Coal news and updates

The best way to move forward on coal is to realize that it isn’t going away.

 

Start with four realities. First, coal is among the dirtiest fossil fuels, both in terms of the pollutants that cause respiratory problems and smog and in terms of carbon dioxide, which contributes to climate change. Second, political pressure to clean up coal is increasing. Third, there’s a lot of coal in the ground, and it’s likely to be burned. Fourth, for all the debate over coal in the U.S., virtually all the growth in global coal use is expected to take place in the developing world, particularly in China and India.

 

There are options for reducing coal’s environmental footprint. One is to deploy cleaner coal-fired power plants. The other is to deploy cleaner energy sources—other fossil fuels and nuclear and renewable energy. Both need to happen at a cost that’s affordable in the developing world.

 

Coal alternatives—from shale gas to nuclear to wind and solar—are spreading. But they’re not likely to replace coal anytime soon.

 

Many countries are moving to clean up coal itself. In the U.S., stricter environmental rules mean it’s all but impossible to build new coal-fired power plants, and Washington is expected in the coming weeks to issue tougher rules for existing coal-fired power plants. China has one of the newest—and thus one of the most energy-efficient—coal-fired power-plant fleets in the world, according to the International Energy Agency. Still, global emissions from coal-fired power plants are rising, because so many developing-world plants are being built, and an economic way to capture and dispose of the carbon dioxide that coal-fired power plants emit remains a holy grail. Cleaning up coal won’t be easy or fast.

 

 

Source: http://blogs.wsj.com/