Lots More Coal

The New York Times is worried. China, it maintains, is in the process of seizing “climate leadership” from the United States and, along the way, reaping the economic and diplomatic rewards that come from dominating the world markets for wind and solar energy.

More worrisome, with the U.S. pulling out of the Paris climate agreement and failing to cut back U.S. carbon emissions by 25%, isn’t the Trump administration out to destroy the world’s environment? “How is this even relevant to anything when the rest of the world is currently in the process of planning and building some three times as many coal electricity plants as the U.S. ever had?” Francis Menton in the Manhattan Contrarian explains what “climate leadership” really means: Lots more coal.

China already had about triple the coal-fired electricity-generation capacity of the U.S., had made no commitments under Paris to reduce the amount, and in fact had another 1.5 times total U.S. capacity either planned or under construction — even as the U.S. has been reducing coal-fired electricity-generation capacity for years. Great “climate leadership.”

The whole climate thing is quickly devolving into a game where countries around the world make preposterous and obviously false statements of intent to appease the climate cultists, while at the same time going ahead and developing the fossil fuel resources — particularly coal — just as fast as possible. I just hope that you appreciate the humor.

The Devastating Effects of Pollution in China (Part 1/2)

The Devastating Effects of Pollution in China (Part 2/2)

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Debbie Young

Debbie, editor-in-chief of Richardcyoung.com, has been associate editor of Dick Young’s investment strategy reports for over three decades. When not in Key West, Debbie spends her free time researching and writing in and about Paris and Burgundy, France, cooking on her AGA Cooker, and practicing yoga.