Environmental Protection Agency chief Gina McCarthy on Thursday drove the proverbial stake into the heart of the coal industry, by saying coal-fired power is “not necessarily the path to the future” anywhere in the world.
McCarthy made the comments during a session on Facebook to promote the Obama administration’s work on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and promoting cleaner energy. But the direction she spelled out for coal, calling the widely used fuel source unmarketable, stoked the ire of industry and its supporters.
“We know in the U.S. that we are transitioning away from coal because coal is no longer marketable,” McCarthy said on the social media site from Paris. “We have cleaner natural gas, and we have opportunities for low-carbon sources like renewables and using energy efficiency to lower energy demand.”
The Department of Energy’s analysis arm says that natural gas has been beating out coal as the nation’s top electricity producer since earlier in the year, with no sign of letup. The Energy Department says the large supply of the fuel, and its record-low prices, is sustaining the drive toward more highly efficient gas-fired power plants.
McCarthy’s “comments about the coal industry once again highlight a personal agenda rather than one focused on our nation’s energy needs,” Laura Sheehan, vice president of communications for the pro-coal American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity. Sheehan says McCarthy is bactracking from a year ago when she said coal would continue to be part of the energy mix. Now that seems to be over.
“No other energy source compares to coal when it comes to reliability and affordability,” but McCarthy “is conveniently backtracking to better politicize the president’s agenda on the world stage.”
The Energy Department’s latest data shows coal plants continuing to close, while natural gas plants ramp up alongside solar and wind energy.
EPA’s Clean Power Plan, which is the centerpiece of Obama’s climate change agenda, is incentivizing the push toward renewables and away from coal. Sheehan said the “costly power plan lacks support in Congress and in the states, because it will do nothing to address global climate change and do everything to undermine state rights and cripple our economy.”
