When President Obama announced 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)
According to Murray Energy Corporation CEO Robert Murray, the coal industry 'is now bankrupt'. Murray recently estimated that it would take all coal companies about $45 billion to fund outstanding debts and employee and reclamation liabilities. “Only three of America's leading coal companies are currently demonstrating positive cash flows, and they have large debt levels. Our coal markets, both domestically and internationally, are declining daily.” (3)
In mid-January North America's second largest coal company, Arch Coal, became the first coal company in 2016 to file for bankruptcy. Arch is the latest in a long line of US coal companies that have filed for bankruptcy during the decade. Indeed, nearly 50 companies have undergone the process since 2012, underlining just how dire the situation has become for the US and global coal industry. (3)
On April 13, Peabody Energy Corporation, the world's largest privately owned coal company, filed for bankruptcy in the US. It was the most recent chapter in a story of structural decline that began as early as 2011. (4)
This constant stream of bad news over the last five years or so has led to a slew of mines and coal companies shutting down. In fact, the largest public coal producers in the US have lost approximately 99 percent of their total values on average during the last half-decade. Last summer saw the 200th coal power plant in the US shutting down over a five-year period, while a recent study found that the coal industry shed 50,000 jobs roughly over the same period. (3)
As the EPA threatens to shut down even more vast amounts of coal power plants, the federal government continues to shower renewable energy producers with billions of dollars in subsidies and tax incentives.
The EPA's carbon agenda will magnify the market, distorting subsidies and contribute to an estimated peak loss of one million jobs. This will drain hundreds of billions of dollars from American families through increased energy bills, and will threaten the electric grid by rapidly switching from reliable to intermittent sources of electricity. Further, electricity from new wind energy sources is nearly three times more expensive than electricity from existing coal fired plants. (5)
What about the rest of the world?
If you only focused on the United States, you might think coal's days were numbered. But that's not true globally. Far from it. Coal consumption has actually been accelerating worldwide since the end of the 1990s.
More than 2,400 new coal fired power stations are under construction or being planned around the world. The new plants will emit 6.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide a year and undermine efforts at the Paris climate conference to limit global warming to 2 C. China has been adding a new coal fired plant nearly every week. It is building 368 coal fired plants and planning a further 803. India is building 297 and planning 149. The nuclear disaster at Fukushima has prompted Japan to turn back to coal, with 40 plants in the pipeline and five under construction. (6)
China is deeply dependent on coal power and won't be going free anytime soon. In 2014, 62.2 percent of Chinese electricity came from coal power and only 8.9 percent came form solar and wind. The Chinese government isn't building any new wind turbines because most of the new electricity created was wasted, causing serious damage to the country's electrical grid. (7)
This leads to the subject of 'fuel poverty.'
In August 2015, the Obama administration released the final version of its so-called 'Clean Power Plan' regulating carbon dioxide from existing power plants. While the president claims this regulation is 'a historic step' in the Obama's administration's fight against climate change, the rule has no effect on climate change according to EPA's own models. The climate benefits are so small that EPA didn't even bother to quantify them, since they would reduce global temperatures by just 0.018 C by the year 2100. But while it fails to address climate change, the rule will raise energy prices and make life harder for millions of American families. (8)
It's a tremendously expensive gesture that will cost America hundreds of thousands of jobs, raise utility prices by as much as $1,000 per family and reduce GDP by as much as half a percentage point a year when we are already barely growing. The poor will be hurt the most. (9)
Ironically, the president justifies his war on coal by arguing, “We must lead so that others will follow.” But outside of dreamland, the rest of the world has no intention of following Obama's act of economic masochism.
Germany is one of the best examples of green energy poverty as the country has some of the most aggressive greenhouse gas reduction programs that offer generous subsidies for any company producing green energy. The programs overall result: raised costs and raised emissions. The German experiment has raised energy costs to households and businesses, the subsidies are unsustainable, and as a result, without intervention the energy supply is unstable. The high prices disproportionatley hurt the poor, giving birth to the new phrase: energy poverty. (10)
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Germany is not alone. The UK is facing fuel poverty with 2.3 million of Britain's 27 million households deemed fuel poor, meaning the cost of heating their homes leaves them with incomes below the poverty line.
All this underscores the foolishness and futility of the Obama climate-change regulations designed to drastically reduce coal production in the US. As we use less and the rest of the world uses more, the impact on global temperatures will be very close to zero.
Way back in 2009, Peter Huber predicted what's happening: “We can't even make any durable dent in global emissions because emissions from the developing world are growing too fast, because the other 80 percent of humanity desperately needs cheap energy, and because we are now part of the same global economy. What we can do, if we're foolish enough, is let carbon worries send our jobs and industries to their shores, making them grow even faster, and their carbon emissions faster still.” (11)
References
Mike Myer, “Coal: not a concern? It should be,” The Intelligencer, July 6, 2013
Alan Caruba, “Using the global warming hoax to destroy America,” Canada Free Press, April 8, 2015
Cary Springfield, “The decline in the US coal industry,” internationalbanker.com, March 2016
Cassie Werber, “Coal's decline has been slow burn that suddenly seems to be picking up,” qz.com, April 15, 2016
Institute for Energy Research, “Job losses from coal closures dwarf gains from wind energy,” Canada Free Press, July 30, 2015
“The truth about China: 2,500 new coal plants will thwart any Paris pledges,” atlasmonitor.wordpress.com, December 3, 2015
Andrew Follett, “Here's why China isn't going green anytime soon,” cfact.org, April 9, 2016
Institute for Energy Research, “Obama's final carbon rule combines fake carrots and a big stick,” Canada Free Press, August 4, 2015
Stephen Moore, “World falls in love with coal that Obama is waging war on,” news.investors.com, August 6, 2015
Marita Noon, “Earth's day anti-fossil fuel focus could plunge millions into green energy poverty,” Canada Free Press, April 18, 2016
Peter W. Huber, “We cannot make a dent in global emissions,” opposingviews.com, August 27, 2009
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.
