“The historic trends contradict the conventional view that fossil generation has been declining, while renewables are gaining. According to the data, ‘The share of low carbon fuels (nuclear, hydro, wind & solar) peaked at 36% in 1995, coinciding with COP1 [the first UN conference of parties].'”

In the worldwide battle for electric generation, coal isn’t down and out. It isn’t even on the ropes. According to World Energy Data (formerly BP’s data collection report), coal is still the champ.

In 2022, coal accounted for 35.4% of global electric generation, followed by natural gas (22.7%), hydro (14.9%), nuclear (9.2%), wind (7.2%), solar (4.5%), geothermal, biomass, and other renewables (3.6%).

The historic trends contradict the conventional view that fossil generation has been declining, while renewables are gaining. According to the data, “The share of low carbon fuels (nuclear, hydro, wind & solar) peaked at 36% in 1995, coinciding with COP1 [the first UN conference of parties].”…

Ed. Note: This post excerpts energy and climate material from the Media Balance Newsletter, a free fortnighly published by physicist John Droz Jr., founder of the Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions. The complete Newsletter for this post can be found here.

Greed Energy Economics:
*** There Is A Financial Crisis Brewing In Offshore Wind Energy
Dominion hides huge offshore wind cost risk
Unlikely Pair Tries to Blow Open Secret NY Wind Deal 

Unreliables: Energy Health and Ecosystem Consequences:
*** One Simple Energy Question Devastates ‘Net-Zero’ Pipe Dreams
Human Rights Being Sacrificed to Promote Green Energy Scams

Unreliables (General):
*** The Big Green Lie Almost Everyone Claims to Believe
*** Massive Riots, Renewable Resentments
*** The Problem with Overbuilding Wind and Solar
*** The Power Of Power Density
Think megawatt hours of gasoline

Wind Energy — Offshore:
*** Offshore Wind Lulls Threaten NY Energy Reliability
*** Fishermen question the data behind offshore wind siting process
*** Why Offshore Wind Jobs May Just Be a Lot of Hot Air
*** Save the Whales, Again
BP and Equinor Could Cancel US Offshore Wind Projects
Offshore Wind Opponents need a Mass Protest in DC

Wind Energy — Other:
*** Taking the Wind Out of Climate Change (referencing 60± studies)
*** State Senator introduces bill requiring wind turbine installations in NYC
Siemens Faces $5 Billion Loss On Faulty Wind Turbines
Massachusetts 50 Years of Wind Turbine Failures

Solar Energy:
*** Solar Realities (updated)
New analysis tears down lies about renewables, reveals solar panels to be carbon-intensive
Let Them Eat Solar Panels

Nuclear Energy:
*** China Approves Six Nuclear Reactors at $17 Billion Investment
*** Vivek Ramaswamy: Shut Down the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
God and Nuclear Energy

Fossil Fuel Energy:
*** Eliminating Fossil Fuels Will Cause Massive Decline In Human Well-Being
*** Biden admin quietly revises gas stove analysis, reduces projected benefits
Three Cheers for Refrigeration—and Four, Once Everyone Has It
North Sea oil and gas fields tax credits are not subsidies

Electric Vehicles (EVs):
*** Electrogreens Want to Suck Your EV
*** Control is the Aim, EVs are the Game of the Moment
*** Spontaneous Combustion: A Serious Product Defect
They’re Coming for Your Cars
China ‘will use electric cars to spy on Britain’

Miscellaneous Energy News:
*** How to powerfully and accurately criticize the Biden Admin’s energy policies
*** Biden’s new crackdown on Air Conditioners will be worse than gas stoves
*** The EPA Tries to Destroy the Grid
The US Electrical Grid: Achilles Heel of the World?…

“UKers have been hearing doom for a half century. Citizens want affordable, reliable energy. Many if not most know that UK sacrifice will not have any affect on climate for decades given the global coal, gas, and oil boom. Adaptation yes, but don’t exaggerate.”

It began with a “Wake Up Rishi Sunak” post from Andrew Griffiths, director of Policy & Partnerships at PlanetMark, a climate activist organization that continually complains that the UK government never does enough to mitigate greenhouse gases. Never mind that the UK accounts for about one percent of such global emissions; its oil and gas industry is mostly shut down; businesses can’t afford climate-policy-inflated bills, and consumers are falling into energy poverty…. And the plants like CO2!

“When government actually tell the general public what the climate crisis will mean for the UK, they demand government action,” Andrew begins.…

“… why doesn’t a congressional subcommittee call these companies and a few more to tell us exactly what they are up to and what is going to happen to energy prices where parties have to buy credits for something that is not a pollutant?  After the meeting the company that has done the most to sell Kyoto should be awarded naming rights.”

I had a front row seat to many things energy and climate during my 16 years at Enron (1985–2001). At Political Capitalism, I described my Enron experience debating climate science and renewable policy (here).

Enron, in the words of a Greenpeace ex, was “the company most responsible for sparking off the greenhouse civil war in the hydrocarbon business.” [Jeremy Leggett, The Carbon War (London: Penguin Books, 1999, p.…