Thread by @pwrhungry

My latest @RealClearEnergy :
If you think the world is moving #beyondcoal think again...over the past few weeks, China & India have announced plans to increase their domestic #coal production by a combined total of 700M tons/yr.
@JudeClemente @SierraClub

realclearenergy.org/articles/2022/…

@RealClearEnergy @JudeClemente @SierraClub For perspective, US coal production this year will total about 600M tons. The surge in coal demand in China and India – as well as in the U.S., where coal use jumped by 17% last year – demonstrates two things:

@RealClearEnergy @JudeClemente @SierraClub First, it shows that the Iron Law of Electricity has not been broken,Second, it shows that it is far easier to talk about cutting emissions than it is to achieve significant cuts.
@BrianGitt

@RealClearEnergy @JudeClemente @SierraClub @BrianGitt China will be producing about 4.4 billion tons of coal per year and India will be mining about 1.2 billion tons. Add those together and you get 5.6 billion tons of coal, which is more than 9 times the amount of coal that will be mined in the U.S. this year.
#ironlawofelectricity

@RealClearEnergy @JudeClemente @SierraClub @BrianGitt I coined the Iron Law of Electricity, which says that “people, businesses, and countries will do whatever they have to do to get the electricity they need.” The Iron Law matters because the electricity sector is the largest emitter of carbon dioxide emissions.
h/t @RogerPielkeJr

@RealClearEnergy @JudeClemente @SierraClub @BrianGitt @RogerPielkeJr The Iron Law helps explain why coal continues to be a dominant fuel...nearly 140 years after Thomas Edison used #coal to fuel the first central power station... Coal persists because it can be used to produce the #electricity consumers need at prices they can afford.

@RealClearEnergy @JudeClemente @SierraClub @BrianGitt @RogerPielkeJr I will conclude with two points I have been making for more than a decade. First, soaring global electricity demand will largely be met in the near term, by burning more coal, oil, and natural gas. Why? Renewables cannot scale up to meet soaring global demand for power.

@RealClearEnergy @JudeClemente @SierraClub @BrianGitt @RogerPielkeJr Second, if the countries of the world are serious about reducing greenhouse gas emissions and providing more electricity to the 3 billion people now living in #energypoverty, the only way to do it is with #NuclearEnergy and lots of it.
/FIN