We would get a better bang for our buck by cleaning up smokestacks in China, or India. But how is that fair? It ignores the billions we've already spent, and relieves those gross polluters of their responsibilities to the rest of the world. Additional steps are now really, really expensive. In the US, the low-hanging fruit has already been picked.
Despite the rhetoric, we as Americans should be proud of what we have already done to clean up our mess. When the other industrialized nations have brought themselves to our level of effectiveness, regulation, cost and economic impact, then, maybe, we could discuss further steps to take TOGETHER.
Until that happens, whatever we do will be just cows farting into the wind.
Wow Doug, you absolve your country easily; I am not so lenient on mine.
Forbes Oct 2018
“Now Asia - which accounts for close to 80% of total global coal usage - is increasingly turning to the U.S. to supply coal. We are still the world's third largest coal producer. The U.S. supplies both types,
met coal to produce steel and steam coal to produce electricity. "
U.S. coal exports increased by 61% in 2017 as exports to Asia more than doubled”
The fact is that both China (65%) and India (75%) are hugely dependent upon coal-based electricity, which will be needed in even bigger quantities to lift their low
Human Development Index closer to those in the West, where universal electricity access has more people living better and longer. Can you really blame them?
Asian review Aug 2018
LONDON -- U.S. coal exports to Asia surged in 2017, and there is an argument to be made for America to become an even bigger global supplier of the fuel, a Nikkei Asian Review study has found.
I am not sure how much of this thread you have read, you need a lot of stamina to read it all in my opinion it tends to go round in circles in any case. The above is exactly what Professor Edenhofer was talking about in an interview to a Swiss newspaper.
Larry immediately jumped on the article claiming it was an admission from the horse’s mouth, (Oct 2018 post 2084) and he had found the smoking gun that showed “CC/GW ‘movement’ is nothing more than a wealth redistribution scheme.” However, what Proffesor Edenhofer actually meant is
“If we take the climate targets seriously, the bulk of the remaining fossil fuel reserves needs to stay underground and must not be burnt. In effect, this leads to a devaluation of fossil reserves which can – in a way – be characterized as a redistribution of wealth. But to be clear, this is rather a logical consequence of the necessity to stop using fossil fuels, NOT the primary (or “hidden”) goal of climate policy.” (sic)
The USA may have cleaned up its act for itself (although that may be short lived as doesn't your President want to increase coal production?) but to use Larry’s vernacular is effectively making Gazillions by exporting pollution to other countries. Then many like yourself absolve their countries of all responsibility and point the finger of blame for pollution at them, As the saying goes when you point a finger at someone, there are three fingers pointing back at you. Unless of course you have some funny Freemasonry type finger pointing ritual going on.
When it comes to CC/GW deniers you need to follow the money
. "These (coal) export increases have nothing to do with policy, and everything to do with economics," said Elias Johnson, coal analyst for the U.S. Energy Information Administration
