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The trouble is, the economics only worked out that way because natural gas was cheap - it's not anymore, and countries have been rolling back their coal shutdow
by makomk 4y ago
The trouble is, the economics only worked out that way because natural gas was cheap - it's not anymore, and countries have been rolling back their coal shutdowns as a result. There's a good chance it never will be again. The same people who were campaigning for that managed to convince pretty much all developed nations other than the US to end new natural gas investment and extraction, and without the supply there prices won't go down and it won't be feasible to use as a coal replacement. This will probably also cut into the switch to renewables because all of the alternatives to natural gas, like coal, play much less well with them.
- ZeroGravitas 4y agoHigh gas prices help renewables, because they are even cheaper by comparison. As shown by this model, which as well as removing the 75% of coal fired electricity, reduces the gas fired electricity from 15% to less than 5% and saves lots of money in the process. The American move from coal to gas shows that even in places where it's still politically favorable to pretend climate change isn't happening, or that coal is clean, simple economics is a big driver of change.