Coal is one energy resource this country has in great abundance -- yet the people who oppose the use of
coal are the same people who whine about America's dependence on foreign oil. Many of the whiners are all upset
about "greenhouse gas" and are determined to "save the earth" and so on.
The two predominant greenhouse gases are water vapor and carbon dioxide. You produce
both of these gases when you exhale. Between 94½ and 96½ percent of atmospheric carbon dioxide comes from natural
sources.* Between 94 and 98 percent of the
warming effect is due to ordinary water vapor, which comes from the oceans and lakes. As
for CO2, India's population of one billion people produces more carbon dioxide just
by breathing than is produced by all the coal-burning power plants in the United States. Moreover, termites are
said to produce more carbon dioxide each year than all other living organisms combined. Other sources of natural
CO2 include volcanoes and
cows.
None of these natural sources of carbon dioxide can be slowed down or stopped -- nor is there any reason to try.
CO2 is a nutrient, not a pollutant, and all living things benefit from having more of it. The
same is true of water vapor. Carbon dioxide is actually good for the forests, grasslands and other vegetation. When
plant-growers want to stimulate plant growth, they introduce more carbon dioxide. All life on earth is carbon-based
and carbon dioxide is an essential ingredient in our environment. It is not a pollutant.
The subject of unstoppable
coal fires is something I have just recently (and briefly) explored. The Centralia,
Pennsylvania coal mine fire has been burning since
1962,* and
there are 38 of these fires in Pennsylvania
alone.* There's
another such fire in Jharia, India, that has been burning for almost a
century,* one in Glenwood Springs, Colorado,
that has been burning since 1910,*
and there are hundreds of coal fires buring in China.*
Australia's Burning Mountain, the oldest known coal fire, has burned for 6,000
years.* And
of course every air-breathing animal in the world emits carbon dioxide, a little at a time, so the
idea of curtailing carbon dioxide emissions completely — as some have
suggested* — is
futile.
Another unstoppable fire is in the Darvaza Gas Crater in
Derweze, Turkmenistan.
Oh, but what about global warming? Global warming is a hoax. Global
warming stopped, all by itself, sometime around 1998. Global warming is
simply an excuse to expand the government and raise taxes.
Environmentalists oppose every practical source of energy.
Coal is one thing we have plenty of, and there is no reason not to use it.
Is
Climate Change Fanaticism the Greatest Killer of All Time? How many people are dying
each year from climate change lunacy? The left's immoral war on energy has now become one of
the planet's leading causes of death and infant mortality. This is the only conclusion from a
new 2024 study, finding more than 1 billion people STILL lack access to reliable electric
power. [...] So here we are in the year 2024 and a population TWICE the size of the United States
still has no electricity some 125 years after Edison's invention of the light bulb!
Energy poverty has become one of the leading causes of death. Then we have a
half-trillion-dollar climate change industrial complex (funded by the U.S. government and leftwing
tax-exempt foundations) instructing poor nations in Africa and Asia to use LESS electric power and
to avoid using coal and natural gas — the most plentiful and cheapest forms of energy.
Plans
for Britain's first coal mine in 30 years scrapped after landmark legal defeat.
Approval for Britain's first coal mine in 30 years has been quashed by the High Court in a
landmark victory for climate campaigners. In a ruling published on Friday, Mr Justice Holgate
said a decision by the Conservative government in 2022 to rubber-stamp the Cumbria coal mine in
Whitehaven was "legally flawed". The judgment comes after a legal challenge from Friends of the
Earth and South Lakes Action on Climate Change, who successfully argued that the planning
permission did not take into account the impact of burning coal on the environment. Mr
Justice Holgate said: "The assumption that the proposed mine would not produce a net increase in
greenhouse gas emissions or would be a net zero mine is legally flawed." This marks a
significant setback for West Cumbria Mining, the mine's owners, which had won approval on the basis
that Whitehaven could produce high-grade metallurgical coal for use in steelmaking across the UK
and Europe.
