Obama's 'War on Coal' Doomed to Fail
It's a war that won't succeed in lowering worldwide emissions of greenhouse gases, says Robert Bryce, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.
According to oil company BP's latest "Statistical Review of World Energy," the United States already leads the world in reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Last year emissions were down 3.9 percent.
At the same time, China's emissions soared by 6 percent, India's by 6.9 percent, Brazil's by 2.5 percent, and Mexico's by 4.3 percent.
Even in Europe, where the European Union has imposed stringent regulations aimed at cutting carbon dioxide, emissions were up 1.3 percent in Germany, the EU's largest economy.
"The gulf between the hard realities of the global energy market and the Obama administration's energy policies grows wider by the day," Bryce writes for National Review Online.
U.S. emissions are down due to a large decrease in coal consumption — down 11.9 percent last year.
The decrease can largely be attributed to increasing regulatory burdens and the boom in natural gas production thanks to hydraulic fracturing. That has led to cheaper natural gas, which is replacing coal at American power plants.
But according to the BP report, global coal consumption grew by the equivalent of about 26 million barrels of oil per day between 2002 and 2012, including 2 million barrels a day last year.
And global coal consumption will continue to rise because global demand for electricity is rising, and the demand is being met largely by coal.
Ironically, while the United States is reducing its coal consumption, the American coal industry is fueling higher emissions levels around the world. In March, coal exports set a one-month record of 13.6 million tons — after setting a yearly record of nearly 126 million tons in 2012.
"The fundamental problem with Obama's approach to carbon dioxide emissions is the idea that the U.S. can solve the problem," writes Bryce, author of the book "Power Hungry: The Myths of 'Green' Energy and the Real Fuels of the Future."
"No matter what the U.S. does, emissions will continue to soar."
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