Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

SoylentNews is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop. Only 11 submissions in the queue.
posted by martyb on Thursday July 25 2019, @07:00AM   Printer-friendly
from the Just-how-much-coal-ash-and-CO2-is-produced-from-geothermal-and-solar? dept.

The Trump Administration Protested when Kenya Halted Construction of a Coal-Fired Power Plant:

When the Kenyan government had second thoughts about allowing the country's first coal-fired power plant, the Trump Administration's representative in the country protested.

U.S. Ambassador Kyle McCarter, a Trump appointee who previously served as a Republican state senator in Illinois, went on Twitter to argue in a string of tweets that coal is environmentally sound, that the plant would boost the country's economy and that a critical analysis of the plant from a clean energy think tank amounted only to the work of "highly paid protestors."

"Coal is the cleanest, least costly option," U.S. Ambassador Kyle McCarter wrote from his official Twitter last week. "Investors will come."

[...] McCarter['s] Twitter comments began on June 25, after Kenya's National Environmental Tribunal's announced that it would halt construction of the Lamu coal-fired power plant, which would have been the first such power plant in the country. The court said the project's planners had failed to engage the local community and argued that the environmental review conducted ahead of the project did not adequately address several environmental issues including the country's commitment to fighting climate change. The project could still be revived if a new environmental assessment adequately addresses the concerns laid out in the decision.

[...] The U.S. recently launched a program promoting investment in the region, intended to serve as a geopolitical counterweight to China's growing influence, and McCarter seemed to suggest that a coal-fired new power plant would advance U.S. investment. Still, on its face, the project raises questions about how it would serve U.S. interests over China's given that it is financed by China and would be built by Chinese developers.

In a contrast to McCarter's remarks, the Chinese ambassador to Kenya met with opponents of the coal-fired power plant on June 28 and told them that he supported the will of "the people of Kenya" to "decide whether there would be a coal power plant or not," according to a statement from activists.

Also on:
Associated Press, Guardian, Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis


Original Submission

This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
(1)
  • (Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 25 2019, @08:03AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 25 2019, @08:03AM (#870953)

    Surely it is obvious by now that wrecking the environment is in the interests of the USA. I mean
    won't anyone
    Think of the hurricanes!

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 25 2019, @08:39AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 25 2019, @08:39AM (#870957)
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 25 2019, @04:58PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 25 2019, @04:58PM (#871132)

      Fuck people. We don't want people to have reliable power. That would just mean they're competition. it'd be better for them to freeze to death or burn to death then have air conditioning.

  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 25 2019, @08:05AM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 25 2019, @08:05AM (#870954)

    "War is not merely a political act, but also a real political instrument, a continuation of political commerce, a carrying out of the same by other means."

    von Clausewitz

    If this adversarial stance against CO2 curbing is a new official policy to the extent of international global and bilateral affairs, what are we expecting in near future? Shooting wars to "protect" coal burning, by forcing countries to keep, or even to build new coal power plants?

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 25 2019, @10:26AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 25 2019, @10:26AM (#870970)

      Burn the Coal or Pay the Toll.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 25 2019, @04:01PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 25 2019, @04:01PM (#871101)

        Because a coal is a coal, and a toll is a toll,
        and if we don't get no tolls, we don't eat no rolls.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by hendrikboom on Thursday July 25 2019, @03:47PM

      by hendrikboom (1125) Subscriber Badge on Thursday July 25 2019, @03:47PM (#871096) Homepage Journal

      Reminds me of the Opium war.

    • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday July 25 2019, @04:11PM

      by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Thursday July 25 2019, @04:11PM (#871107) Journal

      To avoid war, can Trump sign an executive order forcing Kenya to complete the coal plant?

      Green plants are good for the environment. So paint the coal plant green.

      --
      When trying to solve a problem don't ask who suffers from the problem, ask who profits from the problem.
  • (Score: 5, Informative) by c0lo on Thursday July 25 2019, @08:39AM (9 children)

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Thursday July 25 2019, @08:39AM (#870956) Journal

    First, in TFS but lost an emphasis

    Still, on its face, the project raises questions about how it would serve U.S. interests over China's given that it is financed by China and would be built by Chinese developers.

    Second, lost in editorialixing, a link which may cause some inflammation but does report a fact.
    Donald Trump Renews Campaign against Wind Power with a New Claim [newsweek.com]: 'they say windmill noise causes cancer'
    Reported in more places than I care to select from [google.com]

    "Hillary wanted to put up wind. Wind," he told the crowd. "If you have a windmill anywhere near your house, congratulations, your house just went down 75 percent in value." He then introduced his newest argument, telling the audience, "And they say the noise causes cancer," before mimicking the sound of a turbine as the crowd laughed and applauded.

    Yeah, windpower is a Hillary thing, so it's eeeevil. And causes cancer.

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
    • (Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday July 25 2019, @09:36AM (6 children)

      by takyon (881) <takyonNO@SPAMsoylentnews.org> on Thursday July 25 2019, @09:36AM (#870961) Journal

      Incredible, we're helping China (with supportive verbal spewage) to finance the modernization (including increased emissions) of developing countries.

