Coal news and updates

Once upon a yesteryear, various European and Asian governments as well as the United States seemed so unequivocally convinced that all the expensive and taxpayer-funded “investments” they were making in new, market-resistant, and so-thought “green” technologies would help to them to ensure a cleaner and more “sustainable” future in which they were all less reliant on foreign fuels to fulfill their energy needs. The fruits of their many “investments,” unfortunately, have been found not merely environmentally wanting but financially unsustainable, to boot, as the economic consequences of higher electricity prices and crippling national debt burdens have reared their ugly heads. Completely unsurprisingly, the falloff in government “investment” (i.e., subsidization) has been mirrored by a falloff in private investment, via Bloomberg:

 

Clean-energy investment fell 14 percent in the third quarter from the prior three months as Europe curbed subsidies and cheaper U.S. natural gas lured investment.

 

The $45.9 billion spent makes it “almost certain” that annual investment in renewables and energy-smart technologies will fall for the second consecutive year from $281 billion in 2012, Bloomberg New Energy Finance said in a statement.

 

Investment in the quarter was 20 percent lower than the same period last year as spending in China, the U.S. and Europe fell. The U.S. saw the largest decline, sliding 41 percent to $5.5 billion, according to the London-based research company.

 

Source: hotair.com