Natural
Gas Industry's Smear of Coal Is False and Self-Defeating. Smearing coal has become a
marketing strategy of a natural gas industry that embraces pseudoscientific views of coal
combustion as being hazardous. In so doing, gas supporters give credence to a fallacious
regulatory regime of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which erroneously classifies carbon
dioxide as a pollutant and assigns health effects to low-level pollution without scientific
proof. To boot, a false representation of coal, oil and natural gas as environmental bogeymen
is perpetuated. Perhaps the most enthusiastic user of this foolish ploy is Toby Rice, CEO of
Pittsburgh-based EQT Corp., who introduced two years ago a global plan to replace coal with
liquefied natural gas.
How
is Nickel for EV Batteries Smelted in Indonesia? With Coal. Indonesia is
building several new coal-fired power plants for industrial users, despite its stated commitment to
start phasing out coal and transition to clean energy, according to a new report. These
so-called captive coal plants will have a combined capacity of 13 gigawatts, accounting for more
than two-thirds of the 18.8 GW of new coal power in the pipeline. Most of the plants will
feed the nickel, cobalt and aluminum smelters that the government is promoting in an effort to turn
Indonesia into a manufacturing hub for electric vehicles (EVs) and batteries. Critics say the
building spree goes against both these green technology aspirations and Indonesia's own climate
commitments, but regulatory and funding loopholes mean the government can freely build more new
captive coal plants.
This article includes misinformation about global warming — in the first sentence. Loopholes
allow multilateral development banks to fund captive coal in Indonesia: Report.
Publicly funded multilateral development banks (MDBs) like the World Bank might finance a wave of
"captive" coal expansion in climate-vulnerable countries vulnerable to climate change, which will
speed up global warming. A new report reveals that the World Bank's private sector arm, the
International Finance Corporation (IFC), has indirectly financed at least one captive coal project
on Indonesia's Obi Island via its financial intermediary client, Hana Bank Indonesia. [...]
Nickel, whose processing in Indonesia is often powered by captive coal, is a key element in the
batteries that power EVs and energy storage systems. Captive coal also often powers other
metals such as steel and aluminum, which are key resources for renewable energy projects, including
solar and wind power.
U.K.'s
1st new coal mine in 30 years faces legal challenges. Climate campaigners are
challenging the U.K.'s approval of the first new coal mine in the country in three decades, with
the High Court beginning hearings on the case on Tuesday. The U.K.'s previous Conservative
government approved in December 2022 the Woodhouse Colliery project in Whitehaven, northwest
England, developed by West Cumbria Mining. Earlier this year, West Cumbria Mining (WCM) said
that it "continues to focus on preparatory works prior to commencement of real construction
activity, no later than early 2025," when it announced that the High Court would hear on
July 16-18 a challenge by two parties against the Government's approval of planning.
China
is the coal furnace of the world, and everyone is fine with that. Even though India
now consumes more than Europe and the US combined, there is really only one coal consumer. [...]
China burns four times as much coal as the second largest coal burner in the world. Everyone
else is an also-ran in the coal stakes. For every ton the US consumes, China fries
12 times as much. And poor patsy Australia, for every ton we apologetically ignite,
China burns 50. More coal was burned on Earth in 2023 than ever before in human history, and more
than half of it was burned in China. Moreover, despite all the Sino nodding to sacred targets
China shows no intention of putting the brakes on the coal train. Around the world, 95% of
all new coal power plants built in 2023 were built in China.
Hydrocarbons
are growing faster than alt-energy. [Scroll down to Chart 7] As I noted last
December in "Two Days After COP28, IEA Delivers More Coal Hard Reality," the International Energy
Agency has been predicting a decline in global coal demand for years. I explained that in
2015, the IEA claimed, 'The golden age of coal in China seems to be over." That year, the agency
predicted global coal demand would fall to 5.5 billion tons by 2020. That didn't happen.
