Even as the United States and many countries around the world pledge to reduce carbon emissions to slow climate change, the demand for coal has increased significantly.
TheWall Street Journal reported recently, “Coal use is surging in some of the world’s largest economies as electricity demand rebounds from the pandemic, illustrating the challenges to countries looking to wean themselves off the dirty but reliable fossil fuel.”
In an ironic twist, the contraction of the coal industry in this county (country?) is one of the primary reasons why coal is now booming. Demand for both thermal and metallurgical coal is outstripping supply, driving up prices to levels not seen in several years.
“It’s difficult to get off coal because of security of supply,” Kathryn Porter, founder of energy consulting firm Watt-Logic, told the Wall Street Journal .. “At the end of the day, you need to keep the lights on.”
Let’s see how Biden handlers are doing on “green energy”
cancel the keystone XL pipeline to force oil from our trusted ally Canada to be shipped by rail. More expensive in $$ and uses more fossil fuel per barrel.
Drop sanctions on Russia to allow them to build the Nord natural gas pipeline to Germany. This makes Germany subject to blackmail by withholding the natural gas.
The latest. The fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban has led to grave concerns about the safety of Afghan citizens and foreigners alike, but also raised questions about the future of the nation’s vast mineral reserves, once valued at as much as $3 trillion.
The chaos may offer China, which dominates the world market for rare earths, widely used in technology, to step in to develop the mineral reserves, which also include lithium, used in the manufacture of batteries.
“Chinese dealmakers have their bags packed, and will arrive on the first flights after the airports open,” said Byron King, geologist and mining and energy writer for Agora Financial."
Does it not seem hypocritical to you that Biden cuts off a pipeline that would benefit our ally Canada but supports a pipeline that benefits our enemy Russia? His rationale for cutting off the Keystone xl is climate change. That also applies to the Nord doesn’t it?
Your question only makes these actions seem hypocritical because the question contains logical fallacies.
The pipeline that benefits Russia also benefits our ally Germany – I’m sure Germany had a hand in the decision. Dropping of sanctions doesn’t equate to support, only lack of opposition.
Do we also sanction China’s construction of coal plants? Or make prohibitively expensive the import of products whose production is highly polluting to China?
I don’t follow. From what standpoint should their views have equal weight? Are they all bound by some legal agreement that Nord would be violating?
Back to the topic of the thread. Afghanistan has vast mineral resources that might be exploited for many industrial applications including “green energy”. From my post above it looks like the Chinese are eager to step in to try to extract them. it will be interesting to see how they fare. Afghanistan is supposed to be the graveyard of empires but the Chinese have a lot of experience in dealing ruthlessly with Muslims such as the Ughyurs.
Here is a map of their mineral resources. I found this on the net so I’m not sure of the source and its reliability but fwiw
The interesting part is that the Japanese are thinking of restarting their nuclear reactors. And also developing new generation reactors. Betting on nuclear power is a bet on sanity, which has been a losing proposition the past two years. But hope springs eternal.
On Wednesday, shares of Japanese utility companies surged after after Taro Kono, the administrative reform minister and the most likely candidate to replace Yoshihide Suga as prime minister, said Japan needs to restart nuclear power plants , **in order to realize its goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.
Some on the left claim that the statistical law of large numbers says that intermittent power availability will have low probability across large areas. This is an example where even as large an area as Europe can have calm winds over all of it.
The cost of energy has been spiralling across Europe, due in part to calm weather which has drastically reduced the availability of renewable power.
The spiralling prices will prompt further concern among officials who were earlier this week forced to fire up coal-based plants in an effort to cope with tight supplies.
More on investing in nuclear energy? Even leftists like Democrat senators Booker and Whitehouse have seen the light about nuclear energy( so to speak )
U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Ranking Member of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, along with Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), and Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) reintroduced the American Nuclear Infrastructure Act (ANIA) , which would improve the nation’s nuclear infrastructure, secure America’s uranium supply chain, grow the economy, create jobs, reduce carbon emissions, and strengthen our energy and national security.
this website has some nuclear energy investment ideas
here are some of their suggestions:
There are three U.S.-based ETFs that invest in nuclear energy, generally through stocks in uranium miners or utilities. One closed-end fund also buys physical uranium.
This is a thorium-based breeder reactor. The US also has research on these but with the takeover of the government by the Democrat crazies, they will probably cancel it like they did the keystone pipeline. The crazies fervently believe that wind and solar are sufficient despite ample evidence, shown above in this thread, that we need a reliable back up. And not just for a few hours like might be provided by batteries but for weeks. Never fear, when the green energy crazies drive our economy into the toilet with unreliable electric power, our friends the Chinese will step in and provide us with reliable nuclear power. /sarcasm.
You mean we haven’t heard yet? Surprising. I think wind patterns have much to do with ocean currents and in the northern hemisphere with the polar vortex, which are all inter-related AND related to global warming and rising ocean temperatures. Rising temperatures cause the vortex to change shape and the established currents to shift, so the winds also shift.
That may seem plausible but it’s no proof that anything that humans do can affect it. And that is what honkinggoose was referring to.
Besides that’s off topic for this thread. The posts above show that regardless of the cause there can be extended periods with clouds and no wind and therefore no power from the so-called green sources of wind and solar. That’s a real problem for “green energy” that calls for parallel reliable power sources. That means fossil fuel or nuclear.
The key benchmark EU and French power contracts have both doubled so far this year due to a confluence of factors ranging from Asia’s economic recovery - which sent related coal and gas prices soaring - to political will to drive up European carbon emission permits, higher oil prices and low local renewable output.
The prices affect not only consumers but also manufacturers making them less competitive on the world markets.
The green energy crazies are also affecting the food supply. The prolonged time without wind and cloudy weather drove up the price of gas which is having the repercussions noted in the previous post and this one.
The closure of two fertiliser plants in northern England and others in Europe has left the food and drink industry facing a shortage of carbon dioxide, which is a byproduct of fertiliser manufacturing. The gas is critical to the production and transport of a range of products, from meat to bread, beer and fizzy drinks.
The USA is blessed with a roughly 200 year supply of clean burning natural gas, from shale. It is a switch to that fuel which is responsible for most of our progress in these latter years against pollution from the burning of coal. And our progress leads the world.
Even if global warming has anthropogenic causation, which I doubt, there will be no fix possible based on a changeover to green energy in North America. China and India are the big polluters, not us. And neither country has a viable natural gas alternative, either, save for gas they are able to import.
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