[ExI] THE END for fossil power

[Damien Sullivan]

On Thu, Mar 31, 2011 at 09:25:01PM -0600, Kelly Anderson wrote:

> Now one thing I found very concerning, and I hope it is not right is
> that the US is now a net coal importer. That has geopolitical impact

We might be exporting crap coal, and importing the good low-sulphur
stuff for use in domestic power.  Imports might be cheaper than burning
our crap more cleanly, even if we could provide all our own coal.  Just
a guess.

> that goes beyond whether we are imminently running out of coal. The
> other thing that was truly disconcerting is how fast China was going
> through their supplies. I'd like to see some more mainstream numbers

And if oil runs out enough that people start synthesizing it from coal,
coal'll run down even faster.

-xx- Damien X-)