Instead of falling, coal demand keeps powering upward, with major increases in China and
India. Other Asian countries, including Vietnam, the Philippines, and Bangladesh, are also
burning more coal.
China
and India Break Coal Production Records. Back in April, the Environmental Protection
Agency issued a new final rule that will force U.S. coal-fired power plants to install carbon
capture systems or shut down operations. The rule is a key part of President Biden's pledge
to eliminate all energy sources that emit carbon dioxide by 2035 in the electricity sector and by
2050 for home heating, steel production, and all other uses. But, as Tsvetana Paraskova
reported in May, the Biden Administration plan faces insurmountable problems, given that fossil
fuels still provide 60 percent of total U.S. electricity generation. Coal's share has
fallen to 16 percent, while natural gas accounts for 43 percent. Coal-fired power
generation is highest during summer heatwaves when wind power is intermittent. Thus, coal
still supplies more electric power than wind (11 percent), hydropower (6 percent), or
solar (4 percent). The push seeks to eradicate not just coal but all fossil fuels from
American society.
Biden
Goes All-In With War on Coal. The Biden administration's war on coal came out of the
shadows recently, with the release of a new series of regulations that have the clear intent of
locking up millions of acres of federal land from coal mining and drilling for oil and natural gas,
as well as shutting down the nation's remaining coal-fired power generation fleet. The Bureau
of Land Management released a new rule that will effectively make it impossible to continue to mine
coal or drill for oil and gas anywhere on federally owned lands. This will cripple coal
mining in the Powder River Basin and other western reserves, which provide most of the nation's
thermal coal used for energy production. This action alone would have been devastating, but
it was just part of a much larger and far-reaching series of regulatory actions.
Biden
Lauches Largest Attack Yet On American Coal With New Lease Ban In Powder River Basin.
The Biden administration is going after western coal producers with new rules published last week
that eliminate new coal leases in the nation's largest coal-producing region. Last Thursday,
the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced the agency would halt additional leases to mine coal
across the Powder River Basin, which runs through southeast Montana and northeast Wyoming and is
the most productive stretch of coal reserves in the United States. The Washington Post
described the administration's move as the "biggest step yet to end coal mining."
[Advertisement] Larry Behrens, the spokesman for the energy nonprofit Power the Future, told
The Federalist the agency's decision illustrates a president who holds "nothing but contempt for
affordable and reliable energy." "It's also no surprise to see his environmental friends
celebrate this terrible decision as their singular goal is to destroy private sector jobs in favor
of more heavily subsidized energy failures," Behrens said. "Every American should remember this
decision next time the White House says they're not responsible for high prices." [Tweet]
Coal's
importance for Solar Panel Manufacturing. Coal is not the favorite "child" these
days. It seems that almost the entire western political world has sworn to send coal to its
grave. Not only have the United Nations and the IEA literally declared "war" on coal, but
countless political, activist organizations and even leading financial institutions have pledged,
if it had to be in their power, to immediately stop the usage of coal. The reason for all of
this is of course this "terrible" chemical element called carbon (number 6 on the periodic table).
Please remember though that the same carbon is the 2nd most abundant element in the human body and it is
a key building block for all life on Earth. By the way, carbon is not only essential because
CO2 is plant food and plants grow best at 1.500 ppm of CO2 in the air (current atmospheric
content is 420 ppm), CO2 is also a greenhouse gas, contributing to keeping our Earth temperature
temperate and livable. I have to mention that the prize for keeping Earth livable has to go to
water, or better yet, water vapor, the most important and most abundant greenhouse gas. We all
understand that increased greenhouse gas concentrations will contribute to slight warming, though only
a few of us have learnt — including me only after studying it — that there are
so called saturation levels to consider which means that higher concentrations of any greenhouse
gas have less and less impact on temperature changes (the warming impact logarithmically declines).
