But while the EU has been busy debating its energy future, coal has re-emerged as fuel of choice in Europe. Indeed, the US shale gas boom has led to the American excess coal getting dumped on the old continent.
This unexpected shift in Europe’s energy mix is a symptom of failing EU climate change policies: while large sums of public money are used to subsidise expensive renewable energy technologies, the very same policies set perverse incentives to burn heavily polluting coal. As a result, gas is being squeezed out, with gas-powered plants mothballed across Europe.
And yet gas is the flexible and clean balancing fuel that is necessary for the EU climate policies to succeed."...
And with nuclear power plants closed too. Irony? Obama will shut down US coal power plants and Europe, India, and China will be getting discount coal from the US.
Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.
