China Outpaces US in Cleaner Coal-Fired Plants TIANJIN, China —
China’s frenetic construction of coal-fired power plants has
raised worries around the world about the effect on climate
change. China now uses more coal than the United States, Europe
and Japan combined, making it the world’s largest emitter of
gases that are warming the planet. But largely missing in the
hand-wringing is this: China has emerged in the past two years
as the world’s leading builder of more efficient, less polluting
coal power plants, mastering the technology and driving down the
cost. While the United States is still debating whether to build
a more efficient kind of coal-fired power plant that uses
extremely hot steam, China has begun building such plants at a
rate of one a month. Construction has stalled in the United
States on a new generation of low-pollution power plants that
turn coal into a gas before burning it, although Energy
Secretary Steven Chu said Thursday that the Obama administration
might revive one power plant o