The money would be spent on activism, public relations and law suits against power companies. None of the funds would be spent to generate electricity from other sources:
Michael Bloomberg pumps $500 million into bid to close all US coal plants | Reuters
He would also shut half of all natural gas fired generation plants.
- About 1 in 5 watts generated in the U.S. comes from coal plants.
- About 2 in 5 watts come from natural gas plants. Shutting down half of the natural gas plants with the coal plant shut downs, would eliminate 40% of U.S. generation capacity.
- This would occur during a time when electricity usage is expected to increase by 50% between now and 2050, due to replacing gas stoves and water heaters with electric heating, and as tens of millions of EVs are added to the electrical grid, for charging. Indeed, Governors representing states with the majority of the U.S. population just announced a program to replace gas heating with tens of millions of electric heat pumps over the next several years.
The U.S. produced 4.24 trillion KWh in 2022 – Bloomberg would shut off 1.7 trillion KWh by about 2030.
Building new sources of electricity, whether wind farms and solar or nuclear power, can take one to two decades.
A new nuclear plant in Georgia, that just went into operation, produces 1,100 MW at peak. Site construction on the new reactors began in 2009, and reactor construction began in 2012, was then delayed by environmentalists, and then resumed in 2013, and was completed and the reactors turned on in 2023 (14 years).
About 39.5 GW of solar capacity (at peak output, during daylight, on sunny days) was available in 2022. Since 2014, the U.S. has averaged the addition of about 3 GW of solar PV power, per year.
Replacing 40% of the U.S. electrical generation capacity within six years seems unlikely, indeed, impossible. When 40% of the U.S. grid is taken offline, just as demand is increasing, the U.S. economy may collapse.
The reporter on the above story has a BA in International Relations (Wellesley College, about $80k/year in non-discounted tuition and fees in 2023), an MA in International Affairs from University College London, did a journalism fellowship in China, another in Germany, and worked in London. A global elitist, she writes often about the terror of climate change and we must take immediate action.
Another Reuters story says China is pursuing coal-powered EVs and this will be better for the environment:
Sept 19 (Reuters) – China is building two-thirds of the coal-fired electricity generation capacity currently under construction globally, and this may not be as disastrous for the climate as it sounds.
China’s huge coal plant building has weird climate logic | Reuters
Read that again – China building coal-fired electric generation to run EVs (read the whole thing) is good for the environment. But the U.S. must shut down all coal plants urgently.
The author of that story has lived in multiple countries all round the world.
There seems to be a disconnect about what is involved in replacing existing infrastructure with new infrastructure. Building anything takes time – often much longer than we realize. Portland, OR is building a new water infrastructure pipeline – and construction is taking 20 years. California’s 25-year high speed rail project is now going to finish about half the line – in the easiest area to do construction in the Central Valley – in about 25 years.
This tweet possibly captures the problem:
