Guest essay by Mike Jonas
In an absurd article “Full extent of global coal ‘binge’ is hidden, say researchers“, the BBC’s Matt McGrath argues that instead of modelling actual and expected CO2 emissions from coal and gas power plants, it should all be counted in the power station’s first year. [You couldn’t make this stuff up].
The climate impacts of the world’s fossil-fuelled power plants are being underestimated because of poor accounting, say researchers.
Governments would get a truer picture if they included the lifetime emissions of a facility in the year it goes into production
This is obviously ridiculous, because the climate cannot be affected until the CO2 enters the atmosphere, but maybe the article does have significance : does it show an-increasing level of desperation among those who are trying to use climate alarmism to shut down the coal industry?
Barack Obama declared war on coal in 2008: “So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can. It’s just that it will bankrupt them because they’re going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted.”.
The intention had been to use a cap-and-trade system to squeeze the life out of the coal industry. When attempts to introduce cap-and-trade failed, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations were used instead. Within the USA, there were some successes in Obama’s war against coal, as some coal companies folded and US coal production fell.
But globally, demand for coal continued unabated. Other countries filled the production gap, and global coal production grew steadily.
[Coal production graphs by index mundi from United States Energy Information Administration data.]
The International Energy Agency (IEA) expects coal production to keep rising: “Coal use has never stopped increasing and the forecasts indicate that, unless a dramatic policy action occurs, this trend will continue in the future.“. The EIA continues with a (surely inappropriate) statement showing bias against coal and misusing the word “clean” – but I digress.
The simple fact is that in spite of Barack Obama’s and the climate alarmists’ best efforts, coal production and consumption continue to increase globally, and are expected to continue increasing.
Yes, Coal is winning.
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Coal isn’t winning in this country, but in the emerging economies it’s the go-to power source — another reason Emperor Obama’s climate policies have no chance of success.
The War on Coal is about making more Americans pay more for OPEC oil. It is that simple. And yes, one could call it treason.
Coal – the once and future king.
Did anyone else notice the image associated with this article, has a socket, not a plug connected to the lump of coal? That means the electricity needed to run the coal lump comes from somewhere else. Right?
But I think a “sucket” means it is actually getting power out of the coal?
The whole point is to debilitate the WEST (and the white race, of course).
Even at 400ppm, CO2 levels are still too low. 1,500 is a more normal level for modern life on earth. Coal will help get us there. And we might finally see 1C of warming and delay the return of the ice sheets. We are still in a very severe ice age, after all.