America continues to subsidize the development of occasionally generated electricity from weather-dependent wind turbines and solar panels to replace coal power plants. This is with the expectation that America, with about 4% of the world’s population, can drastically impact the emissions occurring from the other 96% of people on this planet.
Coal is the world’s most abundant and reliable energy source. The United States has the world’s largest coal reserves. Of the 15 major coal-producing States, Montana has the largest reserve, with 118.4 billion tons.
About 200 coal-burning power plants are still operating in America, with many concentrated in Pennsylvania, Texas, Indiana, and the Powder River Basin of Wyoming and Montana — only 8% of the world’s coal plants.
Worldwide, there are over 2,400 coal-fired power stations, which account for 92% of the world’s coal plants.
Right now, China has 1,142 operating coal-fired plants and is building six times as many coal-fired power plants as the rest of the world combined — the equivalent of two new coal plants every week!
Most in the wealthier developed countries are oblivious that about 80 percent of the world’s 8 billion, many of which are in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, still live on less than $10 a day – and the billions who still have little to no access to electricity. For others, life is severely complicated and compromised by the hypocritical “green” agendas of wealthy country elites who have benefited so tremendously from fossil fuels since the modern industrial era began in the 1800s.
While wealthier countries are shelling out billions of dollars in subsidies for so-called clean ELECTRICITY from wind and solar, those poorer developing countries cannot subsidize themselves out of a paper bag.
Developing countries desperately need dependable, affordable electricity and the products and fuels manufactured from fossil fuels to create jobs, lift families out of poverty, modernize homes, schools, and hospitals, provide clean water, and replace wood and animal dung for cooking and heating.
Even today, for the more than 6 billion on this planet living on less than $10 a day, millions of parents and children die from respiratory and intestinal diseases that are unheard of in wealthy countries because they don’t have electricity or any of the 6,000 products made from oil derivatives manufactured from crude oil that did not exist before the 1800s.
Coal is primarily used for electricity generation, especially in China, India, and Africa.
As the number one importer of crude oil and coal, China is the largest energy consumer and producer of emissions in the world.
- As of July 2023, mainland China had 1,142 coal-fired power plants in operation, the highest number of any country.
- India comes in a distant second with 282 coal-fired plants.
- The U.S. is third with 210 plants. Due to onerous regulations by the Biden Administration and the overreach of his BLM and EPA, approximately 170 of the remaining coal-fired plants in the U.S. are scheduled to be de-commissioned by 2030, and there are no plans to build any new coal-fired plants in the U.S. Meanwhile China is adding to its inventory of coal-fired power plants at a record rate.
During the first six months of 2023, China issued permits for the construction of approximately 50 new coal-fired power plants, an average of two per week. China currently has more than 300 coal-fired plants that are either under construction, permitted, or awaiting permits. If all 300 plants are constructed, China’s inventory of coal-fired power plants will increase by more than 25%. Currently, China has six times more coal-fired power plants under construction than the rest of the World combined.
Officials within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) offer a variety of reasons for the rapid reliance upon coal-fired power plants, such as recent heat waves that have increased the demand for air conditioning. New coal-fired plants will simply serve as backup support for the undependable renewable sources of electricity generation from weather-dependent wind and solar during periods of intense electricity demand.
Given that China is also currently leading the world in the construction of renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar energy, China’s increased reliance on coal contradicts the justifications offered by the CCP. Critics point out that most of the new coal-fired power plants are being constructed in locations that fail to support the justifications offered by the CCP, such as no reported instability of the grid or unreliability of renewable energy sources. Other critics indicate that the new coal-fired plants are being constructed in locations that are already powered almost entirely by coal as opposed to supposed unreliable renewable electricity generation sources.
Whatever stance is taken, while the wealthier developed nations are rapidly decreasing reliance upon coal-fired power plants by subsidizing wind and solar, China and other developing countries are moving even faster in the opposite direction, drastically increasing reliance upon coal that is abundant and affordable for their economies.
Hope is on the horizon. The landmark US Supreme Court Chevron case has taken much of the teeth out of overzealous federal bureaucrats. US Senator Steve Daines of Montana has proposed legislation to keep coal mines operational.
The landslide victory of the incoming Trump administration, including the coal-friendly majority in the US Senate and House, which are committed to energy independence, will likely reign in bureaucratic red tape, shortsighted energy hysteria from those who Senator Daines refers to as “Green Hallucinationists,” and put the American people first with clean, reliable and affordable electricity from the hard-working coal miners of the good old USofA! There is a new sheriff in town, and the American Coal industry is proud to help wear that badge!
First published at America Out Loud News.
Ronald Stein is an internationally published columnist and energy consultant, and a policy advisor for The Heartland Institute.
