The New York Times by Vikas Bajaj
NELLORE, India — India has long struggled to provide
enough electricity to light its homes and power its industry around the clock.
In recent years, the government and private sector sought to change that by
building scores of new power plants.
But that campaign is now running into difficulties
because the country cannot get enough fuel — principally coal
— to run the plants. Clumsy policies, poor management and environmental concerns
have hampered the country’s efforts to dig up fuel fast enough to keep up with
its growing need for power.
A complex system of subsidies and price controls has
limited investment, particularly in resources like coal and natural
gas. It has also created anomalies, like retail electricity prices that are
lower than the cost of producing power, which lead to big losses at state-owned
utilities. An unsettled debate about how much of its forests India should turn
over to mining has also limited coal production. MORE.....................
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