Energy Industry
Reports
Prospects for US-South Korea cooperation in an era of US-China strategic competition
It’s time for an infrastructure ‘boost’: Confronting utility bill affordability during the COVID-19 recession
Book Launch & Panel Discussion | Future of Coal in India: Smooth Transition or Bumpy Road Ahead?
Jeffrey Ball
Nonresident Senior Fellow - Foreign Policy, Energy Security and Climate Initiative
Rahul Tongia
Nonresident Senior Fellow - Foreign Policy, Energy Security and Climate Initiative
Renewable energy growth has been strong but won’t be enough to avoid more coal. India’s focus should be on cleaning up coal, instead of wishing it away.
We still got a way to go and the Saudis recognise that [good vaccine news today does not mean demand recovery tomorrow, next week or even next month]. The vaccine news is good but we’re seeing a resurgence in the [United] States and in Europe and that says to us that demand is not coming back quickly. Prices may bounce a little on vaccine news but they will go back down when people realise that it will not fix the problem immediately.
[On energy density and challenges in the energy transition] Pound for pound, gasoline or diesel fuel contain about 40 times as much energy as a state-of-the-art battery.
[On challenges in the energy transition] It’s going to take time to replace these uses where fossil fuels are hardest to replace. We aren’t going to be completely out of fossil fuels for a while. The idea that we could stop using fossil fuels right now means that the economy comes to a screeching halt, and we don’t really want that. The idea is to halt climate change for people so that we can continue to have the kind of lives that we’re accustomed to, and leave this environment that we enjoy to our kids and our grandkids. Halting the economy isn’t the way to do that.
