts
  • - Germany fossil fuel capacity reaches new record high
  • - Global coal boom biggest since 1970
  • - OBAMA'S FOSSIL FUEL FOLLY
  • - USING THE GLOBAL WARMING HOAX TO DESTROY AMERICA
Coal by 2030 will the most widely used fuel worldwide as developing countries electrify burgeoning cities and rural areas where billions of people have had little or no access to power.

Support Canada Free Press


When President Obama announced on March 31 that he intends to ensure that the US will slash its greenhouse gas emissions 26% below 2005 emissions levels by 2025 he showed once more his zeal to shut down every coal-fired plant in the US. (1) As an aside, he failed to mention that such levels would be comparable to what they were in our Civil War, 150 years ago notes Alan Caruba. (2) At the heart of Obama's program are EPA regulations that will make it impossible to open any new coal plant and will systematically shut down existing plants. “Politically the White House is hesitant to say they're not having a war on coal,” explained one of Obama's climate advisers. “On the other hand, a war on coal is exactly what's needed.” (3) Under current regulations- not the vastly harsher ones the president envisions- 204 coal-fired electricity generating units in 25 states will be shut down. (1) Earlier this month, employees at coal plants in West Virginia, Ohio, and Indiana received notices that the plants will be closed by the end of May and more pink slips are expected to be issued in the coming months. A slew of preemptive power plant closures across Appalachia and the Midwest have already occurred since 2011. And all of this before the proposed new rules which will further demolish the coal industry. (4) Yet worldwide, almost 1,200 coal-fired plants are in the planning stages, and over three-quarters are to be built in China and India. To put this in perspective, China and India are planning to build over 60% more coal-fired capacity than the coal-fired capacity that currently exists in the United States. Once Obama's plan goes into effect and another 204 coal-fired plants are shut down in the US, this figure of 60% will more likely be over 100%; double the current coal-fired capacity that presently exists in the US. (5) The United States has already radically cut carbon dioxide emissions—more than any country on earth since 2006. Emissions today are back down to 1992 levels, and yet at the same time global emissions have gone up. That's because we don't control the energy use of the other 96 percent of humankind while they continue increase usage of coal. (3) Let's look at the rest of the world:
  • - India Prime Minister Narenda Modi's government aims to double Indian coal produciton to 1.5 billion tons by 2020. (6)
  • - Japan coal accounted for about one-quarter of Japan's electricity before the nuclear accident. Since then, Japan has increased the share of coal to about 30 percent. (7) Japan now has 43 coal power projects either under construction or planned. (8)
  • - Africa is expected to increase its coal use between 2010 and 2040 by almost 70 percent. (9)
  • - Germany's fossil fuel capacity has risen and reached their highest level ever in 2014. (10)
  • - China in 2012 consumed 50.4% of all coal produced on earth. In just 5 years, from 2005 through 2009, China added the equivalent of the entire US fleet of coal-fired power plants. From 2010 through 2013, it added half the coal generation of the entire US again. At the peak, from 2005 through 2011, China added roughly two 600-megawatt coal plants a week for 7 straight years. And according to the US government projection, China will add yet another US worth of coal plants over the next 10 years, or the equivalent of a new 600-megawatt plant every 10 days for 10 years. (11)
On our home front, while the rest of the world is going bonkers on coal, we have new EPA requirements coming up. The EPA is demanding that states must pass rules to force coal and eventually gas-fired electric power plants to shut down, mandate quotas for wind and solar, and impose energy 'conservation' (which means rationing). The Obama administration is trying to embed these rules in the states, so that a future president could not reverse them. Further, Obama is pursuing international agreements that would make them even more difficult to reverse. The Obama 2016 federal budget allots $52 million for lawyers to implement this plant. The EPA is finishing a rule—expected in June or July- that requires the states to meet carbon reduction targets by reorganizing their 'production, distribution and use of electricity,' as the EPA puts it. This is an unprecedented federal usurpation of what has been a state responsibility since the invention of the modern steam turbine in the 1880s. In an editorial, The Wall Street Journal calls for the states to refuse to implement this EPA program. (12) Virtually everyone who understands the electric grid, from state utility commissions to the regional transmission operators, warns that the EPA's ambitions threaten reliability. Also, be prepared for higher electricity costs. Once again, EPA shoots itself in the foot and provides another example showing why Dr. Jay Lehr is on a campaign to get rid of the EPA. (13) Jack Dini Livermore, CA References
  1. Mike Myer, “Coal: not a concern? It should be,” The Intelligencer, July 6, 2013
  2. Alan Caruba, “Using the globalwarming hoax to destroy America,” Canada Free Press, April 8, 2015
  3. Charles Krauthammer, “Obama's global-warming folly,” Washington Post, July 4, 2013
  4. “EPA rules bring pink slips to a town near you,” Canada Free Press, April 28, 2015
  5. Daniel Kish, “Countries worldwide propose to build new coal plants,” coalpower.com, January 28, 2013
  6. Rosemary Marandi and Kiran Sharma, “Modi looks to double coal production by 2020,” Nikkei Asian Review, April 3, 2015
  7. Keith Johnson, “Japan bets on nuclear and coalfor future,” foreignpolicy.com, April 8, 2015
  8. “Japan's new coal plants threaten emission cuts, group says,” aboutbnef.com, April 9, 2015
  9. Institute for energy Research, “Over 60% of Africans without power- will build coal power plants,” Canada Free Press, August 12, 2014
  10. P Gosselin, “Debacle: as Germany adds 70 gigawatts of green electricity, its fossil fuel capacity reaches new record high,” notrickszone.com, March 28, 2015
  11. “China, the coal monster,” the gwpf.org, June 11, 2014
  12. “The state electricity revolt,” The Wall Street Journal, April 9, 2015
  13. Jay Lehr, “Replacing the Environmental Protection Agency,” The Heartland Institute, July 15, 2014


View Comments

Jack Dini -- Bio and Archives

Jack Dini is author of Challenging Environmental Mythology.  He has also written for American Council on Science and Health, Environment & Climate News, and Hawaii Reporter.


Sponsored