China Bathes the Planet in Carbon Dioxide
– By Howard Sierer –
Don’t expect any improvement in worldwide carbon dioxide levels for the next 20 years or so. China will see to that.
While the U.S. is spending trillions of dollars to reduce its fossil fuel use – sending a large fraction of those dollars to China for solar panels and lithium batteries – the Chinese are building more coal-fired power plants than the rest of the world combined.
The 2015 Paris climate agreement allows China to increase its emissions until 2030 and only then begin to reduce from what at that time will be a much higher baseline. Between 2015 and 2021 China’s emissions increased by some 11%, according to Climate Action Tracker while the U.S. reduced its emissions by 6%.
Per S&P Global Commodity Insights, as of July 2022 China had some 258 coal-fired power plants containing 515 individual units either proposed, permitted or under construction. Those plants would generate 290 gigawatts of electricity, more than 60% of the world’s planned new coal-fired capacity. For comparison, the total power-generating capacity in the U.S. from all sources is 1,147 gigawatts.
To feed those power plants, China had 174 new or expanded coal mines on the books in July. Coal accounts for 64% of China’s power generation while in the U.S. coal accounted for about 22% in 2021 and falling.
China gives lip service to carbon dioxide emissions to placate Western governments and environmental groups but its priority is clearly economic growth. China’s President Xi Jinping couldn’t have been clearer this last spring when he said “we can’t be detached from reality…We can’t toss away what’s feeding us now while what will feed us next is still not in our pocket.”
Xi’s common sense is sorely lacking in this country’s environmental left and their fellow travelers among progressive politicians. Leading the way with a series of bad decisions are Pres. Biden and California’s Gov. Newsom. Both are showing us what happens as they “toss away what’s feeding us now.”
Biden’s administration is busy shuttering our country’s massive fossil fuel resources, jeopardizing both our economy and our well-being. He wants to force us prematurely down the renewable energy path despite the lack of adequate battery backup for windless nights. Gasoline prices this last spring and summer should have served as warning. Per the AAA, California’s gas prices averaged $6.358 per gallon in late September.
Newsom signed a package of 40 separate climate laws this month. Per his press release, California is “ushering in new era of world-leading climate action.” After being plagued with rolling electricity blackouts forced by warm weather in 2021, California barely squeaked by in September.
While the state’s Democratic politicians congratulated themselves, the Sacramento Bee says last month’s near-miss should serve as a wake-up call, not a reason to throw confetti in the air. “If you look at a state that’s the fifth largest economy in the world and has to call for ‘flex alerts’ for 10 consecutive days and declares it a success when the lights stay on, that strikes me as … whistling past the graveyard.”
Why are some of our elected politicians rolling the dice by forcing the country onto unreliable renewable energy sources? That question is especially timely given China’s preference for growth instead of reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Nothing we can do for the next 20 years will reduce global temperatures.
I encourage funding research into new and hopefully more reliable renewable energy. Battery technology that can be deployed on a mass scale at reasonable cost should be first on the list. Sadly, there are no battery breakthroughs on the near horizon, but the history of science and technology over the last century gives us confidence that promising ideas are waiting to be found.
Until that happy day, shuttering today’s fossil fuel and nuclear power plants defies common sense. When the reality of rolling electricity blackouts spread beyond California – and they will – restarting closed fossil fuel plants will take time measured in years and political heads will roll.
I believe electric cars and trucks have a future but that future on the mass scale envisioned by the Biden administration and the environmental left is not now. When all the mining and manufacturing emissions made producing electric vehicles are totaled, the International Energy Agency estimates that an electric car emits a little less than half as much carbon dioxide as a gasoline-powered one. And that half doesn’t show up until later in the car’s life, years after its purchase.
Electric vehicles will take over the market only if innovation makes them actually better and cheaper than gasoline-powered cars. With today’s limited range and higher prices, politicians are spending hundreds of billions of dollars subsidizing cars that only a minority want and getting no climate benefits for decades in the process.
[Disclosure: I plan to buy a taxpayer-subsidized EV in the next year or so.]
While Biden is doing all he can to restrict U.S. fossil fuel production and damaging our economy in the process, China is gladly using coal, hoping to become the world’s leading economy. The Chinese must be smiling as their primary rival is self-destructing with an ill-considered, premature drive for renewable energy.
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