Obama’s Fossil Fuel Folly

Coal by 2030 will be 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. (1)

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Not so in the Untied States. Last month, Obama announced a new campaign against coal, as if his previous effort had not been devastating enough. If the president had his way, every single coal-fired plant in the country would be shut down. (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. (2)

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Yet, while President Obama has vowed to keep ratcheting up the regulation of coal-fired plants in the US, the rest of the world is undergoing a coal-fired plant renaissance. Nations from Europe to the Far East are hungry for coal, and their demands are only going to get stronger in the years ahead as more of them turn to coal as a primary source of power. (1) Worldwide, almost 1,200 coal-fired plants are in the planning stages, and over three-quarter 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. (4) Once Obama's plant 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. Yet, although Obama has often dismissed fossil fuels as 'energy sources of the past,' according to projections from his Department of Energy, the reality is much different. Fossil fuels will continue to be America's dominant source of energy for at least the next quarter century, while renewables, even with taxpayer life support, will continue to play a relatively minor role as an energy source for the US, reports Mark Perry. (5) Here's what the Depart of Energy recently reported: “While the overall energy history of the United States is one of significant change as new forms of energy were developed, the three major fossil fuels-petroleum, natural gas and coal, which together provided 87% of total US primary energy over the past decade—have dominated the US fuel mix for well over 100 years. Recent increases in the domestic production of petroleum liquids and natural gas prompted shifts between the uses of fossil fuels (largely from coal-fired to natural gas-fired generation), but the predominance of these three energy sources is likely to continue into the future.” (5) What about renewables which Obama says we should 'invest' in as energy sources of the future? Even after investing billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies in renewable energy, those sources provided only 7.5% of America's energy last year, which was actually less than 9.3% of renewables in 1948, more than 60 years ago. That's not a lot of progress for the politically-popular taxpayer subsidized renewables. When it comes to solar and wind, those energy sources provided only 1.8% of America's energy last year. (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 increased the usage of coal. (3) No matter how much we sacrifice we are not going to make much of a difference. References

1. Patrice Hill, “As US scales back, 'King Coal' reigns as a global powerhouse,” The Washington Times, March 4, 2013
2. Mike Myer, “Coal; not a concern? It should be,” The Intelligencer, July 6, 2013
3. Charles Krauthammer, “Obama's global-warming folly,” Washington Post, July 4, 2013
4. Daniel Kish, “Countries worldwide propose to build new coal plants,” coalpower.com, January 28, 2013
5. Mark J. Perry, “Despite Obama's claims, Depart of Energy forecasts suggest that fossil fuels are the energy sources of the future,” aei-ideas.org, July 9, 2013

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