Sustainable Energy vs Coal

 

14 October 2010.

 

14 October 2010.

Extreme weather events like the floods in Pakistan, unprecedented fires in Russia, and record heat throughout the world are all stark reminders – to those that acknowledge climate change – that we are already on the verge of dangerous alterations to our planet. Yet as nations around the world continue to industrialize, global greenhouse gas emissions are set to rise. China passed the US as the largest energy user in 2009, and the largest greenhouse gas emitter in 2006; in 2007, China’s demand for coal outpaced its supply and it became a net importer of coal for the first time, importing approximately 47 million tons of coal in 2008, according to 2008 World Coal Institute estimates. And coal demand in India, Asia’s third-largest energy consumer, may rise by more than 500 million tons from 2008 to 2015, to exceed 1 billion tons. The India power ministry has estimated coal imports of 48 million tons in FY10-11.

In the face of this massive increase in global coal use, coal companies argue that the environmental and climate effects can be mitigated through “clean coal” technology, i.e. removing health-damaging impurities like mercury and pumping climate-endangering carbon dioxide underground. Clean coal includes integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) coal plants and carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies. IGCC is a process of turning coal into synthetic gas and then removing impurities from the gas before combustion. CCS involves separating out carbon dioxide emissions, collecting them, and then pumping them underground or into the sea for storage. The problem is these technologies are expensive, undoing the incentive for coal – that it’s “cheap” – and, ironically, they are energy-intensive, requiring more coal to help “clean” the coal.  So while “clean” coal technologies would help mitigate air pollution, they would also ramp up production and increase the damage caused by coal mining, forcing us to dig up the rock indefinitely, or until the cheap, easy reserves run out.

In addition, storing massive amounts of captured carbon dioxide underground creates new risks and liabilities, including the possibility of a fatal release, making it a process so unknown and risky that the coal industry is currently trying to mitigate responsibility from any harmful effects that may occur. And a recent Government Accountability Office report notes that carbon capture is 10-15 years from full realization, making it a far cry from the immediate response needed to climate change. Despite the problems with clean coal, the U.S. Department of Energy is quietly and steadily channeling billions of dollars into it, money that could be used for truly clean technologies such as wind, geothermal, and solar.

Indeed, the question is whether clean coal is the best use of public funds, for both the environment and the economy, given the economic potential of green energy. A 2010 Pew report found that, from 1998 to 2007, US jobs in the green energy sector grew 2.5 times faster than jobs overall. 

Surprisingly, In 2008, U.S. jobs in wind power already exceeded jobs in coal mining, with 17,000 MW installed in 2008 and 2009 alone. This has happened despite the history of uneven government policies, support, and development of green energies like wind and solar, such as tax incentives and research programs that are slashed or not renewed, creating an unstable and unpredictable market for their full development and implementation. One can only imagine how green energies might take off if the US government invested more in them: as the Breakthrough Institute points out, microchips, semiconductors, jet engines, personal computers, and the Internet all became high-growth industries in the U.S. through government R&D and support.

While the US resists investment and deployment of truly green technologies, other countries are stepping in to fill the gap. The Pew report found that China is emerging as the world’s green energy powerhouse, overtaking the top spot for overall green energy finance and investment in 2009 with $34.6 billion, almost double the U.S.’s $18.6 billion. China has also doubled its total wind energy capacity in each of the past four years, and is poised to pass the US as the world’s largest market for wind power equipment. As an earlier article in EconomyWatch.com noted, China is creating an environment for green energy development that is already attracting some of the leading companies in the sector, creating hubs of innovation and investment that can act as a base for the exporting of these technologies to other nations.

Investments in green energy make sense not just environmentally but economically, and whichever country sets up the corresponding infrastructure will be at the forefront of growth, jobs, and profits in the coming decade. While the US continues to capitulate to powerful interests and invest in trying to clean up the dirty energies of yesterday, China is taking advantage of a once in a century opportunity and is emerging as the leader in the green technologies of tomorrow.

Christine Shearer

 

Guest Contributor

EconomyWatch.com