Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Coal demand from abroad sparks U.S. and UK exports, despite impact on global warming


(Photo of coal loader in West Virginia from Flickr and photographer OZinOH)

News Update: Growing demand from the Third World, and the subsequent rise in prices, has turned coal into a major export for the U.S. for the first time in years and has sparked a revival in Britain, where shuttered mines are reopening. (Carbon emissions be damned. There’s money to be made!) The export boom here is helping the coal business grow at a time when environmentally wary communities have delayed or stopped more than 50 new coal-fired plants in the U.S. Environmentalists criticize both countries. “Any rise in coal use around the world is bad news for the environment,” said Alice McKeown of the Sierra Club. Both countries insist that “clean coal” must be part of the mix to meet the energy demand of the future, but so far no system is operating on a commercial scale that can clean up or capture and store the carbon emissions that cause global warming. (For more, see the New York Times. and PlanetArk)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

We all know their names. They are the leaders of this planet. George W.B., Gordon B., Vladimir P. and many more top VIPs.
First, they are still selling dirty technologies to the poor, developing countries.
Second, they are even selling the most dirty coal to them, afterwards.

Yet, they are all 'full mouthed' of green words and environmental spin.
What a western hypocrisy!?!

p.s.
Money makes the world goes around.