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The regulatory uncertainty is built in. There's no amount of clarity on regulation that can save coal in its current form. These projects have a 50 year outlo
by addicted 9y ago
The regulatory uncertainty is built in.
There's no amount of clarity on regulation that can save coal in its current form.
These projects have a 50 year outlook. Even if we impose a carbon tax right now there will be tremendous uncertainty whrther that wkll be raised significantly higher 10 years from now. And the best bet is it will be raised until coal isn't viable anymore because if the price is low enough that coal burning is not dropping we will continue to be screwed.
The only thing that can save coal is technology. Unfortunately new coal is already as if not more expensive than new renewable. New technologies wkll only make it more expensive.
The other part is that the natural gas industry suffers from the same uncertainties. Yet it's destroying coal. The uncertainty is likely a very small factor at best.
- epistasis 9y agoYou've convinced me. Complaints about regulations and coal are a distraction and a dodge. There's no future in which newly-constructed coal generators are profitable, except for niche applications. I think that complaining about coal regulations is just a way to avoid facing reality. The large coal companies have already gone bankrupt recently; they will continue to go through restructuring for years as the sector shrinks massively. For natural gas, and for oil (transportation), we will see similar death throes as the carbon-free alternatives become cheaper than natural gas and oil. That's probably 15 years out, but the time will come, with or without the carbon tax.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]