German banking giant Deutsche Bank has announced that, under the terms of the Paris Agreement on climate change, it would no longer provide financing for coal-fired power plants.
I'm sure the rank and file anti-science climate change deniers are thinking a new day is here with Trump and his anti-environment pick Pruitt to dismantle the EPA, but reality is quite different. The fact is, coal will not be back. Pure and simple, it is too expensive. The anti-science crowd loves to talk about how cheap coal power is, but the reverse is the real truth. Coal is, far and away, the most expensive power on the planet. It only seems to be cheaper because the industry has been allowed to pass on it's expenses to someone else. They were never held accountable for the mercury in the ecosystem (including our food), acid rain, terrible health suffered by coal miners and people in the mining community, coal sludge and arsenic in the water supply, particulate matter in the atmosphere and the carbon dioxide pollution power plants emit. This doesn't even include the fact that the mining of coal was being subsidized by the taxpayers by the government allowing coal mining on government property at below-market rates.
The writing is on the wall. Coal is on the way out. It is simply too expensive. And now, we see bank and insurance companies telling us the industry is dead.
When the insurance and banking guys say you're dead, you're dead.
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