Coal Saves the Day

The US is in the grip of record cold. And in these life threatening conditions coal filled the gap:

The weekend’s arctic blast has put much of the U.S. grid through a stress test and served as another alert about the growing risks to electric-power reliability. Americans can be grateful the Biden crowd didn’t succeed in forcing all coal plants to shut down.

The North American Electric Reliability Corp. warned in November that “extreme winter conditions extending over a wide area could result in electricity supply shortfalls.” That’s what happened. Frigid temperatures supercharged demand in areas where Americans use electricity for heating, especially in Texas.

In the Northeast and Midwest, where more people get heat from natural gas, less fuel was available for power plants. Add weather-caused plant outages, and you have all the ingredients for a grid emergency. Grid operators, the utilities and the Trump Energy Department had to pull out all stops to keep the lights and heat on for tens of millions of Americans.

Utilities in the Midwest on Saturday directed customers to lower thermostats, unplug “nonessential appliances,” and reduce temperature settings on electric water heaters. Hope you enjoy lukewarm showers and curling up in a heavy coat with a book.

The Energy Department also waived emissions rules so fossil-fuel plants could run at maximum capacity. Early Sunday morning, coal accounted for some 40% of power in the Midwest’s MISO grid, 24% in the eastern U.S. PJM Interconnection and 18% in Texas, with most of the rest coming from natural gas and nuclear.

New York’s blockade on gas pipelines has constrained the fuel supply for power plants across New England. Power plants in the region had to resort to burning oil, which accounted for 40% of electricity at times of peak demand. Get this—the region generated more power from burning wood and trash than from wind power.

The climate crowd claims that solar, wind and batteries can replace fossil fuels, but those sources contributed little power in most places over the weekend. Wind and solar aren’t reliable during inclement weather. Batteries can discharge power only for a few hours at a time, which doesn’t much help during a storm that stretches for a day or two.

The deep-freeze energy scare underscores why the Energy Department issued emergency orders in recent months to “stop the political closure of coal plants” in the Midwest. The grid needs all the coal power it can get when temperatures plunge or skyrocket. Environmental groups have challenged the department’s orders. Is the goal to reduce carbon emissions by making Americans freeze?

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Imagine the outrage of the Woke set if they actually had to experience the consequences of what they advocate.

They shut all our coal plants over here, Mozart.

My Dad, who is an Electrical and Electronics Engineer and Lecturer, still goes mad at that fact.

He constantly tells people renewable energy cannot provide enough energy for a country to survive. He also used to do some work at our National Grid. Underfunding and the huge burden being placed on the system will cause it to collapse at some point.

Suicidal ignorance, empathy and just plain stupidity...thank God for the Donald, bold and confident enough to call out this BS.

Coal, gas and petroleum are very concentrated power, eventually as oil becomes harder to extract, we will cycle back to coal and find ways to make it less environmentally impactful.

It’s always instructive looking at China, because they are totally self serving and unencumbered by our Western nightmare fantasies. So they are going electric for transportation, but coal remains a crucial source of that electricity. Sixty percent of China’s electricity is coal powered and while the percentage is falling slightly the absolute amount is goes on increasing.

There of course is the world’s major CO2 reduction opportunity, but the Woke set is only interested in the West’s sins.

Men like your father made the world we live in possible Becs. I had a brief stint in the oil industry. And the technology of oil, extracting and refining is awesome.

Look, no one is saying alternative energy should take over everything. Coal, can still help in the winter to get the extra electricity.

There are also other ways to heat your house...like recycled wood products, pellets made from recycled materials that are environmentally friendly to burn for heating purposes. You don’t have to exclusively use electricity for heating.

The point is, if you use more alternative energy, your reliance isn’t all concentrated on coal, oil, or gas. That also saves the impact of coal mining, reduces the oil you burn, and lowers the damage to the environment.

Hybrid systems work… a mix of sources. Technically speaking, alternative energy can run a whole country, if implemented properly.

The reason why alternative energy is frowned upon is because coal, oil, and gas are multi million dollar industries that are settled.

I am not suggesting they should be taken away, but when oil, coal and gas gets harder to extract, because of dwindling resources, using alternative energy more can make those resources last longer.

And lastly Moz, it's funny how you always throw the woke definition around. Is Alternative Energy Woke now? :) Does it always have to be left or right? Just a question.

Alternative energy doesn’t define you as necessarily Woke. But I haven’t met many Woke types who don’t support alternative energy. I actually agree that where it makes economic sense we are better off using energy forms like Hydro, Solar and Wind. But the lowest carbon footprint apart from Hydro is atomic power.

For South Africa as you were pointing out elsewhere, solar makes a lot of sense. A failing Eskom and the abundance of sunshine define a favorable equation.

But many of the apparent CO2 wins don’t survive scrutiny. The Chinese are far ahead in the electric car transition. But 60% of the electricity to power those cars comes from coal. I doubt the CO2 effects are a positive….given even with low CO2 electricity, electric cars only reach carbon break even well into their working lives.

The world is essentially in an unspoken war for energy. Graphically outlined by Europe’s energy issues. If the world is heading towards an artificial intelligence contest, how badly has the German alternative energy strategy and nuclear plant closure handicapped it. Not even a player in Tech, now even if they were they would struggle to power their ambitions.

