Not that there is anything wrong with using coal when it makes commercial sense. The demonisation of carbon dioxide is a religion built on a hypothesis which in turn is based on “it must be the cause of global warming” and not on any evidence whatever. In consequence the world-wide drive to reduce carbon dioxide emissions is an unnecessary, expensive and ultimately pointless exercise.
The religious and thoughtless opposition of the “greens” to any use of fossil fuels has led them – especially in Europe – to trying to block exploration, production and exploitation of shale gas. But as with so many “environmentally correct” decisions it turns out to be counter-productive to their own misguided objectives. In Europe this together with the availability of cheap US coals has only served to promote the greater use of coal and an increase in carbon dioxide emissions. The blind pursuit of renewable energy in Europe has already given the highest electricity prices in the world. While the increased emissions of carbon dioxide through greater coal use does not itself matter, the consumer will have to pay even higher electricity prices than would prevail if shale gas were exploited.
BRUSSELS/LONDON, Sept 25 (Reuters) – Shale gas has jolted traditional roles in the planet’s climate drama, giving cleaner fuel to the United States, whose displaced coal has headed to Europe to pollute the old continent.
It is an ironic twist for the European Union, whose energy policy is largely based on promoting renewables and a target to cut emissions b y 20 percent by 2020. The U.S. did not ratify the Kyoto Protocol to combat global emissions and its national goals are far less ambitious than Europe’s.
Analysts at Point Carbon, a Thomson Reuters company, estimate increased EU coal-use will drive a 2.2 percent rise in EU carbon emissions this year, after a 1.8 percent drop in 2011.
U.S. emissions, meanwhile, are expected to fall by roughly the same amount – 2.4 percent – chiefly because of reduced coal use, according to estimates from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). …….
While shale gas production has provided a glut of cheap energy in the U.S. it has also driven out an oversupply of lower-cost coal to Europe.
U.S. coal exports to Europe rose 29 percent in the first quarter of this year compared with the same time in 2011, a trend that has curbed European gas demand by around 3 billion cubic feet per day, according to Bernstein Research.
European gas demand, on the other hand, has dipped in power plants as prices rose, driven by a pricing link to a rising oil market and increased competition for liquefied natural gas as Japan replaces lost atomic power following its nuclear disaster last year.
Germany offers a stark illustration of this price difference. Its power producers have so far this year earned an average of 6.5 euros per megawatt-hour (MWh) for power produced the following month in coal plants, compared with a 7.9 euro per MWh loss when burning gas, Reuters data showed. …….
“In Europe it would take a 50 percent increase in coal prices to erase the price advantage over natural gas,” said Paolo Coghe, senior analyst at Societe Generale.
In France, which is mainly powered by nuclear plants but uses coal and gas when demand dictates, coal plants generated 44 percent more electricity over the first eight months of 2012 than in the same period in 2011.
Britain’s coal use was 43 percent higher in the first half of this year compared with a year ago, grid operator data from both countries showed. …….
……. the U.S. government’s EIA predicts coal burning in the United States will rebound, driving up fossil fuel emissions by 2.8 percent in 2013 as shale gas becomes less cheap – it sees a 19 percent rise in the cost of gas for power, while coal generation costs are flat.
Tags: European Union, Kyoto Protocol, Shale gas, United States
The k2p blog 