Electricity

(12/22/2008) - One of the biggest long-term challenges in the battle to prevent global warming will be convincing China, India, and every other developing nation not to follow in our footsteps by developing a coal powered and gasoline fueled economy.  It is a problem that doesn't get sufficient attention from global warming activists in the United States, who try to tailor their solutions to the United States without considering global implications.

In a 2007 talk at the World Affairs Council of Northern California, Steven Chu (Obama’s nominee for Energy Secretary) outlined some of the problems the world faces.  Chu said that somewhere between two to three billion people don’t have access to “modern energy...meaning that they cook with dung or sticks.”  He also estimated that 1.6 to 1.7 billion people don’t have access to electricity. 

This will change as countries like China, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Botswana, and many more increase the standard of living within their borders.  Demand for electricity is rising around the world and most of it is fulfilled with power produced in coal-fired plants.  Chu says that the good and the bad news is that there’s plenty of coal left to feed rising demand.