While first-world governments, including the United States of America, continue to pursue so-called green energy policies that drive up prices, India, the world’s second-most-populous country, is reopening at least 100 coal mines to meet energy demands for its 1.3 billion residents.
Demand for what climate alarmists assure us is the dirtiest of all the fossil fuels was down during the Covid-19 pandemic. But as India and the world emerge from pandemic lockdowns, the demand for energy has increased.
Much of 2022’s increased demand is a result of an unrelenting heat wave, which climate hysterics, of course, blame on human-caused global warming. Despite that, the Indian government is willing to play the climate bad guy in the service of its citizens, who need to use their air conditioners in the oppressive heat.
“Earlier we were hailed as bad boys because we were promoting fossil fuel and now we are in the news that we are not supplying enough of it,” Coal Secretary Anil Kumar Jain said. “This is a very courageous move by the ministry and Coal India to offer very quickly large supplies of coal.”
The industry is attempting to alleviate the fears of green groups by assuring them that they have not given up on building renewable infrastructure for the long term.
“While we are stressing on developing renewable sources of energy, coal is also going to be one of the major contributors in energy production,” Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi said.
In addition to simply reopening the mines, Indian officials are reportedly set to remove mandatory technical requirements so that the mines can start producing immediately instead of waiting on the government to approve a mine’s readiness. In India, the government owns the coal, but operation is outsourced to private industries.
A memo circulated by the Indian government has reportedly asked mines to increase capacity by up to 40 percent.
“With the mine developer and operator model already existing, companies bidding for shut mines need not be technically qualified to do the mining work and the same could be outsourced on payment of a fee,” a coal ministry official said.
To speed production, the Indian government is also looking at easing environmental restrictions. The relaxing of these restrictions will allow mines to increase production by up to 10 percent without requiring such government approvals as impact assessment and consulting local residents.
In addition to increasing output from its own mines, the government is promising funding measures that will allow its thermal plants to import coal from countries such as Indonesia.
India’s rail system has also suspended a number of passenger lines to free up track space to get the needed coal to energy-supplying plants.
Imagine — a country responding to the obvious energy needs of its citizens instead of bowing to the alarmism of climate-change fanatics.
There’s a reason India is reverting — at least in the short term — to a fuel that climate hysterics insist is “dirty” instead of buying more solar panels and wind turbines. They understand that coal is efficient and reliable as opposed to so-called renewable sources.
In November of 2021, India’s government was predicting that the nation would reach peak fossil-fuel usage by the mid 2020s. This commitment to reopen at least 100 new coal mines in order to meet the nation’s peak fossil-fuel usage will likely mean that their peak usage estimate may not happen in that ambitious time frame. It also makes India’s COP26 pledge to reach “net zero” emissions by 2070 — already a difficult goal — even more unlikely than it already is.
The Indian government appears to be more concerned for the energy welfare of its 1.3 billion people than the Biden administration is about Americans. The Biden administration simply shrugs off the highest gas prices in history — which the administration has largely created with its “green” policies and sanctions on Russian oil and gas. As Americans struggle to pay nearly $5.00 per gallon of gasoline, leaders in India have chosen to thumb their noses at the overzealous and obnoxious climate-change hysterics.
If only Joe Biden and his administration could muster such intestinal fortitude.
