{"id":292156,"date":"2023-12-21T14:02:13","date_gmt":"2023-12-21T13:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=292156"},"modified":"2023-12-21T14:02:15","modified_gmt":"2023-12-21T13:02:15","slug":"the-golden-age-of-coal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=292156","title":{"rendered":"THE GOLDEN AGE OF COAL"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From The powerlineblog.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

POSTED ON\u00a0DECEMBER 18, 2023<\/strong>\u00a0BY\u00a0JOHN HINDERAKER<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0IN\u00a0ENERGY POLICY<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You wouldn\u2019t know it from reading the newspapers, but that is what we are living in. The recently-concluded COP28 conference touted a coming end to the use of fossil fuels, with coal first in line for extinction. But that isn\u2019t happening. Robert Bryce<\/a> has the data:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

The [International Energy Agency] expects coal use to rise by 1.4% this year and set a new record of 8.5 billion tons.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

So more coal is being burned than ever before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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That increase shows, yet again, how difficult it will be to achieve significant cuts in CO2 emissions from hydrocarbon use. Mainly due to coal use, which accounts for about 40% of emissions from energy, global CO2 emissions will set another new record in 2023 of 36.8 billion tons.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

So good luck with \u201cnet zero\u201d by 2050, or any other date. Environmentalists in the U.S. and Western Europe have succeeded in prematurely shuttering a number of coal plants, but that is virtually irrelevant. It is China and India, along with countries like Indonesia, that are driving the coal explosion. And those countries don\u2019t even pretend to be participating in a \u201ctransition\u201d to wind and solar energy:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

China, India, and Indonesia didn\u2019t sign the agreement to triple renewables.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

But in any event, even a tripling in energy from renewables\u2013which isn\u2019t happening\u2013would scarcely make a dent in the world\u2019s demand for fossil fuels, as this chart by Bryce shows:<\/p>\n\n\n

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When it comes to coal, supposedly slated for extinction by the world\u2019s \u201cgreens,\u201d the U.S. and Western Europe are irrelevant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Some 204,000 megawatts of new coal-fired capacity is now under construction around the world. Of that 204,000 MW, about 67% is in China. To put that massive amount of new capacity in perspective, the U.S. currently operates about 205,000 MW of coal-fired power plants\u2026 In addition to the huge amount now being built, another 353,000 MW of coal-fired capacity has been announced, pre-permitted, or permitted. Of that 353,000 MW in the queue, about 72% is in China.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

This chart shows coal capacity in existence, and on the drawing board. The U.S. could close all of our coal-fired power plants; it wouldn\u2019t matter:<\/p>\n\n\n

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If people are serious about cutting down on CO2 emissions, the only rational solution is nuclear energy, because wind and solar don\u2019t work most of the time and are ridiculously expensive. At COP28, many nations, including the U.S., pledged to triple their nuclear capacity. That\u2019s great, but the reality is that coal is growing much faster than nuclear, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future:<\/p>\n\n\n

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Robert Bryce points out that Michael Bloomberg has donated more than $1 billion to a campaign called \u201cBeyond Carbon,\u201d which is trying to shut down 40% of all U.S. electricity production. There is no replacement for this capacity on the horizon:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Bloomberg and his allies at the Sierra Club, League of Conservation Voters, Rocky Mountain Institute, and Earthjustice, are launching their campaign to shutter all of our coal plants despite numerous warnings from grid operators, federal authorities, and trade groups that the U.S. grid is facing serious reliability challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For instance, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission chairman Willie Phillips told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee in May, \u201cWe face unprecedented challenges to the reliability of our nation\u2019s electric system.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The challenges are unprecedented because until now, no one has done anything as stupid as shutting down vast quantities of reliable electric power while having no plan replace that capacity, on any timetable or at any cost. But that is where we are now. Given that U.S. emissions are essentially immaterial to global CO2 emissions, in view of what China, India, Indonesia and other countries have in progress, one can only question the motives of those who want to cripple our economy and our children\u2019s futures with pointless \u201cgreen\u201d mandates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you follow the first link above, it will take you to Robert Bryce\u2019s Substack. You should sign up for his emails, too. You will learn more about energy policy here than from virtually any other source. Also, check out\u00a0the paper<\/a>\u00a0Robert wrote for American Experiment, on the insuperable land use issues that stand in the way of wind and solar energy development on anything like the scale that would be required to try to replace fossil fuels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You wouldn\u2019t know it from reading the newspapers, but that is what we are living in. The recently-concluded COP28 conference touted a coming end to the use of fossil fuels, with coal first in line for extinction. But that isn\u2019t happening.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":292164,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"You wouldn\u2019t know it from reading the newspapers, but that is what we are living in. The recently-concluded COP28 conference touted a coming end to the use of fossil fuels, with coal first in line for extinction. But that isn\u2019t happening.\u00a0","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691818341,691818076,691820296,691818260,691820260],"class_list":{"0":"post-292156","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-china","9":"tag-co2","10":"tag-coal-fired-power-plants","11":"tag-cop28","12":"tag-robert-bryce","14":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/0king_coal_07-jpg_cmyk.jpg?fit=1600%2C1200&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1e0c","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":349685,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=349685","url_meta":{"origin":292156,"position":0},"title":"The G7 virtue signals while China and India burn 70% of the world\u2019s coal","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"31\/10\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Back in April the Group of Seven (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States) agreed on a time frame for phasing out coal-fired power plants in the first half of the 2030s. There was just one problem: Only the U.S. and Germany are among the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"China and India\"","block_context":{"text":"China and India","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=china-and-india"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/0China-India-Flags-1024x683.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/0China-India-Flags-1024x683.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/0China-India-Flags-1024x683.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/0China-India-Flags-1024x683.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":319003,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=319003","url_meta":{"origin":292156,"position":1},"title":"Aussie Anti-Fossil Fuel Green Billionaire Andrew \u201cTwiggy\u201d Forest is Completing a Gas Import Terminal","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"19\/04\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"I wonder if prices will go up if Australia switches from drilling for our own gas to buying gas through Twiggy\u2019s import terminal?","rel":"","context":"In \"Andrew \u201cTwiggy\u201d Forest\"","block_context":{"text":"Andrew \u201cTwiggy\u201d Forest","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=andrew-twiggy-forest"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/0a5fda3d209bfca85da65f0ead54374db.jpeg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/0a5fda3d209bfca85da65f0ead54374db.jpeg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/0a5fda3d209bfca85da65f0ead54374db.jpeg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/0a5fda3d209bfca85da65f0ead54374db.jpeg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/0a5fda3d209bfca85da65f0ead54374db.jpeg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":317381,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=317381","url_meta":{"origin":292156,"position":2},"title":"Net Zero Leaves U.K. Paying Five Times More for Electricity Than China","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"11\/04\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"In the nearly 30 years since COP conferences began, the U.K. has halved its CO2\u00a0emissions so that we now account for a mere 1% of the global total. But in this same time interval the developing world has massively increased its CO2\u00a0emissions. 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Its use in the developing countries will continue to grow in the decades to come. Meanwhile, we will see just how \u201ctemporary\u201d is Germany\u2019s existential move back to coal this winter. 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