Coal use in focus on eve of US mid-term elections

US President Biden says he wants to get rid of coal-fired power plants, angering a fellow Democrat who thinks high energy price necessitates burning of the dirtiest fossil fuel.

AP

Comments by President Joe Biden about shutting coal-fired power plants days before critical midterm elections drew fire on Saturday from a key conservative Senate Democrat. 

"No one is building new coal plants because they can't rely on it, even if they have all the coal guaranteed for the rest of their existence of the plant," Biden said on Friday at an event touting his administration's economic policies in Carlsbad, California. 

"We're going to be shutting these plants down all across America and having wind and solar." 

The remark cast light on a touchy political issue for Biden and his fellow Democrats as inflation is near a four-decade peak, something that voters say is their top concern. 

Higher energy costs following Russia's war in Ukraine have helped lift prices, along with the economic rebound from the COVID19 pandemic. 

Pennsylvania, where Biden spoke on Saturday, is both a major producer and consumer of coal. 

Tuesday's midterms will determine whether Democrats retain control of Congress and hinge on races like the one for an open Senate seat in Pennsylvania. 

Senator Joe Manchin, who represents coal-producing West Virginia, said on Saturday Biden's remarks were "outrageous and divorced from reality" 

Biden's statement also dismisses "the severe economic pain the American people are feeling because of rising energy costs," he said. 

"Comments like these are the reason the American people are losing trust in President Biden and instead believe he does not understand the need to have an all in energy policy that would keep our nation totally energy independent and secure," Manchin said in a statement. 

"It seems his positions change depending on the audience and the politics of the day." 

Desperate times, coal measures

Biden has long made shifting the US from fossil fuels a part of his programme to address climate change and reduce carbon emissions. 

He plans to travel to the COP27 climate summit in Egypt just two days after the congressional elections. 

The power industry is the source of a quarter of the US' greenhouse gases. Biden campaigned on a pledge to cut net emissions to zero by 2035. 

US carbon emissions from the power sector have already dropped sharply in recent years as utilities retire old coal-fired power plants in favour of natural gas, solar and wind power – a shift driven by decreasing prices for these sources and state and federal incentives for renewable energy. 

Only a few months back, governments in most of the advanced countries were committed to cutting coal use and meet their carbon emission targets. 

But some European countries including Germany and Austria have reopened coal-fired power plants as a way of dealing with the energy crisis caused by Russia's war in Ukraine.

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