Coal Increasingly Seen As Option For European Energy Security

Replacing Russian gas will likely include some combination of greater pipeline and electrical grid interconnections between countries, more LNG imports, renewable energy, and a push for the development of European shale gas. But a campaign to improve energy security could have coal at its core, despite many European governments’ long-held goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The energy security that coal provides may trump Europe’s climate goals. For a continent skeptical of fracking, turning away from nuclear, and looking to replace for Russian gas, coal may end up having a longer shelf life than those hoping to address climate change previously thought. –Nick Cunningham, Oil Price, 27 April 2014

What more could one want? It is cheap and simple to extract, ship and burn. It is abundant: proven reserves amount to 109 years of current consumption, reckons BP, a British energy giant. They are mostly in politically stable places. There is a wide choice of dependable sellers. Other fuels are beset by state interference and cartels, but in this industry consumers are firmly in charge, keeping prices low. Just as this wonder-fuel once powered the industrial revolution, it now offers the best chance for poor countries wanting to get rich. –The Economist, 19 April 2014

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