Old King Coal (thanks to Doug)

Man, China just can’t stay out of the news, can they? This time it’s about clean coal, specifically that they’re miles ahead of us in both using and refining the process. According to the New York Times, “China has begun building such plants [more efficient, coal-fired power plant that use extremely hot steam] at a rate of one a month,” while the US is still dithering around with the prospect of building one.

This sounds worse than it actually is, though. If cellulosic ethanol technology is still in a state of infancy, clean coal is a zygote. And even if it wasn’t, China still burns more coal than pretty much every other country on earth combined, and still hasn’t begun regulating emissions yet. Plus, “even an efficient coal-fired power plant emits twice the carbon dioxide of a natural gas-fired plant.” As far as clean fuel technology goes, they’re not as far ahead as they may seem.

Even so, we shouldn’t allow them to get one up on us in the energy race. In his book, American Theocracy, former GOP strategist Kevin Phillips theorizes that superpowers decline when they fail to adapt to new sources of energy. The Dutch became a superpower in the days when wood, water, and wind were the high points of energy production. However, they didn’t latch onto coal fast enough and were usurped by the British, who powered an empire on the stuff. Phillips further explains that when initial sources of innovation stagnate (i.e. when countries become too dependent on them), newer ones can cause a shift in global leadership almost single-handedly.

China’s progress does expose how little we’ve addressed what to do with industry, though. Most of the biofuel/cleaner energy talk has been about cars and occasionally home use, but what about our own heavy industry? We haven’t outsourced all of it, god knows, and we haven’t spent much time outlining what’s going to replace oil on that scale yet. We vote ethanol. But we always vote ethanol. What do you think?