With regards to coal fired electricity, the capital investment of a single plant represents a nearly certain amount of coal consumption and resultant CO2 emissions for likely 30 years. In the system of capitalism, any decision to shutter a plant after a very short period of time is fiscally disastrous for the company that would make such a decision. This is true for any fixed investment.
The capacity-weighted average age of operating coal facilities in the U.S. is 39 years.
In 2012 in Chicago, much was made of the shuttering of the last two coal fired plants. One plant was 89 years old. The other was 111 years old. I am not making this up!!!
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-crawford-fisk-sites-1130-biz-20141126-story.htmlI have said this before and I will say this again. The decisions we need to make regarding CO2 emissions (the complete cessation within a couple of decades) will need to occur completely outside the system of capitalism. Relying on market forces will seal our doom.
"So what makes you the expert?" is a legitimate response to my statement. I don't like doing this but I feel it is necessary. I am a business professional with an economics degree and MBA from the University of Chicago. I've spent my entire career evaluating and making recommendations on long term capital investments. Companies go out of business when they get these decisions wrong and there is a great deal of resistance from within a company, resulting in decisions to weather extended fiscal nightmares due to changing economics because of this.
What do I mean by this? The companies that invested heavily in shale oil and tar sands continue to produce oil at a rapidly increasing rate, despite the fact they are literally throw money into a deep dark whole. Failure to do this would result in certain bankruptcy. They are desperately hoping to hang on till the next spike in oil prices.