by: Rianna Das
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703713504575476740661162412.html
While the United States is known for being the country with the largest amount of energy consumed for you, the International Energy Association has declared that, last year, China has passed the United States, taking the position of the world's biggest consumer of energy. With this dramatic increase in energy use, the Chinese government is having a hard time meeting its goals of efficiency and reducing pollution. In the natural gas sector, natural gas used in power plants has always been regulated. However,the use of natural gas in homes, used mostly for cooking, has been mostly unregulated. This is could very well likely change in the next few months as more consumers change from the air polluting energy of coal to natural gas. The country's capital wants natural gas to increase from 4% to the country's energy to 10% by 2020.
China's want to increase their use of natural gas will affect the coal industry. It will make the coal industry lose business as the government is pushing natural gas instead of coal to reduce pollution. It will also increase the success of natural gas as a energy source because many countries, not just China, are substituting natural gas for other polluting energy sources, such as coal. Hopefully, if China's efforts in reducing their pollution and improving their energy efficiency are successful, than this will serve as an example to other countries who still use coal as their primary source for energy. This will further natural gas's success as an energy source.
Globalization is displayed in this article by China surpassing the United States as the world's biggest consumer of energy. As China becomes more "globalized" the country is using more energy. This is opening the market for cleaner fuels, such as natural gas in China. This is example is true for any country who previously was not interested in less polluting fuels, such as natural gas, but with newer technology, etc, they have developed an interest in finding energy sources that do pollute the environment and also are energy efficient. Globalization has helped to grow industries, such as natural gas or other cleaner fuels, but it has led to a decrease in consumer use of air polluting fuels, such as coal.
-Rianna Das
This is a little contrasting to what I had blogged about previously - Mongolia wanting to export wind energy to China. Looks like China doesn't want Mongolia's wind energy? However, I feel like it would be a better choice in the long run if China did switch to wind energy. Do you agree?
ReplyDeleteAmy Yu
Problem with wind energy is that it is inefficient, and has multiple other complications such as, land acquisition, disrupts bird patterns, and noise to name a few. What strikes me as stunning is that we no longer consume the most energy. I hope it is due to the fact that they are more industry based opposed to our service base. The growth of China especially in the energy market opens some big questions for the industry in the coming years. China and India? We are dealing with to many finite resources, and distribution will become key sooner then later.
ReplyDeleteTimothy Vallario
I understand what you mean Tim; yes, it is expensive and it does have a lot of complications, but I was talking about Mongolia wanting to export wind energy to China. If I'm not mistaken, Mongolia should already have the resources to provide wind energy. And, why would it offer it China if it didn't have the resources right? I'm not saying that China should make wind energy. I apologize for not making that clear earlier.
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