Biden To Phase Out American (Coal) Power

 

Reports indicate that the United States has committed to phasing out coal power plants, and sooner rather than later, though no specific date has yet been given. The U.S. joins 56 other nations who have similarly pledged to rid themselves of coal power.

U.S. “special envoy” John Kerry recently announced that Washington has agreed to join something called “the Powering Past Coal Alliance” which means the Biden administration has effectively vowed to build no new coal plants and to phase out existing plants.

Kerry said the U.S. and other PPCA nations “will be working to accelerate unabated coal phase-out across the world,” and added, “The first step is to stop making the problem worse: stop building new unabated coal power plants.”

Due to other Biden administration regulatory actions and international commitments already in the works, there is some speculation that it may target 2035 as a coal-free date.

Which would seem an entirely pointless endeavor, given the fact that China is still building new coal plants at an astounding rate. According to researchers at China’s State Grid Corp., the Middle Kingdom could add up to 150 gigawatts of new coal-fired generation capacity by year-end 2025. If so, that would put China’s known coal-fired generation capacity at roughly 1,230 gigawatts– more than half of all global coal-fired electricity output and over 5 times the coal-fired capacity of the United States. China built more than three times as much new coal power capacity as all other countries in the world combined in the year 2020, and it is unlikely to stop doing so as its power demand continues to grow.

While Chinese residents are reaping the benefits of additional low-cost coal power, residents of some other nations have been forced to endure rolling blackouts.

If the Biden administration commits to phasing out all coal-fired power plants in the very near future, it will have committed itself to significantly damaging the U.S. economy. China is wiser, if equally disingenuous.

It seems like both China and the Biden administration are committed to phasing out America as a world power.