WhatFinger

Black Gold On Track To Be World’s No 1 Fuel Again

The Return Of King Coal


By Guest Column Dr. Benny Peiser——--October 15, 2013

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Coal will become more in demand than oil by 2020 driven by growth in China and India, despite campaigns to reduce carbon emissions across the globe, a new report reveals. Marking a return to an era reminiscent of Britain’s industrial revolution, the rapidly expanding economies in the East are turning to coal since it is cheaper and more reliable than oil or renewable energy sources, energy consultancy firm Wood Mackenzie said on Monday. --Helen Collis, Daily Mail, 14 October 2013
Global coal consumption is expected to rise by 25 per cent by the end of the decade to 4,500 million tonnes of oil equivalent, overtaking oil at 4,400 million tonnes, according to Woodmac in a presentation on Monday at the World Energy Congress. ‘China’s demand for coal will almost single-handedly propel the growth of coal as the dominant global fuel,’ said William Durbin, president of global markets at Woodmac. ‘Unlike alternatives, it is plentiful and affordable.’ --Helen Collis, Daily Mail, 14 October 2013 Despite all the brohaha about carbon emissions and global warming, Europe is marching straight back into the past by increasing its reliance on coal for electricity – and this in spite of a continent-wide recession and slumping demand. Germany is the worst example. It is actually building new coal plants even as it shuts down reactors and claims to be converting to wind and solar. Those “renewable” sources just aren’t there when you need them. –-Editorial, RealClearEnergy, 11 October 2013

What has happened in the real Czech Republic and Poland goes against the grain. It is a rare case of small countries confronting a big bully — the biggest of them all, the European Union (EU). The Czech Republic didn’t just denounce renewables. Like Poland, it declared that it would double its reliance upon the most vulgar, explicit word in energy — coal. In 2011, the former president of Czech Republic addressed an audience in Sydney, Australia, where he drew parallels between communism and the global warming doctrine. Those who declare Poland and the Czech Republic’s respective decisions to revert to coal as sacrilege should remember two important points: first, no economy wins any prizes for poverty; second, these countries happen to know a totalitarian movement when they see one. --Simon Lincoln, Business Day Live, 15 October 2013 Renewable energy is blamed for jeopardising Europe’s energy security this winter, a new study has found. Cap Gemini warned that energy security in Europe was under threat and that the region could soon be exposed to massive power outages during the winter, due to a lack of production capacity. They blame wind turbines. The report authors said that the development of renewable energies pushed by the EU’s climate and energy goals was “now putting the competitiveness of gas plants under pressure.” --EurActiv, 14 October 2013 The closure of nearly two thirds of Europe’s gas-fired power generation facilities by 2016 will lead to regional price hikes and make outages inevitable, Cap Gemini has warned. So why is Europe turning off its gas, just when it needs it more than ever? A gas plant needs to be operating at 57 per cent capacity to be economically viable, but EU regulations introduced to reduce CO2 emissions relegate them to standby duties, in favour of much more inefficient and costly renewable energy plants. This means keeping a gas plant open is uneconomical for the operator. --Andrew Orlowski, The Register, 15 October 2013 Shale gas now accounts for a third of gas production in the USA, with wholesale prices falling by two thirds. Only Europe, where its elites are enraptured by the perils of global warming, bucks this trend. The EU introduced aggressive renewables targets to demonstrate that it is "leading" the world in reducing CO2 emissions. But, given what Europe will soon look like, it's hard to imagine any sane political leader elsewhere on Earth wanting to "follow". --Andrew Orlowski, The Register, 15 October 2013 It is still not clear among economic historians why the Industrial Revolution actually took place in 18th century Britain. This column explains that it is the British Empire’s success in international trade that created Britain’s high wage, cheap energy economy, and it was the spring board for the Industrial Revolution. --Robert C. Allen, 15 May 2009

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