Biden
Signs Suicidal 'No Coal' Pact, While Rest of World Builds 1,000 New Plants. The Biden
administration has just signed an economic suicide pact that would require the United States and
six other Western democracies to shut down its coal power plants by 2035, while China, India and
the rest of the world currently have more than 1,000 new coal power plants in the planning or
construction phase. The no-coal pact allows all nations but the Suicidal Seven to continue
using as much affordable coal power as they like. Climate activists often point to China as a
climate role model, noting that China manufactures more wind and solar power equipment than any
other nation. China, however, isn't stupid enough to use much of that equipment.
Realizing that conventional energy — and especially coal power — is more
affordable and reliable than wind and solar power, China manufactures wind and solar equipment,
sells the equipment to America and Western Europe, and then powers its own economy primarily with
coal power.
Coal's
importance for Solar Panel Manufacturing. Why is it that solar panel manufacturing is
impossible without coal? I always thought that coal is "only" important for electricity,
contributing to 36% of global power demand, or over 8h of 24h every single day of the year. I
always thought that coal is "only" required to produce all steel. Let us have a look at solar
panel manufacturing, which is really about silicon production. The vast majority of all
energy required to make solar panels is consumed during silicon production, purification, and
wafering. But first let's talk about purity. 6N pure silicon means 99.9999% purity level,
11N pure silicon means 99.999999999% purity level, you get the point. You may now have a
first glimpse of the chemical and mechanical difficulty of making such a pure metal from a natural
product. In this blog post you will see how important uninterrupted power supply is, especial
for industrial processes such as silicon smelting. Obviously, this power comes from coal in
China, and cannot come from wind or solar.
Renewable-leading
Germany likely to be dependent on coal to keep the lights on through 2027. Germany's
energy regulator predicts the country will need to increase the amount of coal-fired plants it has
on standby in order to ensure enough electricity during future cold snaps. According to
Bloomberg, the regulator said Tuesday that Germany needs 9.2 gigawatts to cover projected
shortfalls in wind and solar generation for the 2026-2027 winter period. In 2022, the country
had to put 8.3 gigawatts of primarily coal-fired generation on backup, after the Russian invasion
of Ukraine deprived Germany of Russian natural gas supplies. Germany has among the most
aggressive nuclear-free efforts to transition its electricity grid away from any fossil fuel
generation, and it reportedly hopes to phase out coal entirely by 2030. The country shuttered
its remaining nuclear power plants in 2023, and with battery facilities providing only a fraction
of the backup the nation needs, much of its backup generation comes from coal and gas plants.
Since embarking on its energy transition, the country has seen its energy costs skyrocket and its
once-powerhouse economy falter.
No Coal
Storage. In a summary of a recent peer-reviewed paper, the principal author stated
that an electric grid predominantly powered by intermittent renewables such as wind and solar would
require storage approximately equal to 25% of annual generation to be reliable. Other studies
have reported similar results. US coal powerplants produced approximately 700,000 GWH of
electricity in 2023. The Administration has announced a goal of eliminating coal generation
by 2030. Achieving this goal would require installation of approximately 270 GW of wind
and solar rating plate capacity generation, depending on the percentages of wind and solar
generation. Based on the Fekete paper, the US would also require a total of approximately
175,000 GWH of additional electricity storage as the result of the elimination of coal power plants.
G7 Countries
Including United States Reach Agreement to Shut Down All Coal-Fired Power Plants by 2035.
Ministers from the Group of Seven (G7) nations have agreed to eliminate all coal-fired power plants
by 2035. The countries that are members of the Group of Seven (G7) are Canada, France,
Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States, as well as the European
Union. This declaration was made by Andrew Bowie, a UK minister at the Department for Energy
Security and Net Zero, during an interview in Turing, Italy. "We do have an agreement to phase
out coal in the first half of the 2030s," Bowie said.
