Essay by Eric Worrall
h/t MarkW – President Biden has announced the entire coal industry is shutting down because coal is too expensive and unreliable.
Biden says coal plants ‘all across America’ will be shut down, replaced with wind and solar
Biden argued that it’s ‘cheaper’ to generate electricity from wind and solar than it is from coal
By Andrew Miller FOXBusiness
Published November 4, 2022 6:22pm EDTPresident Biden said Friday that coal plants are too expensive to operate, and “we’re going to be shutting these plants down all across America” in order to shift to wind power in a comment that drew criticism from the Republican National Committee.
“I was in Massachusetts about a month ago on the site of the largest old coal plant in America,” Biden said at an event in Carlsbad, California, on Friday. “Guess what? It cost them too much money. They can’t count. No one is building new coal plants because they can’t rely on it. Even if they have all the coal guaranteed for the rest of the existence of the plant.
“So it’s going to become a wind generation. And all they’re doing is it’s going to save them a hell of a lot of money and using the same transmission line that they transmitted the coal-fired electric on, we’re going to be shutting these plants down all across America and having wind and solar power, also providing tax credits to help families buy energy efficient appliances, whether it’s your refrigerator or your coffee maker, for solar panels on your home, weatherize your home, things that save an average, experts say, a minimum of $500 a year for the average family.”
Biden’s comment prompted a response from a Twitter account run by the Republican National Committee, which said, “Joe Biden celebrates coal plant workers losing their jobs.”
Biden added that it is “cheaper to generate electricity from wind and solar than it is from coal and oil.”
“Literally cheaper,” the president said. “Not a joke.”
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On the campaign trail in 2020, candidate Biden suggested that coal miners facing an economy where their job is potentially phased out should “learn to program.”
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Read more: https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/biden-says-coal-plants-all-across-america-will-shut-down-replaced-with-wind-solar
WUWT has already covered Biden’s wild claims about coal in Massachusetts.
No amount of wind and solar can reliably supply the USA during adverse winter weather.
Solar power doesn’t work at night, or in winter – Northern states especially simply don’t receive enough sunlight.
Wind alone cannot carry the USA’s energy needs during long periods when solar is unavailable. Wind simply isn’t a reliable source of energy.
Consider the Texas ice storm in February 2021 (see the graph at the top of the page). Solar dropped to almost nothing for over 10 days, and wind wasn’t available for significant periods. Nuclear power and fossil fuel, particularly gas, saved Texas from energy oblivion during that period.
Of course, I don’t believe anybody could reasonably expect President Biden to understand such issues. He doesn’t seem to understand much of anything these days.
“The stupid it burns”. He’s just following XI’s dictatorial instructions. I can’t wait to see Biden and his whole corrupt cabal charged with sedition, treason and human trafficking. It’s coming.
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“…tax credits to help families buy energy efficient appliances, whether it’s your refrigerator or your coffee maker,…” (emphasis mine)
LOL. I gotta admit, I had not thought about the efficiency of my coffee maker, with a duty cycle of no more than a FEW MINUTES PER DAY. The obvious absurdity is completely lost on him.
For me the key parameter of a coffee maker is does it make good coffee? Not weak and watery, not suffused with grounds, not stewed and bitter, but full of fresh coffee aroma and flavour, and hot without burning you when you take a sip.
Not asking for much, are you?
BUT, they make just what you want, and you can buy one for 30 bucks, or you could before Brandon and the Dems kick started inflation.
Next you’ll tell us that the point of power plants is the cost-effective generation of electricity.
I don’t know why it hasn’t happened yet, but surely we will all soon be encouraged to convert to drinking Green tea.
For 8 years, Obama and his henchmen kicked the snot out of the coal industry. Yes, NG added insult to injury. So it is an outrageous lie to now claim that coal is now “too expensive and unreliable”. If given a level playing field, coal would certainly be able to compete with NG, besides running rings around so-called “renewables”.
And you can pile up a year of more worth of reserve in a very small space, as compared to solar or wind generation, which you can’t pile up reserves of, no matter how much space you have.
How is wind “generated”?
With cabbage and sprouts.
I don’t care what anyone thinks, but that’s funny!
So, did news organizations forget how to read simple data or have they resorted to advocacy defense?
Journalism majors no longer have to take basic science courses.
My Father was a journalism professor. Each semester at the start of classes, He would write a big fake integral equation on the chalkboard and label it “The Journalist’s Formula”. He said it weeded out those immediately who only took journalism to avoid studying. He was opposed to teaching students who wanted to avoid doing any coursework.
These days he would be fired for making his students work too hard.
Unless they are totally delusional or completely out of touch with reality…(sigh)
Can’t fix stupid
Duct tape cannot fix stupid. But slap it over the stupid’s mouth and it can muffle the sound.
