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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
- Claims that eliminating vehicle GHGs wouldn't impact climate change, ignoring the fact that transportation is the largest U.S. emissions source.
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It is called GLOBAL warming.  US transportation is not the largest global emissions source.  It probably isn't the largest US source either, but they have switched a lot of power plants away from coal.[/quote]

Meanwhile China is embracing EVs and solar and 2000s technologies while Trump has us propping up 1900s fossil fuel technologies.[/quote]

[img]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GuV3kjobEAEWOQx?format=jpg&name=small[/img]

China loves it when other countries pass restrictions on CO2 emissions, and will play along to make it happen.
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China's efforts are working.  Their CO2 emissions are starting to level off.

Meanwhile for all the casting of China as the bad guys, the US still produces more CO2 than China.

[img]https://pbs.twimg.com/card_img/1952117516811075585/j0CW-9Wo?format=png&name=small[/img][/quote]China is double the US emissions.  You are looking at emissions per capita.  The environment doesn't respond to emissions per capita, but to CO2 in the atmosphere.  China's emissions per capita is higher than the global average too.

Perhaps if climate science moves in a new direction where leveling off of emissions solves global warming, these stats you show would be relevant.  Instead China has to reduce by at least 80%.
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Your argument is predicated on China not putting in another solar panel, not another wind turbine, abandoning its thorium reactors and other innovative sources of non-fossil-based energy production.   However, by every indication they are NOT slowing down on solar, wind and other alternatives, they are in fact accelerating.

So what's your excuse?  What's Trump's?  You don't have one, just the same old talking points from 20 years ago which ignore the current realities.  And in the current reality, "drill baby drill" is not the way forward.  Not for us, and not for China.

Do better.[/quote]No, my argument is predicated on what China is doing with regards to coal.  Putting on line more coal power plants and proposing to put in even more capacity than the current US total.[/quote]

Again, yes, it's true that China is still building coal plants, but that is not their main strategy, nor is it their permanent strategy, and that's where you're missing the big picture view.  China approved 11.29nGW of new coal capacity this year and currently has 200nGW under construction, but compare that to wind and solar.

In comparison, China hit its 2030 wind and solar targets [b]six years early[/b], with [b]1,482 GW[/b] of installed renewable capacity, now surpassing thermal power. In fact, renewables are outpacing electricity demand growth, meaning a majority of their new energy demand is being met by clean energy, not coal. Even in coal-heavy provinces like Shanxi, solar and hydrogen investments are transforming the energy mix.

And what about those thorium reactors? China’s molten salt thorium reactor in the Gobi Desert is now operational, the first of its kind globally, and it was reloaded mid-run, a major technical milestone. That’s not a country stuck in the past.

So while coal is still part of China’s energy strategy, especially for grid stability and peak demand, it’s increasingly being repositioned as a backup, not a mainstay as you keep wanting to suggest. The real trajectory is toward a flexible, renewables-dominant grid, with coal gradually sidelined.

If you’re arguing that China’s future is locked into coal, but you’re ignoring the scale, speed, and strategic depth of its clean energy pivot. That’s not denial that's not refusal, that's not a lack of cooperation toward solving the problem, it’s evolution.  And it makes your complaints rather irrelevant and missing the point in the grand scheme of things.  And it most certainly does not justify the Trump administration's climate denial, it's abandoning of renewables, and it's "drill baby drill" attitude.  Your "yabut China" is a fail.[/quote]Even China's own claims is that they will increase and then plateau CO2 emissions/coal usage in 2030.  China will do what is best for China, meaning what is cheapest.  They will pretend to reduce to get money from Europe.  And Europe will pretend to believe them as a means of passing their own targets.  The only question is whether the US will follow along.  England is already refusing to publicise the deal they have with China regarding NetZero.
If there is an 80% reduction in Chinese emissions, it is because the technology made it cheaper.  If that is the case, then there is no need for any subsidies or mandates regarding fossil fuels in America, as technology will have solved the problem.
Already coal is reduced because natural gas is cheaper.  If nuclear or some other technology becomes cheaper, then no need to worry.[/quote]

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