Wyoming
governor, secretary of state say EPA rules will hurt state's coal industry. Wyoming
officials are not happy with the federal government's latest rules involving coal-fired power
plants. The Environmental Protection Agency's new rules finalized this week will require
existing coal-fired plants and new natural gas plants to "control 90% of their carbon pollution"
and will make mercury emissions standards stricter. The stated purpose from EPA is to help
combat climate change, but Gov. Mark Gordon isn't buying. "It is clear the only goal
envisioned by these rules released by the Environmental Protection Agency today is the end of coal
communities in Wyoming," Gordon said in a press release. "EPA has weaponized the fear of climate
change into a crushing set of rules that will result in an unreliable electric grid, unaffordable
electricity, and thousands of lost jobs." According to the Energy Information Administration,
which is part of the Department of Energy, Wyoming accounts for two-fifths of all domestic coal mined.
Biden's
EPA Says Sweeping Power Plant Regs Won't Harm America's Grid — Experts Are Saying The
Exact Opposite. The Biden administration says that its new rules for fossil
fuel-fired power plants will not cause grid reliability problems, but power grid experts are
warning that the exact opposite could end up being the case. The Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) announced final rules for fossil fuel-fired power plants Thursday, marking one of the
most aggressive moves that President Joe Biden has made in an effort to fight climate change.
While the EPA says that the rules will not make the electricity that powers the economy less
reliable, power grid experts are concerned that the rules will constrain the amount of affordable
and reliable power available to meet expected increases in demand over the coming years.
Under the new regulations, America's existing coal plants will have to use carbon capture and
storage (CCS) technology to control 90% of their carbon emissions by 2032 if they want to stay
running past 2039, and certain new natural gas plants will also have to cut their emissions by 90%
by 2032, according to the agency.
When did we vote on this? Biden
EPA Threatens to Shut Down Coal Plants Amid Energy Crisis. Just last month, it was
determined that the cost of electricity in the United States was still rising at a rate faster than
the national average for inflation. In other words, even if you are somehow managing to pay
your rent or your mortgage in this economy and maintain a place to live, you might not be able to
afford to heat it or keep the lights on. So what has Joe Biden done in response? He has
ordered the EPA to issue new rules that will either make electricity more expensive or remove some
of it from the power grid. (Possibly both.) Under the new rules, coal and natural gas
power plants will be forced to capture nearly all smokestack emissions or... (wait for it)
shut down. What could possibly go wrong?
Biden
Admin Finalizes New Rules to Restrain Fossil Fuel Power Plant Carbon Emissions. The
Biden administration has finalized an array of new regulations on fossil-fuel-fired power plants,
including a rule requiring many power plants to prevent the release of 90 percent of their
carbon emissions. "The Biden-Harris Administration is announcing key actions to build on this
momentum and deliver clean electricity to more homes and businesses, helping lower energy costs for
American families and power the U.S. manufacturing renaissance driven by President Biden's
Investing in America agenda, while providing cleaner air and water to communities long overburdened
by pollution from fossil fuel power plants," the White House said on April 25. The new
carbon emission regulations, announced by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), specifically
call for fossil fuel plants to cut their carbon emissions and reduce other air and water pollutants.
The Editor says...
Carbon dioxide is not carbon, nor is it a pollutant.
China, India, Indonesia, Japan and Vietnam plan to build more than 600 coal power units. Five
Asian countries account for 80% of new coal power investment. Five Asian countries
are jeopardising global climate ambitions by investing in 80% of the world's planned new coal
plants, according to a report. Carbon Tracker, a financial thinktank, has found that China,
India, Indonesia, Japan and Vietnam plan to build more than 600 coal power units, even though
renewable energy is cheaper than most new coal plants. The investments in one of the most
environmentally damaging sources of energy could generate a total of 300 gigawatts of
energy — enough to power the UK more than three times over — despite calls
from climate experts at the UN for all new coal plants to be cancelled. Catharina Hillenbrand
von der Neyen, the author of the report, said: "These last bastions of coal power are swimming
against the tide, when renewables offer a cheaper solution that supports global climate
targets. Investors should steer clear of new coal projects, many of which are likely to
generate negative returns from the outset."
