More “Beautiful, Clean Coal” Power Coming To US Thanks To America’s Ayatollah

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For years, China has relied on coal-fired generating stations to supply electricity to its burgeoning manufacturing sector. Many of its electric cars, wind turbines, and solar panels are produced using electricity from the dirtiest source of energy there is. As China has sought to catch up to the US in Europe in manufacturing, it has built hundreds of coal-fired plants. According to Bloomberg, even as its annual gross domestic product in current US dollars jumped from about $361 billion in 1990 to around $14.7 trillion by 2020, China’s coal consumption quadrupled and carbon dioxide emissions more than tripled.

What that discussion leaves out is that China gave the western world a 100-year headstart on industrialization. Yes, it has relied on coal power to catch up, but it has always had a plan to transition away from coal as soon as possible. Today, it is installing two to three times more renewable energy than any other nation and has an active target of being a net zero economy by 2060. It is on track to reach that goal as much as a decade ahead of schedule. The US seems content to keep digging its own grave deeper.

The rise of renewable energy in the US has increased dramatically in the past few years. Today, the vast majority of new electricity installations being added to the US grid are from renewables, principally solar and wind. Why? Because the electricity they provide is cheaper than electricity from coal, methane, or nuclear. Coal accounts for about 15% of power generation in the US, down from more than 50% in 2000, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

Coal Power Is A Death Sentence

The current maladministration and the Ayatollah of Mar-A-Loco claim the reason for that decline is the welter of environmental regulations promulgated since 2000 that seek to limit the amount of crud spewing out to the exhaust stacks at coal generating stations and the amount of toxic pollution in the coal ash left behind. That effluent leaches into the environment, poisoning the drinking water supplies for surrounding communities and endangering wildlife. None of that matters to the gang that couldn’t shoot straight in Assington, DC. It has gotten lots of campaign cash from the coal industry, and since the American Ayatollah thinks like a Mafia capo di tutti capi, those contributions must be rewarded. Since public health and the environment contribute nothing to his overflowing pockets, they can be safely ignored.

The administration claims all those regulations have driven up the cost of coal-fired electricity and of course there is some truth to that. Deicing airplanes in freezing weather also increases costs for airlines, but if they don’t do it, their airplanes crash, killing hundreds of people. Regulations killed the asbestos and Freon industries but no one is clamoring to bring them back. The problem with coal is the same problem that infects all aspects of the fossil fuel and nuclear industries. All of them have gamed the economic system so they do not have to bear the cost of the harm that comes from the pollution they create.

Corruption In High Places

To economists, this amounts to an “untaxed externality,” which means the profitability of their operations is skewed in their favor. Those excess profits are then used to bribe politicians make more campaign contributions so that the special exception for those industries will continue. It’s corruption plain and simple and another example of the “heads we win, tails you lose” mentality at the heart of the MAGAlomaniac movement.

Earlier this month, the EPA said it planned to revisit regulations limiting mercury and greenhouse gas pollution, which could help lower operational costs for coal plants, prolonging their life. Supporters of those regulations have emphasized the need to curb pollution, including soot — a fine particle that can penetrate the bloodstream and raise the risks of cardiovascular and respiratory problems. The metal mercury also is converted in soil and water into a neurotoxin that can lower IQ, damage the nervous system, and lead to heart attacks.

This week, America’s Ayatollah took to anti-social media to announce he is taking steps to counter the economic advantage China derives from its reliance on coal-based electricity by authorizing his maladministration to ramp up production of power from burning coal. “I am authorizing my Administration to immediately begin producing Energy with BEAUTIFUL, CLEAN COAL,” he said.

Actually, there is nothing beautiful about coal. If you mine it, you get black lung disease and die a painful early death. If you breathe its fumes, you die. If you come in contact with the residue left over after it burns, you contract cancer or one of a dozen other debilitating diseases, and if you drink water contaminated by the runoff from coal ash retention pits, you risk an assortment of potentially fatal health impairments. Actually, our Dear Leader is so stupid, he thinks “clean coal” means washing it before it gets burned, and no, we are not making that up.

Bloomberg says it’s not clear what the so-called president was referring to or how his social media decree would affect US policy. He has already signed an executive order declaring a national energy emergency and directed the Environmental Protection Agency to boost fossil fuel production and distribution. Still, he could tap emergency powers to revitalize coal-fired electricity, repeating maneuvers from his first term when partisan officials loyal to his demented ideas drew up plans to order grid operators to buy electricity from struggling coal and nuclear plants in an effort to extend their life.

Emergency Powers To Bail Out Campaign Contributors

Last week, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told Bloomberg Television the administration was considering using emergency powers to bring back coal-fired plants that have closed and stop others from shutting down. Separately, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said earlier this month the administration was working on a “market-based” plan to stem the closing of US coal-fired power plants. He also has been busy telling African delegates that coal is the answer to their dreams, a position that was soundly rejected by many.  “One of the transformations caused by American fossil fuels was destroying our previously well-balanced climate and plunging some of the poorest and most vulnerable people in Africa into a life dealing with extreme weather and lost homes and livelihoods,” said Mohamed Adow, a founding director of Power Shift Africa, a non-governmental organization based in Nairobi.

An additional 120 coal-powered generating stations are scheduled to shut down in the US in the next five years, in part because of environmental regulations that have made them uneconomic according to America’s Power, a trade group that represents utilities and miners such as Peabody Energy and Core Natural Resources. Administration officials and coal power advocates have argued that keeping those plants online could help lower energy costs and supply energy to power hungry data centers as they accelerate their use of artificial intelligence. Oh, good. Let’s kill more people and animals so school children can use AI to write their term papers for them.

Sharp-eyed readers will note this policy flies in the face of the horse-puckey right wing extremists are always trotting out to justify their nefarious schemes. We are told over and over again that government should not be picking winners and losers in the marketplace, but it now appears it is perfectly OK to do so if it benefits major campaign donors — more corruption in plain view.

So far, the American people seem to be cheering this criminal behavior bought and paid for by fossil fuel companies. As long as the price of gasoline stays under $3.00 a gallon, they are content to let the Moron In Chief do whatever he wants. That is a perfect example of shortsighted thinking. The environment will deteriorate further under the current regime and many are just fine with that. For those who refuse to look beyond the end of next week, the reckoning will be a total surprise and they will look for someone to blame. But as cartoonist Walt Kelly told us decades ago, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”