Progressive Environomentalists Attack Coal : Power & control

The problem that I have with this attack on coal is that it's driven by people that want to control outcomes, not on actual fact. Even the insane on the environmental left admit their computer models are wrong and need to be reformed.

The scientific fact that the green house gases that once were proclaimed to signal the end of all life on the planet if we don't reduce them right now, are found to be smoke and mirrors, and yet the enviros refuse to admit past proclamations were fiction. Misinformation and out right lies.

The mentally ill left environmentalists refuse also to admit that there hasn't been any warming in the last 15 years and that reducing carbon emission has really has nothing to do with actually stopping the fantasy of warming, and the fabrication of green house gas being release into the atmosphere could stop such warming was just a scare tactic.

Green house gas destroying the planet is a lobbing effect to gain control and get rich at the same time. Need more information, Al Gore.

The Coal Train Chugs Along
Source: Robert Bryce, "The Coal Train Chugs Along," National Review, June 24, 2013.
June 28, 2013

Even without more regulations from the White House or the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the United States continues to lead the world in reducing carbon dioxide emissions, according to BP's latest Statistical Review of World Energy. And while the United States may be cutting its coal use (and, therefore, its carbon dioxide emissions), the rest of the world continues to binge on coal, says Robert Bryce, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.

• Last year, the United States reduced its emissions by 3.9 percent.
• That reduction was larger than that of any other major industrialized country.
• In contrast, China's carbon dioxide output soared by 6 percent and India's by 6.9 percent, while Brazil's rose by 2.5 percent and Mexico's by 4.3 percent.

U.S. carbon dioxide emissions are falling largely because of a huge drop in coal consumption, which was down a whopping 11.9 percent in 2012. Domestic coal use is plummeting for several reasons. Among them are increasing regulatory burdens and the Obama administration's threat of new regulations specifically on carbon dioxide emissions.

The biggest factor, though, in America's success in cutting emissions has been the shale gale.

• Domestic natural gas production was up 4.7 percent last year, to a record 65.7 billion cubic feet per day.
• That increase in production has led to cheaper natural gas, and that cheap gas is displacing coal at the power plant.

The shale gale -- and the resulting drop in domestic carbon dioxide emissions -- is a remarkable story. Thanks to market forces, not government regulation, the United States is reducing its emissions faster than Europe is, even though the European Union has imposed myriad regulations aimed at cutting them. Indeed, last year carbon dioxide emissions rose by 1.3 percent in Germany, the European Union's largest economy.

While American utilities are switching from coal to gas, electricity generators around the world are swarming to the coal market. Global coal use will continue to rise because global demand for electricity continues to rise, and that demand is being met largely with coal.

The fundamental problem with Obama's approach to carbon dioxide emissions is the idea that the United States can solve the problem. No matter what the United States does, emissions will continue to soar, because so many people in the developing world want to come out of the dark and into the bright lights of modernity.