LEXINGTON, KY–Anheuser-Busch is running a Super Bowl commercial claiming that Budweiser is “now brewed with wind power for a better tomorrow.” Budweiser beer cans now say “brewed with 100% renewable electricity from wind power.”

According to Tyler White, President of the Kentucky Coal Association, “Actually, Budweiser is brewed with mostly fossil fuels.”

Two-thirds of the energy used to brew Budweiser is industrial heat (not electricity), which Anheuser-Busch admits comes from “a mixture of energy sources including natural gas.”

Only one-third is electricity–and even most of that doesn’t come from wind. Because wind is an erratic energy source, no electric grid on Earth uses it as a primary fuel.

But according to White, “Anheuser-Busch and other publicity-seeking companies want to pretend they are 100% wind. So they pay power companies to give them credit for the wind power others use–and give others the blame for all the coal, natural gas, and nuclear power that Anheuser-Busch uses. This unjust scam is called ‘renewable electricity credits.’ Anheuser-Busch buys credits from a wind project near Billing, Oklahoma–even though no Budweiser beer is brewed in Oklahoma.”

When companies like Anheuser-Busch, Facebook, Apple, and Google lie about their energy usage by claiming to use 100% wind or solar, they encourage dangerous policies to prohibit the use of reliable power sources like coal, gas, and nuclear.

“Anheuser-Busch should pull its Super Bowl commercial,” says White, “and apologize to all Americans—including the workers of the coal, natural gas, and nuclear industries—for its ‘100% wind powered’ lie.”

Lexington – The following statement may be attributed to Tyler White, President of the Kentucky Coal Association, in support of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed revisions to the New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) for carbon dioxide emissions from new coal-fired power plants.

“This reasonable proposal is vital to keeping Americans safe by ensuring that our nation can construct efficient, reliable and resilient new coal-fired power plants.   Coal is the backbone of American energy, providing 30 percent of the nation’s energy and nearly 80 percent of Kentucky’s.  If adopted, the proposed NSPS will ensure that coal can continue to provide grid resiliency and security for American energy dominance for years to come through the use of demonstrated technologies rather than technologies that remain unproven and uneconomical.”

 -Tyler White

“If adopted, the proposed NSPS — established under Section 111(b) of the Clean Air Act — would replace the current NSPS that were adopted in 2015.  The current NSPS are based on the use of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology, which is a promising but not economically viable technology for coal-fired power plants.  Requiring the use of CCS technology effectively banned new coal plants by making them prohibitively expensive.”

-American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity

By: Tyler White

Facebook and Twitter testified before Congress Wednesday on issues of data, privacy and censorship. But there is another propaganda effort led by Big Tech that poses a threat to our nation.

Earlier this week, Facebook announced its global operations will be powered with “100 percent renewable energy by the end of 2020.” In April, Apple said that it already is “globally powered by 100 percent renewable energy.” Similar claims have been made by other tech leaders including Google, Intel, Microsoft, Cisco and scores of other companies outside of tech.

These claims aren’t true. Yet they are being used to further the narrative that we can ban fossil fuels, which supply 80 percent of the world’s energy, and replace them with wind and solar, which currently supply just 5 percent. 

I find these claims troubling—not only because they are being used to kill the coal industry, but because the policies Big Tech and its supporters advocate could starve billions from energy.

When companies claim to be “100 percent renewable” they want us to think they’re getting 100 percent of their energy from solar and wind. But the truth is they are relying on local electricity grids, and no grid on Earth can work with anything close to 100 percent solar and wind.

Solar and wind are intermittent sources. Because the wind doesn’t always blow and the sun doesn’t always shine, they require backup from reliable energy sources like coal. That’s what overwhelmingly powers Big Tech.

Apple, for example, claims its data center in Maiden, NC, is running predominantly on its own solar capacity and fuel cells. But analysts familiar with the situation have shown the solar panels and fuel cells actually supply power to the grid via the local utility. 

