Chile Dumps Coal
As discussed in this video, Chile just became the most recent country to dedicate itself to ridding its energy mix of coal at the maximum practical rate.
Can’t the U.S. do the same? No one’s asking for this to happen next week, but can’t we make a policy that directs this nation away from dirty energy?
The obvious answer is sure we can, as soon as we get the fossil fuel money out of our law-making process.
This is the gating factor for everything a government should be doing for its people, whether it pertains to the environment, healthcare, education, transportation, labor, etc. Corruption is “why we can’t have nice things.”
More here, in our discussion of the SCOTUS decision Citizens United.
Craig,
I realize you are a “true believer” in the oracle that is Senator Bernie Saunders (blesses be his name) and a devotee of Facebook as the font of all knowledge, but sometimes it might add to your credibility if you just did a modicum of independent research!
Yeah, that’s right ol’ bernie fudged the truth just a little !
What Chile’s former President Michelle Bachelet announced was Chile will not license build any more Coal-fired power plants in Chile ” Unless equipped with carbon capture and storage(CCS). Chile aims to phase out all coal fired Power stations without adequate CCS by 2035 !
Note the last bit ? “Unless equipped with carbon capture and storage (CCS)” ! Makes a bit of difference, eh ?
Now if President Trump made such a statement, you’d be howling he was a sociopathic liar, but hey, I guess it’s okay for ol’Bermie.
The new President of Chile (from the same party) has called for a re-think of Chilean Energy policies in the wake of an announcement by the nations largest energy providers of looming shortage of power production and increases in the cost of power.
The new President has also moved the goal to phase out existing coal technology to 2050.
Coal isn’t a major generator in Chile constituting only 20%, nor does Chile have abundant domestic coal reserves. Chilean Coal Plants are all old and in need of replacement.
Chilean imports natural gas from Argentina to supplement local production.
Chilean topography is ideal for Solar, Wind, Hydro-electric and especially Geo-thermal power generation, and these are being actively pursued. The Chilean Socialist Party is currently debate whether to change it’s policy ban on Nuclear generation alternate energy.
Coal was never a big player in Chilean energy production, at the best it was always only marginally economic and reliant on imports.
In contrast, the US has vast high quality Coal reserves for domestic consumption and export.
I know it’s hard to see your prophesies fail to materialize, but maybe that’s just because they were never realistic or based on accurate information.
Pipeline construction is booming, global coal demand is rising, advanced clean(er) coal technology is real and about to be deployed.
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/The-US-Pipeline-Industry-Is-Booming.html
http://www.kallanishenergy.com/2018/11/29/uks-acorn-project-receives-government-funding/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/judeclemente/2018/11/15/global-coal-demand-increased-in-2017/#1a8ae99a661c