So many mistakes have been made in the pursuit, not so much of alternative energy, but killing oil. Mandating electric cars instead of getting immediate benefits via hybrids. Ignoring shifts in carbon fuels …eg coal to oil and oil to gas. There’s more immediately available CO2 potential there than all the Paris accord rules.

A history of calamitous errors and climate hyperbole.

I support moving to clean energy, but I would expect the transition to be seamless.

Not a higher cost of energy which damages the economy, while waiting for clean energy to ramp up production.

Clean energy will take over "eventually", but it is at least another 10 years before their is a functional grid to to transport electricity.

The loss of cheap gas from Russia has been significant for Europe. It is the best fossil fuel in terms of a low carbon footprint. Now it is paying for overpriced energy, the highest in the world.

"My Dad, who is an Electrical and Electronics Engineer and Lecturer..."

My kind of guy!

So they are going electric for transportation, but coal remains a crucial source of that electricity. Sixty percent of China’s electricity is coal powered and while the percentage is falling slightly the absolute amount is goes on increasing.

Where does this figure come from? Coal usage has been in steady decline since ages now and now accounts for like 50 per cent of the total consumption. The trend is massive in China. As usual, liberals are compelled to make things up to match their warped perception of reality. It is very unlikely that China will ever no longer consume oil for the next few decades but trend is downwards, not upwards.

The fact is that the US have fallen behind in many technology sectors and will keep muddying the waters in order to avoid facing this situation. And that starts with energy generation.

International Energy Agency says it is ‘time to sound alarm’ over future shortages of metal needed for low-carbon transition.

Demand for copper, needed for the transition to a low-carbon world, will outstrip supply within the next decade, according to the global energy watchdog.

Supplies of the metal, a key component of every form of electrical energy system at present, will fall 30% short of the amount required by 2035 if nothing is done, analysis by the International Energy Agency predicts. - The Guardian.

I wouldn't be so quick to get rid of those fossil fuel burners just yet .

From Chat GPT

(Data mostly from CEIC / official Chinese statistics reporting annual coal consumption in million tonnes of coal equivalent — these figures include all sectors, not just power generation.)

There is no percentage. And where is the energy consumption? Liberals are perverse. It is suggested that China or some other places should reduce their energy consumption. Newsflash: apart from areas in Africa maybe, every other part of the world energy consumption is going to increase.

The percentages quoted are between 55% and 60%. But quoting the absolute amount of coal used was intentional. It’s still going up.

Well as all of the countries over here have outsourced all of their manufacturing to China in order to reach Net zero, it’s not surprising their coal consumption is through the roof !

Fair point there becs

As of early 2025, there are three to four primary offshore wind farms operating in the United States, with significant construction ongoing. The operational, utility-scale projects include the 5-turbine Block Island Wind Farm (2016) and the 12-turbine South Fork Wind (2024), along with Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind.

How many wind farms are there in China?

Number of offshore wind farms operating worldwide as of April 2025, by country

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Very nice of them….to produce 10% of their energy from wind. But there’s still that pesky 60% produced from coal. It all adds up to the following.

China produces a GNP of $19 trillion emitting 12 billion tons of carbon.

The US has a GNP of $30 trillion emitting 4.6 billion tons of carbon.

China produces a trillion of GNP from 631million tons of carbon.

But the US produces a trillion of GNP from 150 million tons of carbon.

So despite Chinese wind farms and electric cars they aren’t even a quarter as carbon efficient as the US and other Western countries.

To understand the economic benefits of China’s coal policy and the punitive cost of European renewables read this chart:

https://www.statista.com/statistics/263492/electricity-prices-in-selected-countries/?srsltid=AfmBOorJK00zkBsOu9gZiwX2jvnO9KNXG7Z6ud-Jr4t_YrSHXr1Q6C5Z

China is producing electricity at one fifth the cost of Germany. What chance do the lagging Germans have in an energy demanding technology like AI.

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Solar is not as clean as they make it out to be...what's the carbon footprint for the batteries and panels...what about the additional environmental impact of mining, processing and transporting the materials...it's alternative...we desperately need the alternative because the traditional sources will be depleted eventually...it's alternative but not clean.

BB

Over t he last 5 years C ina may claim wind forms - bt t heir real incestment for energy provuision was cosntructing 58 hypersized cpal powered electricai generators importing more coal from Australia.

China has every propa ganda system that makesd you believe hatsoever shot the come up with . Mot of thoe power comes from nuclear and hydro plants - the do not a hve enouh land to stop farming and convert it to power plants - but propa ganda by the C ommunists are vey real and very effective when spraid worldwide. and bleived by idiots like you.

The fact is the msot effectve and assured clean eelctricity suytems come from Nuclear power plants - not son and ind electriicity with supply bein g cntrolled by natural elements humans ave no contro over.

The economies of the UK and EU countries has b een in decline for th e ast decade and is seriously undermined by lack of growth in electricity supply. While you believe cost of eectricity is reduced for consumers it just does not happen - proces for consumers keep risin g because of implementation and amintenance costs.

The answer is simple - keep nuclear power extension going - subn and wind electricity has major environmental and agricultural production negatives.

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...on topic somewhere in there..