It’s this grid that powers the data center using reliable energy, which according to Apple’s own data is over 50 percent nuclear power, 33 percent coal and less than 1 percent renewable.

The other tech companies also depend on local electricity grids overwhelmingly powered by fossil fuels and nuclear. So how do they justify their “100-percent renewable” claims?

Take Google, which is the most forthcoming about the reality of its power use. The company admits on its website that it doesn’t really run on solar and wind. But it justifies its renewable claims by saying, in the words of Google’s Senior VP of Technical Infrastructure, Urs Hölzle, that for “every kilowatt-hour of electricity we consumed, we purchased a kilowatt-hour of renewable energy from a wind or solar farm.”

Google uses lots of fossil fuels and nuclear, but it offsets its use of reliable energy by dumping unreliable energy onto the grid to be used by all of the grid’s customers. Google isn’t using 100-percent renewables, which would leave it at the mercy of the wind and the sun, it’s paying for the privilege of taking credit for renewable energy used by others.

The real news is that solar and wind are so inferior that even some of the richest companies on Earth can’t power themselves through 100-percent renewable energy.

That should make us incredibly skeptical of policies that favor solar and wind and restrict affordable, reliable sources like coal. Instead, Big Tech is using the status it gains from being a “green” leader to actively push for anti-fossil fuel policies. 

Apple, Google, Microsoft and Amazon came out in support of President Barack Obama’s anti-coal Clean Power Plan in 2016. And Intel has called for a carbon tax and an 85-percent reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions. All of these policies would make energy more expensive for millions of Americans and billions around the world.

Silicon Valley’s millionaires and billionaires may be able to afford higher energy costs in order to appear green. But for poorer Kentuckians, who already spend upwards of 20 percent of their incomes on energy, increasing that burden means they have less to spend on everything else — food, clothing, housing and medicine.

As members of the coal industry we are proud of our contribution to the digital world and we deserve credit for helping power it. But the “100-percent renewable” claims not only deprive us of credit for our contribution they help persuade voters to support anti-fossil fuel policies that are driving us out of business.

That is bad for Kentucky and it’s bad for everyone. Americans and billions around the globe need affordable, reliable energy—including the energy produced by today’s modern clean-coal plants. If tech leaders truly want to empower the world, they should start by telling the truth about who powers their companies.

 

At KCA, it’s our mission to lead the coal industry in the Bluegrass. Coal touches everyone across the Commonwealth, powering our state literally and figuratively. That’s why we want all Kentuckians to have the opportunity to get connected with the coal industry. You can join the coal conversation at our educational, interactive Kentucky Coal Annual Meeting on September 6^th-7^th in Lexington.

Where’s the action?
The event begins with a reception at Limestone Hall, one of the newest event spaces in Lexington. This picturesque space is nestled on the top floor under the recently renovated rotunda in the historic courthouse downtown. The next morning, the action heats up at the Hilton Downtown Lexington with a full day of presentations and events. You won’t want to miss our engaging speaker lineup!

KCA was the recent recipient of a grant for over $120,000 to incorporate coal into the curriculum at Junior Achievement Biztown. We’ve been busy working with the Cabinet for Energy and Environment to implement our coal unit into the curriculum and will expose over 65,000 kids to our industry over the next five years. That’s why our Annual Meeting will include a trip to Junior Achievement Biztown, where our supporters can see firsthand the impact that this program will have on local youth. During this portion of the event, we’ll be joined by Governor Matt Bevin for the Keynote Address.

After lunch, we’ll hold our KCA Annual Board of Directors meeting, which is open to our entire membership. This is a great opportunity to understand the inner workings of our organization. Dinner will take place at the Kentucky Castle, where we’ll enjoy a keynote address from Alex Epstein of The Center for Industrial Progress.

Who’s on the guest list?
We’re thrilled to welcome a curated group of coal industry insiders to our Annual Meeting: