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Abandoning coal

necessary but not sufficient conditions for  marketing, and shipping coal in the large

the United States to join Asian countries in  quantities required by electricity generation

altogether to

installing a new generation of nuclear reac-  plants."8 4 Numerous improvements such as

reduce carbon

tors. The other hurdles for nuclear power are  modularity of plant design have lowered

dioxide emissions

market related. Gas-fired plants are not only  cost and enhanced energy conversion effi-

substantially cheaper but can be flexibly  ciencies,8 5 but environmental retrofits have

is not warranted.

sized to meet the demand of a variety of mar-  canceled out some of this improvement.

kets. Coal at present is also substantially

Abandoning coal altogether to reduce

cheaper than nuclear fuel for large-sized  carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions is not war-

units (small coal plants have severe scale dis-  ranted if economics dictates otherwise. It is

economies and are rarely constructed).  economically wasteful to substitute alterna-

Nuclear power will also need to outgrow its  tive energies with an additional cost that is

federal insurance subsidy (the Price-  greater than the externality associated with

Anderson Act) as the U.S. court system  the traditional pollutants. Sound economic

81

moves toward more rational liability laws.

calculation will prevent developing coun-

tries, which can least afford it, from substi-

The Economic Resilience of

tuting for superior energy technologies oth-

Coal-Fired Electricity

ers that are inferior in terms of quantity,

The economics of coal-fired generation  reliability, and cost.8 6

eclipses that of natural gas (and liquefied

natural gas) in some major international  Renewable Energies: Ancient to Old

markets such as China and India because of

A salient historical insight for the cur-

those countries' huge indigenous coal  rent debate over renewable energy is how

reserves relative to methane. Yet reliance on  old hydropower is and how both wind and

coal in Asia has created severe air quality  solar enjoyed free-market sustainability

problems, which call for installing the latest  until cheaper and more flexible fossil fuels

emission-control technologies to reduce  came of age. A history of energy use in

particulates and NO in particular.8 2 China,  England revealed that in 1086 more than 6

x

for example, has shown rudimentary inter-  thousand watermills and windmills dotted

est in a "clean coal technology system with  the landscape.8 7 The long history of wind

coal preparation as the starting point, high-  and solar in the United States was docu-

efficiency combustion of coal as the core,  mented by a Greenpeace study:

coal gasification as the precursor and mine

area pollution control as the main compo-

In the late 1800s in the United

nent."8 3 That would narrow but not elimi-

States, solar water-heaters were

introduced commercially because

nate the cost advantage of coal over natural

they offered hot water conveniently

gas and liquefied natural gas plants in

inside a building without the trou-

those areas.

ble of heating it on a stove or on a

The price of coal for electricity genera-

fire out of doors. Despite cheap fos-

tion has been declining over time as a result

sil fuel and the invention of the

of falling upstream minemouth prices,

domestic water-heater, solar water-

reduced midstream transportation costs,

heaters enjoyed commercial viability

and improving downstream combustion

well into the 1940s. . . . Five decades

technology. The U.S. Department of Energy

ago, wind systems were fairly com

-

identified technological advances in under-

mon in many countries for water-

ground mining, large-scale surface mining,

pumping and mechanical power,

higher labor productivity, and the consoli-

and some small-scale electric-power

dation of coal transportation as "revolu-

generation. Then, except in certain

tionizing economies of scale in mining,

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