      Solar is more interesting than wind since it decentralizes power generation and is bitterly opposed by utility companies [nytimes.com]. But coal is not environmentally sound. Better build some next-gen nuclear or thorium instead.

      --
      [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
      • (Score: 2) by Bot on Thursday July 25 2019, @10:47AM (4 children)

        by Bot (3902) on Thursday July 25 2019, @10:47AM (#870981) Journal

        They have a nuclear reactor in the sky already, called the sun. I guess Kenya could get away with painting a tank black, concentrate some sun rays on it, and get steam. Or use stirling engines on the difference between a sun exposed spot and an underground hole.

        Photoelectric if you really want to be high tech.

        --
        Account abandoned.
        • (Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday July 25 2019, @10:57AM (1 child)

          by takyon (881) <takyonNO@SPAMsoylentnews.org> on Thursday July 25 2019, @10:57AM (#870989) Journal

          I prefer photon capture and imprisonment to all this solar crap.

          --
          [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
          • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday July 25 2019, @02:55PM

            by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Thursday July 25 2019, @02:55PM (#871071) Journal

            Photon catch and release.

            Catch and Release.

            It's how some people date.

            --
            When trying to solve a problem don't ask who suffers from the problem, ask who profits from the problem.
        • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday July 25 2019, @11:48AM (1 child)

          by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Thursday July 25 2019, @11:48AM (#871005) Journal

          Concentrating solar. A bunch of mirrors, a tank of liquid salt, and bob's your uncle.

          --
          I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
          • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Thursday July 25 2019, @07:35PM

            by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Thursday July 25 2019, @07:35PM (#871221) Journal

            That's a good idea for the Sahara. I'm not sure about Kenya. What's the weather like?

            Actually, even in the Sahara you'd need to worry about sandstorms, and sand getting into the movable joints, etc., but those are old problems with decent solutions. You might need to pick your site carefully.

            --
            Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
      • (Score: 4, Interesting) by c0lo on Thursday July 25 2019, @11:59AM

        by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Thursday July 25 2019, @11:59AM (#871012) Journal

        Incredible, we're helping China (with supportive verbal spewage) to finance the modernization (including increased emissions) of developing countries.

        Yeah, those backwater ideas of theirs.
        Like what? 590MW already producing and 5,530 MW in 10 years of that childish geothermal plants? [wikipedia.org] Who do they think they are, get to a third of what US could get [wikipedia.org] with only 1/8 of US population and 3% of US GDP?

        Then... go figure. Those Kenyans want 1GW of nuclear energy by 2022 and 4GW into 2030 [wikipedia.org].

        Only the two above and it'd be enough for a... ummm, liberation action. That is, if they don't back off and get to use coal, like everybody does.

        --
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
    • (Score: 2) by janrinok on Thursday July 25 2019, @03:23PM (1 child)

      by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Thursday July 25 2019, @03:23PM (#871081) Journal

      The summary does not have to display every link. That is called summarizing. If you read the story itself all the links are there.

      • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday July 25 2019, @09:55PM

        by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Thursday July 25 2019, @09:55PM (#871267) Journal

        I pick the linx I consider relevant for the context, you do what you feel you need to do, I react to what you do.
        What's the problem?

        --
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
  • (Score: 3, Funny) by DannyB on Thursday July 25 2019, @02:49PM

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Thursday July 25 2019, @02:49PM (#871068) Journal

    ". . . second brand new coal mine where they're going to take out clean coal meaning they're taking out coal they're going to clean it . . ."
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGbZ84PqHgI&t=3 [youtube.com]

    " . . . but the only coal we give is coal from china, do you think they clean the coal? Believe me they don't! . . ."
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8c1aAuXpss&t=11 [youtube.com]

    --
    When trying to solve a problem don't ask who suffers from the problem, ask who profits from the problem.
  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by jmichaelhudsondotnet on Thursday July 25 2019, @05:32PM

    by jmichaelhudsondotnet (8122) on Thursday July 25 2019, @05:32PM (#871152) Journal

    how competent and long-armed these people are when it comes to the things that clearly threaten the entire human species, inclusive the now accelerated destruction of the amazon rainforest(while a guy wealthy beyond belief running a company with the name amazon builds spaceships and litigates over domain trademark rights).

    There are some things that humans do that I understand and are simply within the range of human experience no matter how unpleasant or odd but there are other things that are absolutely foreign to my understanding.

    People who want to have sex with horses and people who are still gung ho about fossil fuels in 2019 are some of the first that come to mind.

    If I wanted to clear humans off this planet so I could eat all the jellyfish I want in a sauna like environment, this is exactly the type of thing I'd be up to.

  • (Score: 2) by mendax on Friday July 26 2019, @12:06AM

    by mendax (2840) on Friday July 26 2019, @12:06AM (#871292)

    Coal is the cleanest, least costly option

    Only a Trump appointee (read "stooge") would say that in public and actually mean it.

    --
    It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
(1)