US joins in other nations in swearing off coal power to clean the climate
US joins in other nations in swearing off coal power to clean the climate
The United States is now committed to the idea of phasing out coal power plants, joining 56 other nations in kicking the coal habit. Saturday's announcement by U.S.
what about oil
Woah there, we've got to liberate countries for some reason
The USA could "liberate" them for their supply of wind. Scotland had better watch out.
On a practical level, that will probably not happen for a long time. My understanding is that most high performance lubrication is petroleum-based, even if only in part. We'd have to find alternative sources for those lubricants before we could completely drop oil.
I'll believe it when it actually happens. Until then it is platitudes as usual.
Without major reforms to how politicians can get money this is just a bunch of rich people jerking off. We will never be free of coal and oil when our politicians are all sold in the dollar store.
If the alternatives are cheaper then it will change. Coal is mostly used to produce electricity, so when solar and wind can compete they will start lobbying as well against coal as a competitor. Combined with citizens working towards and end of it, that can really change something. That is also true for things like evs and oil, gas heating and heat pumps and so forth.
No date was given for when the existing plants would have to go...
Unless legislation is passed, it's bullshit.
The reality is that the US has shut down a large chunk of its coal-burning power plants as uneconomic already.
This is largely an agreement to 'do what is cheap' which is the kind of thing which happens with relatively little government intervention (though some intervention can speed the process up)
This is just the international commitment: internally the US was committed to passing off by 2035.
Which is fucking insane. We should be off coal by 2024.