Note from Christi:

China Wants To End Blackouts With Western Help — And American Coal

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By: Ken Siverstein, Forbes

When President Obama pronounced the steps that his administration would take to reduce carbon emissions, he spoke eloquently — that U.S. citizens “will have the satisfaction of knowing that the world we leave to our children will be better off for what we did.” The bigger test, though, is to get globe’s other polluters to join in the crusade, namely China.

China relies largely on coal to power its economy. But domestic and global environmental pressures are forcing it to look at other options that include nuclear energy and hydro-power. To get there, it needs a heck of a lot more foreign participation. By its own standards, China needs to attract $200 billion in private capital by 2030, and will require trillions overall in 20 years, says the International Energy Agency.

The United States and China, together, produce about 42 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions. In this country, totals are falling because of the coal-to-gas transition. But in China, they are rising, largely because it is building one coal generator a month. While critics decry China’s heavy coal use, its supporters are bullish: It’s an economy growing at 8 percent annually while its demand for energy is escalating even faster. Coal facilities, though, are doing most of the heavy lifting.

Continue to read the full article here.