If you are an advocate for the “energy transition” you are pro-coal and pro-China, but you don’t have to be, a 🧵:
China alone has more CO2 emissions than the United States and Europe combined. China, Russia and India make up nearly half the worlds emissions.
Yet these countries have yet to seriously participate in the Western world’s push to reduce emissions
China is continuing to build coal fired power plants at a staggering pace. In 2021/20 China is building one new coal power plant per week on avg. In 2020 China built 73GW of new coal power. This is 3x the amount of coal power of all the other countries in the world combined
So not only is China continuing to burn coal at a record pace they are also in control of the majority of the supply chain needed to build out the Renewables power that the West is promising to bring online to lower CO2 emissions. This is a huge problem for the energy transition
China is the “Green OPEC” and the world will be at the mercy of China if they try to reduce dependence on Oil & Gas producing nations by transitioning to “Green” energy sources that are controlled by the Communist Party of China
In the game of geopolitics control of energy supply is the most powerful weapon to exert power and influence on the world stage. The Western world is (gleefully) handing that power over to its biggest adversary, China. This is an unmitigated disaster
We don’t have to go down this path. The US has been leading the world in emissions reductions by switching from coal to natural gas, which was made possible by shale using hydraulic fracturing (fracing) & horizontal drilling. Fracing is the is the best “green tech” ever invented
We don’t need China or renewable energy to reduce emissions. We can use natural gas & nuclear to meet or exceed all the international emissions reduction targets. We can do it rapidly using American resources. Everyone, and I mean everyone, should be in favor of taking this route
Not to mention almost everything we interact with on a daily basis is made from oil & gas derivatives (ie. Petrochemicals). Fossil Fuels are literally what makes our modern lifestyles possible.
Check out this great piece on this topic by @doombergT
doomberg.substack.com/p/where-stuff-…
If you are pro-coal & pro-China then you can continue to be an advocate for the “energy transition”
Or you could look beyond the popular narratives to solutions that make sense and will actually work
For more energy content subscribe to my podcast: youtube.com/c/TalkEnergyPo…
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