Andrew Moran: Trump Seeks to Make Coal Great Again

The black rock to power advanced artificial intelligence.

Like Dutch tulips and the dot-com era, the world is euphoric over artificial intelligence (AI), automation, and robots. Humanity has been able to build technology that will eventually be sentient, requiring semiconductors, data centers, and industrial materials. Along the way, we forgot about one pressing need for advancing AI to the next level: energy. The White House thinks coal could potentially help power our appetite for generating AI slop and keeping Neo operating to fold the laundry and unload the dishwasher.

Ryan Bridge: Coal keeps the lights on

We need to be a bit practical about this business of importing coal.

Yesterday Genesis, Mercury, Meridian, and Contact announced they're going to stockpile up to 600,000 tonnes of coal to keep the lights on at Huntly power station.

The deal needs Commerce Commission's approval so it doesn't look like they're colluding on price, but the idea struck a deal, which still needs Commerce Commission approval, to keep the lights on at Huntly.

Chris Morrison: Net Zero is Dying Around the World.....

Net Zero is Dying Around the World But the Diehards Live on Helped by Vast Amounts of Chinese Coal

In 2021, President Xi Jinping promised that China would “strictly limit the increase in coal consumption over the 14th five-year plan period (2021-2025) and phase down in the 15th five-year plan period (2026-2030)”. Perhaps something got lost in the translation of “strictly limit” or should we just limit ourselves to the appropriate response – hahahahaha. Net Zero is dying around the world, no more so than in China where the appropriate lip service goes hand in hand with the full service manufacturing and sale of dud windmills and solar panels to subsidy-seekers reliant on dwindling bands of deluded politicians.

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 8/5/24

Hurrah for coal – Shane Jones welcomes Genesis Energy’s import plans as natural gas production shrinks

A significant decline in natural gas production has given Resources Minister Shane Jones an opportunity to reiterate his enthusiasm for the mining and burning of coal.

For good measure, he has praised an announcement from Genesis Energy that it will resume importing coal.

Mike Hosking: Global boiling? Tell that to the world using coal

There was no shortage of irony on Friday as UN boss Antonio Guterres, who might just suffer from a dose of alarmism, was declaring global boiling.

It was also announced by the International Energy Agency that the world this year is using more coal than ever, and there are no real signs of that changing.

Guterres says a lot of alarmist stuff and my fear is that this sort of language turns people off.

Lushington D. Brady: A Sane Country Wouldn’t Ditch Coal

When Europeans arrived in Tasmania, they noticed an astonishing and puzzling thing. Despite living on an island, Tasmanians refused to eat fish. They hadn’t for 5,000 years. Despite unsubstantiated claims to the contrary, the middens are clear: Tasmanians stopped eating scaled fish about 3000 BC. The middens show that they certainly ate shellfish in abundance, but, despite being surrounded by rich fishing grounds, Tasmanians resolutely refused to avail themselves of an abundant and easy source of protein.

Mike Hosking: Australia can see what needs to be done - why can't we?

Australia has had a week to remember.

Say whatever you want about war and conflict, but Australia entering the submarine club is major.

Very few countries have them and those that do are large, with correspondingly sized economies.

Australia is the smallest by a mile and yet there they are, now in a partnership with the United States and Britain in a deal that is specifically designed to manage our part of the world against China.

And where are we in this? The answer is nowhere.

Point of Order: Shipping coals to Newcastle? No, it is being shipped to NZ – increasingly

While the govt funds those who switch to renewables

We were rewarded – on visiting Kiwiblog today – by finding this chart from The Facts, which shows how coal imports into this country have almost quadrupled under Labour.

Point of Order: The economic importance of coal

Why we shouldn’t rush to toss the baby out with the bath (or Bathurst) water

Defying the critics and climate change warriors, the country’s biggest coal miner has reported a near tripling of its underlying profit as higher prices lifted revenue.

At the same time the company, Bathurst Resources, underlined its value to the broader economy by generating a substantial proportion of its earning from exports.

Coal production was down about 8% to 1.9m tonnes, of which just under half was export coking coal used in steel making. Production was affected by bad weather, which caused flooding and slips.

The company is looking at expanding production, including the output from one of its Waikato operations.

Point of Order: The lessons NZ can learn from Australia to guide energy policy and keep prices down

As consumers receive their winter power bills, many are puzzled and some are incensed that they are so high.

There is a simple answer: wholesale prices are elevated (they have been very high for some time and reached $215 a megawatt/hour last week).

And there’s a not-so-simple answer: