More than 1,000 new coal plants planned worldwide, figures show

[xchrom]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/nov/20/coal-plants-world-resources-institute?intcmp=122


A coal-burning power station in Beijing, China - the country is planning to build 363 new coal-fired power plants. Photograph: David Gray/Reuters

More than 1,000 coal-fired power plants are being planned worldwide, new research has revealed.

The huge planned expansion comes despite warnings from politicians, scientists and campaigners that the planet's fast-rising carbon emissions must peak within a few years if runaway climate change is to be avoided and that fossil fuel assets risk becoming worthless if international action on global warming moves forward.

Coal plants are the most polluting of all power stations and the World Resources Institute (WRI) identified 1,200 coal plants in planning across 59 countries, with about three-quarters in China and India. The capacity of the new plants add up to 1,400GW to global greenhouse gas emissions, the equivalent of adding another China – the world's biggest emitter. India is planning 455 new plants compared to 363 in China, which is seeing a slowdown in its coal investments after a vast building programme in the past decade.

[hatrack]

1. Well, that should do it

Not surprising, but . . . . shit.

[xchrom]

2. right? nt

[madrchsod]

3. some of those plants will be fired by american coal...

[hatrack]

4. Bob Murray will be SO happy!

[phantom power]

5. long as we're not splitting atoms, right?

[pscot]

10. Anything but that

[stuntcat]

6. But the future is so bright!!

a wonderful Green Revolution is coming!! This century will be humanity's great crowning achievement!

(sorry, thanksgiving makes me bitter)

[wtmusic]

7. Not sure if this is good news, or bad

I recall hearing 1,400 coal plants were planned for China alone, a few years ago

[AverageJoe90]

12. Well, if your recollections are correct, then there may be some good news.....

At least in the fact that it seems that the number of planned coal plants seems to be significantly down from a few years ago.

Though 1,000 coal plants worldwide is still way too many, IMHO.

[joshcryer]

8. The US needs somewhere to export all that coal to!

[GliderGuider]

9. NOW will you believe my curve-fitting?

+1000 C(oal plants) = +10 C(elsius)...

[AverageJoe90]

11. Sorry Paul, but this really doesn't validate your 10*C by 2100 hypothesis. ;-)

[GliderGuider]

13. It doesn't, eh?

Watch this space...

[octoberlib]

14. Besides carbon there's the issue of coal ash

which pollutes rivers and streams. I have a journalist friend who's writing a book about it. She's visited every state in the US (including Alaska) investigating this.

Why should you care about coal ash?

It could be in your water.

Coal ash is full of heavy, often toxic metals like arsenic, hexavalent chromium, selenium and more. It's often stored in slurry ponds that contaminate groundwater and drain into rivers and lakes that often serve as drinking water sources for large populations.

It's unregulated federally and only barely by some states. After a Tennessee Valley Authority coal ash basin burst two days before Christmas in 2008, spilling nearly a billion gallons of coal ash slurry over about 300 acres in Kingston, Tenn. the U.S.Environmental Protection Agency’s administrator, Lisa P. Jackson, vowed that the agency would regulate coal ash — something it’s tried to do for decades — by December 2009. That didn’t happen.
Instead, the agency released two regulatory options and held a series of public hearings. Since then, more than 450,000 comments have been submitted, the U.S. House of Representatives has passed a bill that could prevent regulation, and several environmental groups have sued the EPA.


But, those aren't the only issues with coal ash. The biggest issues are the constant and invisible water contamination it causes and the power behind the push to keep it unregulated.

http://www.coalashchronicles.com/

[GliderGuider]

15. A 500 MW coal plant generates 3 MtCO2 per year.

This 1400 GW of new construction will add 8.4 GtCO2 per year to the atmosphere. That's an increase of 25% in our CO2 output - the same increase that happened over the decade from 2001 to 2011.

Nobody on God's gray Earth is planning to slow down coal use in the next 20 years.