With U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry looking on, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden raises his glass to toast Chinese President Xi Jinping at a State Luncheon in the Chinese President’s honor at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., on September 25, 2015. [State Department photo/ Public Domain]
Meanwhile, in China, Xi Jinping is ordering a massive ramp-up in the mining and burning of coal. So all the emissions being “saved” by Americans living in cold houses this winter will be outweighed by China as it continues its march toward global dominance. Chuin-Wei Yap reports for The Wall Street Journal:
China is pulling out the stops to ease its worst power crunch in two decades, reversing course on earlier ambitions to curb coal use as it sets new policies to revive production and loosen imports of the electricity-generating fuel.
As winter looms, the nation’s top economic planner this week said it would use “all necessary means” to roll back record-high coal prices, including by using domestic laws that allow the government to limit profit and prices for key goods. It has ordered all coal mines to operate at full capacity even during holidays, issued approvals for new mines and ordered major coal production bases in north and northwestern China to lower prices by 100 yuan a metric ton from Tuesday.
Coal futures on Chinese bourses fell to their lower trading limits on Tuesday and Wednesday after the announcement.
China’s rollback of restrictions on mining and imports of coal might help stem soaring global fuel prices that were driven up by factors including a post-pandemic economic recovery, transport bottlenecks and low stocks. Beijing’s push to meet tougher environmental targets, stepped up this summer, aggravated the shortage of coal, of which the country consumes half the world’s supply.
Beijing’s vacillating policies come ahead of a global climate summit next month—Chinese authorities haven’t confirmed if President Xi Jinping will attend—and in part reflect the difficulty in balancing the imperatives of economic growth with climate goals. Mr. Xi in April said at a separate climate summit that China planned to limit coal-consumption increases through 2025, and thereafter start reducing its consumption of the fuel. Last year, he said that China’s carbon emissions would begin to decline by 2030, and the country would reach carbon neutrality by 2060.
How long will Americans be expected to sacrifice their standard of living to make up for the Chinese who simply aren’t going to hold themselves back with theories of global warming?
Look at prices for gasoline, natural gas, and propane. Gasoline prices are the highest they’ve been in years (these are wholesale prices in New York Harbor).
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