Mexico Joins Many Nations In Ramping Up Coal Plants; Not So In The United States

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. Mexico is the most recent member of the 'build more coal fired plants' club. This country, once a climate leader, now is betting on coal.

On September 21, 2016 Mexico joined the fold of the Paris Agreement, joining 60 countries who ratified the treaty. Mexico, the eleventh biggest population on Earth, was all enthused about renewables, but now they are actively winding back wind and solar and reactivating coal projects. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has vowed to put at least 80% of the budget into fossil fuels. Not only is Lopez Obrador betting big on fossil fuels, he is also curtailing clean energy. The current investment plan forgoes clean energy projects entirely. ² The timing of this is too perfect with the new Biden zero emissions government. No doubt the Mexican president sees a huge commercial opportunity to supply baseload power to the US, much like the Russians are doing in Europe. Not only would it provide a big revenue windfall, but Mexico would effectively hold the US to ransom from a political perspective. Mexico isn't the only country putting heavy reliance on coal.

China

China built more than three times as much new coal power capacity as all the other countries in the world combined last year. That translates to more than one large coal plants every week. ³ China is not only building coal fired plants in its own country, but it is also building them around the world. As of 2019, China was building hundreds more in Africa, Asia and elsewhere. Most of China's plants (80 percent) have pollution control equipment that remove sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and particulates, but the coal plants China is building in Africa and most likely elsewhere do not. And none of the plants China is building remove carbon dioxide despite China pledging it will be carbon neutral by 2060. Coal plants can operate for 40 to 60 years or even longer.

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While China is building coal plants around the world, the United States is shuttering its coal fired power plants despite having, by far, the world's largest supply of coal. Between January 2017 and May 2019, the United States shuttered 50 coal fired plants, with 51 more shutdowns announced, bringing the total shutdowns to 289 since 2010. ⁵ Under the Biden Administration, as the United States rejoins the Paris Agreement, the US will continue to shutter coal plants to attain carbon neutrality in the generating sector by 2035, while much of the rest of the world will be allowed to continue to emit greenhouse gas emissions from coal generating plants and other carbon sources. ⁵

India

Despite a recent survey which suggested India is more concerned about climate change than most countries, India's coal imports will grow the fastest rate in five years. India's Prime Minister's determination to extend the electric grid to poor people, coupled with a drop in domestic production appears to be driving a surge in demand for coal imports. ⁶ India's leader are ramping up the country's coal production by opening a new mine every month, despite signing the Paris Agreement. In February 2021, the Indian government announced its annual budget once again makes it clear that the government is pro-fossil fuels. ⁷

Germany

Germany is building 23 new coal fired power plants too overcome the very serious deficiencies of green energy despite bragging about their being a leader in the green energy transformation.⁸

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Problems With Renewables

The use of fossil fuels has been the major pathway for economic success in the West. The only alternative system of energy sources available are the renewable dominated energy grids in places like the United States, Germany, and Mexico which have now proved to be disastrous in terms of grid stability and affordability. Here are examples: * California Governor Gavin Newsom said that the state's transition away from fossil fuels is a contributing factor to the state's rolling blackouts. The elimination of fossil fuel products as a major form of energy has led to what Newsom called 'gaps' in the energy grid's reliability. ⁹ * Texas has the fifth largest wind power fleet in the world—bigger than everyone except China, the USA, Germany and India. But having that industrial fleet of free clean energy didn't save Texas during the recent bitter cold spell. ¹⁰ * In 2017 German families and businesses were pummeled by 172,000 localized blackouts. In 2019, some 350,000 German families had their electricity cut off because they couldn't pay their power bills. ¹¹ * Renewables were blamed for a blackout in December that hit 10 million people in Mexico. ²

More Cold Coming?

During the Maunder minimum (1645-1710), the sun's irradiance, for which sunspots act as a proxy, was at a relative minimum, and winters in the Northern Hemisphere were unusually cold. Some scientists are predicting that we are now heading into a Modern minimum. This suggests that the Biden administration's extremely expensive anti-global warming programs are even more nonsensical than previously seen to be.¹² If we are indeed entering a Modern minimum like its Maunder predecessor, there will be more such unexpected freezing spells. Grids will need to be made more resilient with coal and nuclear power plants to handle the surges in energy demand lest people and livestock perish, as just happened in Texas and elsewhere.

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References

1. Amanda Maxwell. “Mexico ratifies the Paris Agreement,” nrdc.org, September 21, 2016
2. Joanne Nova “Un-greening: Mexico gives up on renewables, revives coal industry,” joannenova.com.au, February 16, 2021
3. Dimitris Mavrokefalidis, “China built over three times as much coal plant capacity as the rest of the world in 2020,”, energylivenews.org, February 4, 2021
4. “China's actions defy commitment to carbon neutrality,” Institute for Energy Research, Canada Free Press, January 19, 2021
5. Emma Newburger, “President Joe Biden rejoins the Paris climate accord in the first move to tackle global warming,” cnbc.com, January 20, 2021
6. Eric Worrall, “Climate concerned India's coal imports surging,” wattsupwiththat.com, September 18, 2019
7. Vijay Jayaraj, “Fossil fuels help India overcome air pollution illnesses, deaths,” cornwallalliance.org, February 18, 2021
8. Michael S. Coffman, “Power down,”, Range Magazine, Spring 2017
9. Chris White, “Gaps in renewable energy led to blackouts for millions of Californians, Gov. Newsom says,” dailycaller.com, August 17, 2020
10. Joanne Nova, “Texas was prepared for global warming but not the return of cold,” joannenova.com.au, February 19, 2021
11. Paul Driessen, “How exactly do they plan to replace fossil fuels?”, wattsupwiththat.com, March 16, 2020
12. Richard Schulman, “Inactive sun leads to prediction of colder winters,” foundersbroadsheet.com, March 3, 2021