“It Looks As If We Are About To Re-Enter The Coal Age”

George Monbiot has an interesting piece on why he’s convinced the UK government is silently supporting a massive rebirth of dirty coal:

It looks as if we are about to re-enter the coal age. Though the electricity companies spend millions telling us about their investments in renewable energy, at least four of them - E.On, RWE npower, ScottishPower and Scottish and Southern - are developing plans for new coal-burning generators, which produce roughly twice the carbon emissions of gas burners. According to one government document, there are “£20 billion of new coal-fired power stations planned to be built in the UK before 2020."

And the climate-friendly UK government is on board?

The power companies are confident that the government will back them. Its Energy White Paper, published in May, begins by explaining the need to develop a low carbon economy. But buried on page 112 is a commitment to “secure the long-term future of coal-fired power generation”.

Monbiot explains how the industry in the UK has been able to pull the wool over everyone's eyes. And it's the same tactic we see here in America from Dirty King Coal and its industry shills: promises of carbon capture and storage (CCS). And yet:

The energy white paper admits that “CCS would not be commercially
viable unless costs fell substantially … or unless the carbon price
rose sufficiently to provide a larger financial incentive.”(3) In a
parliamentary debate in May, Alastair Darling, then in charge of
energy, acknowledged that the technologies required for CCS “might
never become available”(4). We could be stuck with a new generation of
coal-burning power stations, approved on the basis of a promise which
never materialises, which commit us to massive emissions for 40 years"

The whole CCS issue gets at a big chunk of the reason why an end to all dirty coal is the only sensible way to guarantee a solution to climate change. The stakes are too high to put all of our eggs in a non-existent basket.

And lest we forget, there are other, very profitable options available for the taking. Proven options in fact. Renewable energy can power America, while also shrinking our dependence on foreign oil and giving the economy a much-needed boost.

Talk of CCS as the saving grace of coal (and humanity) is just a way for the coal industry, politicians, and others to throw static in the discussion and make it seem like it's an existent solution, when it's not. And may never be.

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