- Apr 5, 2010
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Ha! I see our far right posters are doing their predictable slamming of anything that might enhance life in their own country because,,,because,, because it's a REGULATION!
Let's look at the US's biggest economic competitor on the world stage is doing.
China Outpaces U.S. in Cleaner Coal-Fired Plants
TIANJIN, China Chinas frenetic construction of coal-fired power plants has raised worries around the world about the effect on climate change. China now uses more coal than the United States, Europe and Japan combined, making it the worlds largest emitter of gases that are warming the planet.
But largely missing in the hand-wringing is this: China has emerged in the past two years as the worlds leading builder of more efficient, less polluting coal power plants, mastering the technology and driving down the cost.
While the United States is still debating whether to build a more efficient kind of coal-fired power plant that uses extremely hot steam, China has begun building such plants at a rate of one a month.
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Western countries continue to rely heavily on coal-fired power plants built decades ago with outdated, inefficient technology that burn a lot of coal and emit considerable amounts of carbon dioxide. China has begun requiring power companies to retire an older, more polluting power plant for each new one they build.
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With greater efficiency, a power plant burns less coal and emits less carbon dioxide for each unit of electricity it generates. Experts say the least efficient plants in China today convert 27 to 36 percent of the energy in coal into electricity. The most efficient plants achieve an efficiency as high as 44 percent, meaning they can cut global warming emissions by more than a third compared with the weakest plants.
China Far Outpaces U.S. in Building Cleaner Coal-Fired Plants - NYTimes.com
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So while China moves forwards, the "we hate any regulation" crowd want the US to stand pat or in essence, fall behind.
One has to take the Times story with a grain of salt. Remember that China has a lack of environmental groups, lawyers and regulations that make upgrading in the US a nightmare. Also remember that in China the government basically gets what it wants without and hassle from either compaines or the people.
If a US company wanted to grandfather out an old coal plant and replace it with a new one, it would have to do a massive environmental impact statement, then it would have to comply with all of the new regulations, then it would probably have to fight all sorts of groups who would perfer a renewable source of power instead of a new coal plant. So a 5% increase in efficiency would end up costing so much that the required rate increase to cover said cost would never be approved by the regulatoy agency covering the rates they can charge.
Also holding China up as a paragon of environmental compliance is a bit short sighted.