Bill
Gates Wants to Shut Down West Virginia's Coal Industry. Bill Gates is working
hand-in-hand with West Virginia's political establishment to crush the coal industry. Last
year, he met with a bipartisan group of politicians that included Carol Miller, Joe Manchin, and
Jim Justice, to, as Miller put it, "discuss energy investments and best practices to improve our
workforces in [West Virginia]." "Innovation makes West Virginia coal, gas, and carbon capture
the backbone of U.S. energy independence that supplies reliable, affordable power to the world,"
Miller added, talking out of both sides of her mouth as she tried to convince her constituents that
inviting in, Bill Gates, one of the world's foremost climate scam artists and an open-borders
advocate, will somehow benefit West Virginians.
Alaska
lawmaker's bid to revive stalled green energy policy defines coal as 'clean'. Burning
coal to make electricity generates significantly more carbon pollution than using natural gas for
the same purpose. But a new bill drafted by Sutton Republican Rep. George Rauscher still
seeks to define coal-generated electricity as "clean energy" — putting it on the same
footing as wind, solar, tidal and hydroelectric power. The proposed legislation, House Bill
368, is Rauscher's bid to advance an energy policy debate that has otherwise stalled at the Alaska
Capitol. "There's a reality to keeping the lights on and keeping everybody warm today,"
Rauscher said. "As opposed to the vision of what we're going to have in the future."
Conservation and other advocacy groups have been pressing lawmakers to require Alaska's urban
utilities — which serve residents and businesses between Fairbanks, Anchorage and the
Kenai Peninsula — to generate more of their electricity from sources like wind and solar.
China
built 47GW of coal power last year and is "way off track" to meet emissions targets.
If coal is a planet wrecking problem, if it really mattered, about 30 countries are beating
themselves up in a grandiose public flagellation, while one country is wrecking the planet and
nobody cares. The truth is that no one is behaving like they think CO2 is causing a
crisis. All over the West everyone wears the hippie-care coat while buying the cheapest
fridges, phones and fashion they can get from the global coal furnace. And China nods the nod
then keeps on adding coal power plants.
Coal's
Life-Saving Role Ignored by Climate-Obsessed Media. In regions with particularly
harsh winters and limited access to reliable heating sources, the threat of death and illness due
to anti-fossil fuel policies is particularly grave. Central Asia, where economic hardship and
energy constraints converge, exemplifies this challenge. In places like Mongolia, staying
warm is a continual wintertime focus. With many households depending on coal and frequent
blackouts impacting those who are connected to the grid, the situation can become grim fast.
This year, the country's imports of electricity from Russia were disrupted, resulting in load
shedding to millions of people in the middle of winter. At minus 35-degrees Fahrenheit, the
people of Mongolia were left to fend for themselves. To brave this harsh climate, they rely
on just two crucial energy sources: internal electricity generation from their plentiful coal
reserves and the direct use of coal for heating homes. When faced with below-freezing,
snow-blanketed winter days, neither wind nor solar power can guarantee a steady energy
supply. In other countries of the region, the scenario is similar.
New
Report: Coal, Natural Gas Saved the Grid In January Winter Storm. January
Winter Storm Demonstrates Importance of Coal and Other Fossil Fuels February 2024 Energy
Ventures Analysis (EVA) has prepared a report on the performance of different electricity
resources — coal, natural gas, nuclear, hydro, oil, wind, and solar — during
the January 13-21 winter storm. The report focuses on the five most-impacted regions of
the country — Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), Midcontinent Independent
System Operator (MISO), PJM Interconnection (PJM), Southwest Power Pool (SPP), and the southeastern
U.S. — and compares the performance of resources in early January before the storm with
their performance during the peak of the storm when electricity demand spiked.
UK
turns to last coal plant amid Arctic blast for electricity boost. Amidst a cold
spell, the UK heavily relies on its final coal power plant, Ratcliffe-on-Soar, contributing 3.4% to
the nation's electricity production on Monday, marking its busiest week in at least a year.
