WORRIES ABOUT CARBON TAXES are short-circuiting coal-plant construction. “Utilities canceled or put on hold at least 45 coal plants in development last year, according to a new analysis by the US Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory in Pittsburgh. These moves – a sharp reversal from a year ago, when the industry had more than 150 such plants in development – signal the waning of a major US expansion into coal. . . . ‘What you’re seeing is a de facto moratorium on coal power right now,’ says Robert Linden, a senior oil and gas analyst at Pace Global in New York. ”

Upside: Burning coal sucks. Downside: More power to the oil kleptocrats. Solution: Nice clean nukes?