1/29/13, "China Uses Nearly as Much Coal as Rest of World Combined, EIA Says," Wall St. Journal, Cassandra Sweet
"China's use of coal has grown quickly over the last decade and now
rivals the amount of coal consumed by the rest of the world combined,
the U.S. Energy Information Administration said Tuesday.
China consumed 3.8 billion short tons, or 3.45 billion metric tons,
of coal in 2011, nearly half the world's total consumption, the EIA
said, citing international data.
A short ton, a measurement used in the U.S., is equal to 0.9 metric ton, a measurement used in most other countries. Electricity generation in China has grown more than threefold since 2000, driving ever greater demand for coal, the EIA said.
China was also the world's largest coal producer in 2011, producing
more than 3.5 billion metric tons, or nearly 46% of global coal
production that year, according to data published by the International
Energy Agency. China was also the world's largest net importer of coal
in 2011, importing about 177 million metric tons of coal, according to
the IEA.
The U.S. produced a little more than one billion metric tons of coal
in 2011, or nearly 13% of the world supply, according to the IEA.
Global demand for coal has grown by about 2.9 billion short tons, or
2.6 billion metric tons, since 2000, with 82% of that demand growth in
China, the EIA said.
It was unclear how much coal in China is used for electricity generation and how much is used for making steel. About 13% of global coal produced, or about 717 million metric tons,
is used by the steel industry, according to the World Coal Association,
an industry group.
China has relied on coal to fuel nearly 80% of its power plants, the coal association said, citing data from 2009.
In the U.S., coal-fired power plants generate about 40% of the nation's electricity, according to the EIA.
Coal use has declined in the U.S. since 2007, as the electricity
sector has increasingly used natural gas, which is cheaper and more
abundant, due thanks to a shale-gas production boom." via Climate Depot
====================================
1/29/13,
"Cleaner air will require tougher diplomacy," Washington Times, opinion, Gray
"The U.S. has in the last year reduced greenhouse gases by a much wider
margin than any other developed country. It has also essentially met the
target set at Copenhagen — the site of the last major international
climate change meeting — for CO2 reductions by developed countries....
Unfortunately, the massive traditional pollution problems faced by China — witness the horrific recent PM inversion in Beijing — don’t hurt just China’s people. Pollutants such as PM travel long distances across the Pacific; 25 percent of the West Coast’s PM comes from China,
according to some accounts.
PM is hugely expensive to clean up, and
thus poses unacceptably high costs on California which has no way to
distinguish in clean programs between tons that come from Californians
and those that come from China.
If
the White House wants to make any real contribution to the environment,
it would not impose more unilateral CO2 controls in the U.S., forcing
even more jobs abroad. It would instead negotiate a treaty with China
over traditional pollutants that currently cost American lives and
treasure. This would, of course, bring enormous immediate relief to both
Chinese and Californians. But it would also produce in China massive CO2 reduction co-benefits for the future, as traditional pollution reduction is already demonstrating in the US."
--------------------------------------
Big banks financing coal:
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7/21/11, "Why did Bloomberg Tap the Sierra Club for his $50 Million Donation?" WNYC.org
"Why the Sierra Club? They were the lucky environmental group to get $50 million pledged
from Bloomberg Philanthropies Thursday. Turns out that Mayor Bloomberg,
who was the nation's second largest donor in 2010, has been chummy with
the senior leadership of the Sierra Club since 2007. Carl Pope, former
executive director of the Sierra Cub, was present at the launch of the
city's Greener Greater Buildings Plan in 2009, one of the mayor's
signature environmental achievements."...
=============================
2/10/11, "How Bloomberg Does Business," The Nation, Aram Roston
"Though Bloomberg doesn’t run the day-to-day affairs of Bloomberg LP,
he still owns almost all the shares, handpicks the firm’s managers,
talks with them as much as he feels he needs to, and therefore imposes
his own will on the firm when he likes. (New York’s ineffectual
Conflicts of Interest Board limited but never fully defined the mayor’s
role at the company he founded: the board allows him to “maintain the
type of involvement that he believes is consistent with his being the
majority shareholder.”)...
Given Bloomberg’s push for a national platform, any intersections
between his corporation’s interests and the government warrant scrutiny.
And Bloomberg LP runs an effective and sophisticated lobbying shop to
promote the firm’s interests with federal agencies and Congress.
It’s
striking how, in a fully synergistic Bloomberg style,
a news
organization,
a financial information company and
a team of lobbyists
often seem to be working in smooth concert."...
=============================
With "reputation insurance" purchased from the Sierra Club, Mayor Bloomberg is seen as a planetary savior rather than the single biggest polluter in New York City:
2/14/11, “Flight records uncover elusive Mayor’s tracks,” WSJ, Maremont, McGinty, Saul
"The records also show that the Bloomberg fleet has been the single largest user of scarce slots allocated to private aircraft at La Guardia airport. The flights continued apace even
after the mayor two years ago called for curbs on small commercial
planes at La Guardia and other area airports to reduce congestion.
...
A billionaire, Mr. Bloomberg also owns vacation homes in London and Vail, Colo., and enjoys playing golf in various locales....
Bloomberg planes departed or landed 853 times between August 2008 and the end of 2010.
That is 8% of all general aviation movements at La Guardia during that
period....
Mr. Loeser declined to comment on any conflict between Mr. Bloomberg’s public stance on airport congestion and the number of Bloomberg Services flights at La Guardia.“
----------------------------------------
6/4/12, “Climate change stunner: USA leads world in CO2 cuts since 2006,” Vancouver Observer, Saxifrage
“Not only that, but as my top chart shows, US CO2 emissions are falling even faster than what President Obama pledged in the global Copenhagen Accord.…
Here is the biggest shocker of all: the average American’s CO2 emissions are down to levels not seen since 1964 --over half a century ago. …Coal is the number two source of CO2 for Americans. Today the average American burns an amount similar
to what they did in 1955, and even less than they did in the 1940s.
…It is exactly America’s historical role of biggest and dirtiest that makes their sharp decline in CO2 pollution so noteworthy
and potentially
game changing at the global level.”...
.
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