by ROCKMAN » Tue 22 Apr 2014, 10:06:19
For sure: King Coal is getting deader every day. LOL
"How The U.S. Natural Gas Boom Just Caused More U.S. Coal Exports"
Thanks to the natural gas boom, carbon dioxide emissions dropped in the United States. But those emissions savings were probably completely undone thanks to U.S. coal exports.
That’s the finding from new research by CO2 Scorecard, which looked at how the U.S. coal industry increase its exports in order to deal with the rise of natural gas in the nation’s power market. Many, including the White House, have touted natural gas as a “bridge fuel” to renewable power, since burning it only releases about half the carbon emissions as coal. One problem with this argument is methane leaks, which could make natural gas every bit as bad as coal in terms of climate change. But even if the leaks aren’t an issue, the coal that natural gas replaces in the U.S. would need to stay in the ground for the climate to benefit. According to CO2 Scorecard, that didn’t happen. Instead, the coal just went to other countries.
CO2 Scorecard - Specifically, the researchers calculated that the rise of natural gas in America’s energy mix cut our carbon emissions by 86 million tons over that time period. But the spike in exports increased carbon emissions from U.S. coal burned abroad by around 149 million tons. Unfortunately, EIA data also shows that global coal consumption rose steeply over the 2007-2012 time period, suggesting the primary effect of U.S. coal exports was to drive down the fossil fuel’s global price and encourage demand.
{So it sounds that the US shares some significant responsibility for the increase in global coal consumption}
And what’s next?
Europe may replace Russian gas with US coal: While U.S. lawmakers are debating the merits of exporting natural gas to Europe to break Russia’s energy hold on the continent, one immediately exportable energy source has been overlooked: coal.
{No…it hasn’t been overlooked. Since 2012 Europe has been importing record amounts of coal from the US. Especially Germany since they’ve decided to abandon nuclear.}
Some European countries are already using U.S. coal to displace costly Russian gas. Europe’s biggest importers of American coal include Germany and the United Kingdom. “The president is doing his best to stop coal use in America by issuing emissions standards that are so stringent it is not feasible to build a coal fired power plant, but other countries are desperate for this valuable energy resource and we are exporting coal in record numbers,” Republican Kentucky Rep. Ed Whitfield told The Daily Caller News Foundation.
{“…it is not feasible to build a coal fired power plant”. Not completely true. Several years ago the president’s EPA issued the final Clean Air Permit to allow the construction of the White stallion coal burning power plant in Texas that was scheduled to burn coaled shipped in from Illinois for the next 30 years. And while there’s local resistance to expanding coal export terminals on the west coast the administration is expediting permits to expand coal export terminals on the Texas coast as well as expanding coal lease on western gov lands}
U.S. coal exports have skyrocketed in recent years. Exports have grown from about 59 million short tons of coal in 2007 to nearly 118 million short tons last year, all while imports have fallen 75 percent over that time period. “Some European countries are using U.S. coal to help displace Russian natural gas and neutralize Russia’s energy influence,” Whitfield said. “Coal exports are already having an impact on geopolitics and are helping to create American jobs and reduce our trade deficit. We can build on this success by increasing natural gas exports as well.”
{And again another idiot heard from who isn’t aware that the US is a net NG importer that only produces 93% of the NG it consumes}
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has forced many European countries to rethink their reliance on natural gas that can be stopped at any time by President Vladimir Putin. Some analysts expect U.S. coal exports to get another boost from the EU, since it’s the only viable short-term substitute for natural gas.