The final sign of Biden’s dementia! Doesn’t he understand the meaning of the word “unreliable”?
Pure stupidity since it becomes harder to keep transmission stable when there are fewer 24/7 baseload support left to keep it that way..
Start with Washington , disconnect all coal fired plants from the Washington area grid .
ROFLMAO
Who needs coal or heating oil, anyway?
Someone needs to tell Guttierez [sp] about that Dangerous Heating {TM} in Alaska; looks like no icicles this week!The horror!
But if we – us plebs n deplorables – all give up our cars and trucks, and meat, and travel, and heating …….
Auto
Time for the “climate refugees” to head to Arizona and Florida for 4 months.
246 people died as a direct result of the Texas Ice storm – with 2/3rds dying of hypothermia.
This winter a shocking number of deaths will be recorded in the UK and the EU as a result of Energy policies.
Wholesale and deliberate murder…
At what point do we start appointing Nuremburg style proceedings against these “policy makers”?
“No one is building new coal plants because they can’t rely on it.”
China has 1,110 coal-fired power stations and is building 240 more – this year. So he is not just wrong about that statement…he is catastrophically wrong.
Coal is unreliable. You never know when some idiot regulator will order it shut down and demolished.
“So it’s going to become a wind generation. And all they’re doing is it’s going to save them a hell of a lot of money and using the same transmission line that they transmitted the coal-fired electric on,”
Brilliant! So why is the Australian govt. planning to replace transmission wires at considerable cost to working taxpayers?
Today, Biden, in a campaign speech, referred to protesters outside the auditorium, as idiots.
The Democrats in the audience, who a few years ago had been whining over and over again about mean tweets, cheered.
Once again, Democrats demonstrate that the only standards they have, are double standards.
But they wouldn’t have any standards if they didn’t have double standards.
Biden’s puppetmasters want us to spend 1000/mo on power like Europe. Part of the big reset. They must be stopped.
He’s completely ga-ga isn’t he? The most frightening aspect of his clearly incompetent state is the VP shares his subnormal mental capacity.
We need these misterms to happen and change the dynamics of the political scene in the USA.
I think in January, Republicans should impeach both Biden and Harris for gross dereliction of duty, and remove them from Office. They should do a two-fer.
Then the Republican Speaker of the House will become president.
And it wouldn’t hurt my feelings if Republican representatives in the U.S. House elected Donald Trump as Speaker of the House in January.
Preach it, brother!
With less than 2 years left in Biden’s term in office, Trump would still be able to run for president in 2024.
The answer is incredibly simple: end all fuel subsidies and open the energy market to all comers. Renewables are SO much cheaper now that they will easily wipe out coal and gas using just normal market forces. Bring it on. Now. I want to watch it all happening …
That’s not enough. You also have to end all MANDATES that “renewable” energy be used preferentially, and eliminate TAX CREDITS that can be sold or used by other businesses that actually produce something useful. AND, as part of the removal of “subsidies,” all “renewable” energy prices should be REQUIRED TO INCLUDE ALL ADDITIONAL COSTS of 100% backup, plus all required additional equipment including the extra transmission lines, etc.
THEN I’d LOVE to see it unfold.
Biden’s agenda to create Energy INsecurity in the United States:
https://www.marketforum.com/forum/topic/89811/#89926
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_coal_reserves
World coal reserves
United States 24%
Russia 15%
Austria 14%
China 13%
India 10%
Indonesia 4%
Germany 3%
Ukraine 3%
Poland 3%
Kazakhstan 2%
Turkey 1%
South Africa 1%
This is a continuation of the Obama agenda.
I’m guessing Austria is a typo and should be Australia?
They shut the plant down for environmental concerns. The “too much money” was most likely in the clean-up costs to maintain the plant and the environment.
And most of the “environmental concerns” are speculative bullshit, so they closed it to push the Dimbulbcrats’ political agenda.
From the article: “President Biden said Friday that coal plants are too expensive to operate, and “we’re going to be shutting these plants down all across America” in order to shift to wind power.
If coal plants were too expensive to operate, they wouldn’t be operating.
There is a valuable coal-fired powerplant about 20 miles from my house. Obama tried to have it converted to natural gas, but that never happened. While the natural gas plants in Texas were having a hard time getting fuel back in February 2021, our local coal-fired plant was humming right along, producing electricity, and keeping me and a lot of others warm. No brownouts or blackouts here.
And hey, Joe! What’s this “we’re” crap? Are you an owner of coal-fired powerplants, Joe? I didn’t think so. So you are just explaining how the federal government is going to take over all these private businesses. You sound like an Italian facist, Joe.
I’m sure he was referring to the EPA.
I voted to defeat Biden.
Biden is operating on an entirely different planet to Earth, these days.