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Coal ships in the Three Gorges.
WASHINGTON–China’s lead in clean energies may be attractive to U.S. lawmakers, but both American and Chinese reliance on coal looks unlikely to change any time soon.
In a U.S. House of Representatives committee hearing this week, energy experts testified on the role of alternative and traditional sources compared to China’s energy portfolio. In addition to developing alternative energy sources like solar, wind and hydropower, many experts and representatives seemed to hold similar views on the necessity of developing technologies for cleaner coal and putting them into practice.
Eric Skalac/MNS
Chart of 3 highest energy consumptive countries 2006-2008
“It looks like we are adopting a policy to penalize fossil fuel,” said Committee Chairman Ed Whitfield,R-Ky., referring to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency clean air regulations. Whitfield worried that such regulations would make the U.S. less competitive in the global energy marketplace.
But Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., asked those testifying if the EPA was penalizing fossil fuels, or instead “protecting the public interest” from the pollution caused by such energy sources.
Mary Hutzler, a fellow with research and analysis group the Institute for Energy Research, said that people want to point to China as leading the race in clean energies, but pointed out that “they’re leading the race in all fuels.” Like the U.S., energy security had led China to developing numerous energy avenues.
Regulatory differences between the two countries were also a focus of discussion.
Impressed by China’s hydropower electricity generation on the Yangtze River, Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Texas, bemoaned restrictive regulations, saying “we can’t do that in the United States because of environmental policies.”
But Waxman and others thought “we’re going to continue to use coal for the foreseeable future.”
Though China’s portfolio of clean energies may have been attractive to some in the committee, most of the Americans agreed they would remain supplemental to coal energy for some time.