Page - 65 - in Water, Energy, and Environment - A Primer

offossil fuelswillalsoseevalueinCCSallowingextendeduseof secure domestic energy reserves. In a world committed to reducing carbon emissions CCS offers a helping hand but not a definitive one. It may offer a partial answer for the rest of the 21st century, but governments are unlikely to provide the needed funds for large-scale deployment. Amajor question is whether the private fossil fuel sector iswilling to stepup toprotect its vested interests. 6.1.2 Aconundrum The mining and use of coal presents a difficult-to-resolve conundrum, especially for countries like China, Australia, and the US with large amounts of this fossil fuel. Coal reserves provide a relatively low-cost energy resource, but its combustion produces large amounts of CO2, a greenhouse gas. The conundrum is a clear example of a conflict of values – the need to provide energy services to people around the world, in particular people in developing countries whose per capita consumption of electricity is well below that of developed countries, and the need to address climate changewith itsmany adverse consequences.Noeasy answer exists to satisfy those on both sides of this conflict. JobyWarick, in a well researched piece in the 16 October 2015 edition of The New York Times examined this question from the US perspective. Several statements caught my attention: ‘Just a dozen nearbymines, scattered across a valley known as the Powder River Basin (Wyoming), contain enough coal to meet the country’s electricity needs for decades. But burning all of it would release more than 450 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere –more than all greenhouse- gas emissions from all sources since 2000.’ and ‘The Obama Administration is seeking to curb theUnited States’ appetite for the basin’s coal, which scientists saymust remainmostly in the ground to prevent a disastrouswarming of the planet. Yet each Fossil fuels 65