South Asia Cranking Up Dirty Power Plants With Gas Too Pricey

South Asia’s emerging economies are cranking up older power plants that burn highly-pollutive fuel oil as rising liquefied natural gas prices put cleaner energy sources out of their reach.

Bangladesh is generating 5,000 megawatts of electricity from fuel oil-fired power stations this month, about 25% more than a year earlier, said Muhammed Aziz Khan, the chairman of Summit Power International Ltd., which owns utilities in the country. More than a third of the 40 LNG cargoes the nation has tendered over the past year were canceled due to elevated prices, he said.