As NM shuts down coal plant (to defeat climate change) China builds even more coal plants

It would be funny if it weren’t so stupid. The San Juan Generating Station, thanks to Gov. Lujan Grisham’s 2019 Energy Transition Act, will shut down on Friday (September 30). That is 555 MegaWatts of relatively clean coal-fired power (thanks to scrubbers installed just a few years ago) that New Mexico will lose (and struggle to replace) by next summer.

If you think that will have any impact whatsoever on climate change, you can forget about it. Here is a news report out of China:

China approved 15 gigawatts of new coal-fired power capacity and another 30 million tonnes of coal-based iron-making capacity in the first half of this year.

That’s an investment of $26-33 billion in coal power and steel sectors in the first six months of this year ALONE! And, if you are confused (as we were) about how many MegaWatts are in a GigaWatt, those 555 MW being eliminated in New Mexico come to .555 of one GW (click for Google’s handy calculator). So, in New Mexico we are closing about 1/30th of the generating capacity that China is bringing online IN JUST SIX MONTHS. Want to bet which country’s power plants are cleaner?