Posted on 10/19/2021 10:45:55 AM PDT by Jim Robinson
Coal-fired electricity generation climbed this year in the U.S. for the first time since the Obama administration, spurred by spiking natural gas prices, a setback for the Biden climate agenda and a sign that the president’s drilling crackdown may be backfiring.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration said Monday that electricity generated by coal-fired plants is expected to jump by 22% in 2021 over last year’s levels for the first year-over-year increase since 2014.
The reason: the rising cost of natural gas, which began climbing in April and hit a 13-year high this month, fueled by pent-up pandemic demand that has overtaken production.
“The U.S. electric power sector has been generating more electricity from coal-fired power plants this year as a result of significantly higher natural gas prices and relatively stable coal prices,” the EIA said in its October short-term energy outlook.
Given that natural gas emits 50% to 60% less carbon dioxide in combustion than coal, the uptick in coal-fired generation represents a move in the wrong direction for President Biden. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions to combat climate change is the cornerstone of his agenda.
Coal is also making a comeback in China and Europe. The transition to green energy has exacerbated an energy crunch in some European nations.
“It’s no secret that the cleanest, most reliable fuel — nuclear — was murdered by the greens,” Clarice Feldman said in an Oct. 10 op-ed in the American Thinker. “Then natural gas, the second cleanest, became their target, so now many places are desperate for coal, the dirtiest option.”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Except China doesn’t use modern coal plants.🤔
20 years ago the green freaks protested the local coal fired power plant to the point clean coal stacks were installed emitting beautiful white clouds of steam.
That wasn’t good enough so they protested against the coal ash ponds saying they were an enviro hazard.
5 years ago they converted the plant from coal to natural gas.
I am enjoying the fact that the green freaks will now be paying higher electricity rates.
“Except China doesn’t use modern coal plants.🤔”
My wife is from China and you are 100% correct. Coal is used everywhere in China and there isn’t any pollution control equipment.
My current natural gas cost has more than doubled so far in a year, but I got plenty of wood to burn so it doesn’t mean too much.
October 2021 = 63 cents per therm
September 2021 = 53 cents per therm
October 2020 = 28 cents per therm
Glad I locked up my electricity cost for three years at 9.4 cents per KwH earlier this year.
LOL, I HATE it when I am right.
“The coal is NOT dirty. Modern coal plans emits only co2 and water. Everything else has been scrubbed out.”
Absolutely right. Wind and solar power are much worse for the environment besides being unreliable.
I have read that the Chinese strategy is electric cars charged from coal power plants and conserve liquid fuels for military use.
“The coal is NOT dirty. Modern coal plans emits only co2 and water. Everything else has been scrubbed out.”
Actually, if memory serves, wet scrubbers that remove the SO2 from the flue gas use CaCO3 slurry as the scrubbing medium. The reaction of SO2 with this slurry causes a release of the CO2 from the carbonate. The resultant slurry is mostly gypsum (Ca2SO4).
US is a Saudi Arabia of coal.
About 70% of known coal deposits are in the USA.
To deprive USA of our best energy resource, I think, that’s why they vilified the coal!
I was in middle school during the Carter years. We heated exclusively with a wood/coal burning fireplace insert his entire presidency into Reagan’s. The house was built with baseboard heaters we couldn’t afford to turn on. My brothers and I carried endless buckets of coal. Dad would buy a truck load for the coal bin and we broke it up and carried it all winter long to heat the house.
You will see millions of electric scooters in China.
I was born in '47, during the Truman Administration, and then Eisenhower had his two terms. I went off to high school in September 1960, just prior to Kennedy being elected. My Dad worked on the NY Central Railroad. We lived in Rochester, New York, and our house had a big coal furnace in the cellar. I guess it could have burned wood too, but we always used coal in it. We never had a car to go to the beach or the amusement park, so our idea of entertainment was standing in the living room window, watching the coal truck dump the coal down the chute into our coal bin. Times were so much simpler then.
Unintentended consequences
It was a simpler time for sure. We never went on a vacation until I was probably 12 and our grandpa went with us and helped pay for some of it. We never knew what AC was until about the same time. Dads business had given a local hardware supply company credit for services and products and they were not paying their bill like they should and he took the bill to the owner and said, I clear your bill and you give me a huge window AC unit for my business-done. After another year, same situation and he got one for the house. The company decided they needed to start paying their bill monthly lol!
That kind of bartering worked well back then. Most people had a conscience too, and wanted to make things right.
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