It makes no sense to decimate the energy industry in the United States when China is the primary culprit.
30 years ago most of China's working population got around on foot or on a bicycle. Today they are the fastest growing economy on the planet, thanks to the world's online shopping habits. Consequently they also are the world's leading emitter of greenhouse gases.
While Democrats are busy gutting our ability to mine our natural resources, China is building new coal fired energy plants, all the while trying to suck up as much of the world's fossil-fuels as they can to keep their expanding economy from collapsing. They're bribing our politicians. Politicians that would never give US energy producers any slack....but allow China to do pretty much whatever they want. The Western world has agreed to exempt countries like the PRC and India, two of the worst polluters on planet.
China is using so much coal that their air quality is similar to, or worse than, the air quality in Europe during the height of the industrial revolution.
An estimated 1.24 million people died from exposure to air pollution in the PRC in 2017, according to a recent study in the medical journal The Lancet. Since 2000, the number of people who have died from air pollution in the PRC tops 30 million, according to New Scientist magazine.
“Too much of the Chinese Communist Party’s economy is built on willful disregard for air, land, and water quality,” Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo said in August. “The Chinese people — and the world — deserve better.”
The PRC has been the world’s largest annual emitter of greenhouse gases since 2006, and its emissions are increasing. Energy-related emissions of carbon dioxide in the PRC have increased more than 80 percent between 2005 and 2019, while U.S. energy-related emissions dropped by more than 15 percent during the same period, according to the International Energy Agency.
China is killing it's citizens and the planet at an alarming rate.....but if you ask a liberal/progressive about this....they don't know what you're talking about. And they are planning on increasing their emissions. They aren't cutting....they've just agreed to cap it at a set level....which, thanks to the wokes in the US and Europe, hasn't been reached yet. China isn't looking seriously for alternatives when they can get away with using a cheap source they're using today (Coal). They also aren't attempting to develop clean coal technology because they know that it would make energy more expensive to produce.
The only way the PRC can clear the smog is by shutting everything down for weeks, other than a few energy plants. They did this in the last Olympics in Beijing. Beijing was like a ghost town during the 2008 Summer Olympics.
A prime example of what happens when China shuts everything down and then restarts it after a military parade they held to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the defeat of Japan during WW II.
"Beijing CNN —
Well, that was quick.
Less than 24 hours after the end of China’s massive military parade, Beijing is back to its usual smoggy self.
Residents woke up Friday morning to find the crystal blue skies that graced the city nearly two weeks suddenly gone – in their place, the familiar sight and smell of dour gray pollution clouds.
Starting late August, Beijing enjoyed a rare string of continuously clear days as authorities took drastic action to ensure an azure backdrop for the largest parade it’s ever held – a showcase marking the 70th anniversary of Japan’s defeat in World War II.
Hundreds of factories were shut during this time, while half of Beijing’s five million registered cars were banned from the streets.
It worked. On the morning of the parade, the air quality index (AQI) – an international standard for measuring the severity of air pollution – dipped to a pristine 17 out of 500, signifying very healthy air.
Excited Beijingers coined the unusually blue skies “parade blue.”
But now the cars are back and the city is back to “Beijing gray.”
Friday’s AQI shot up past 160 in parts of the city, rated “unhealthy”."
Links
Blue sky vanishes immediately after Beijing's massive parade | CNN
A day after China's massive military parade, skies immediately turned from crystal blue to polluted gray.
www.cnn.com
Despite Pledges to Cut Emissions, China Goes on a Coal Spree
China is building large numbers of coal-fired power plants to drive its post-pandemic economy. The government has promised a CO2 emissions peak by 2030, but the new coal binge jeopardizes both China’s decarbonization plans and global efforts to tackle climate change.
e360.yale.edu