Recent figures show increased dependence on coal, notably above average levels throughout the
year. Forecasts predict low temperatures, heightening electricity demand. While Monday
saw grid pressure relief due to wind power, the National Grid Electricity System Operator may
incentivise families to reduce electricity usage if needed. Unlike last winter, only
Ratcliffe-on-Soar remains operational, prompting contingency measures such as payments to
households to manage demand during peak times.
Germany
Will Rely on Coal to Avoid Blackouts. [Scroll down] Then came the budget
crisis. The Federal Ministry of Economics told members of the Bundestag's Energy Committee
that the Power Plant Strategy had been "shelved for the short term". In the new plans for the
federal budget, with adjustments announced on Wednesday, the financial resources for the strategy
have been postponed by two years. So it's essential for the next election period.
Whether the strategy will return and what it may look like is more questionable than ever. It
is now clear that this has apparently initiated a shift that could have existential significance
for the Greens in the federal government. In a draft of the SPD parliamentary group's current
work planning for the first half of 2024, which has been seen by the Berliner Zeitung and dated
January 4th, the Power Plant Strategy is completely missing.
India
plans to double coal production, ignoring climate pledges. As climate diplomats at
COP28 in Dubai debated an agreement to transition away from fossil fuels last December, India was
facing another energy conundrum: It needed to build more power capacity, fast. "To meet
growing demand," the Indian government said on Dec. 11 it expects to roughly double coal
production, reaching 1.5 billion tons by 2030. Later, the power minister Raj Kumar Singh
set out plans on Dec. 22 to add 88 gigawatts of thermal power plants by 2032. The vast
majority of which will burn coal. The move to invest more in the world's dirtiest
fuel — one of the biggest contributors to global warming — may seem
counterintuitive for the South Asian country, which is highly vulnerable to climate impacts.
Yet, as the country heads into elections during April and May, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is keen
to avoid any risks of power shortages. Along with record heat waves India has seen big spikes
in peak demand for electricity over two successive years.
Coal's
Life-Saving Role [is] Ignored By Climate-Obsessed Media. On a recent cold winter day,
residents of Munich were surprised to see people skiing in the street. Yes, that is how much
snow fell in the German city and other parts of Europe during the early winter of 2023-2024.
Despite a disruption to both ground and air travel, the Germans survived the freezing weather with
access to heating and basic utilities. But not everyone in our world is as fortunate as those
living off reliable energy sources in Western economies. Billions of people all over the
world do not have access to secure sources of heat and electricity. For these, winter can be
a death blow. A political war against fossil fuels is making matters worse for those
unprotected from frigid temperatures. The gravity of winter's hazard has been overshadowed by
the prevailing discourse on purported man-made climate change. We have been inundated with
warnings about the perils of warming. But historically, it is the cold that has been
disastrous. It has altered the course of history across the world and left people scrambling
for food as plant life dwindled.
It
appears the Church of the Climate Change Cult (CCCC) is losing some of its Flock
Part 5. Coming out of COP 28 the US joined 56 other nations in the
"Powering Past Coal Alliance" where Steven Guilbeault, a long-time member of the CCCC sits as the
Co-chair along with Graham Stewart, the UK Minister of State for Climate Change. While the US
is currently the 3rd largest user of coal in the world, they have promised to be coal free by 2035
but it is basically meaningless. Their consumption when compared to China and India's annual
increases simply means those two countries will increase their coal consumption and it will
represent 76% in the near future, up from the 70% it represented in 2022! It is worth noting with
the US joining the other 56 countries it means there are still 138 countries who are not
members of the "Alliance"! The following is a chart from the IEA with a forecast out to only
2026 suggesting China, Indian and other Asian countries will be consuming more coal in 2026 than
they did in 2022!
India
Scoffs at Coal 'Transition': 'Not Happening in Foreseeable Future'. India burns so
much coal that it has an entire cabinet-level ministry devoted to coal. The Ministry of Coal
informed the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of Parliament, this week that India will not be
transitioning to any alternative form of energy in the "foreseeable future." The ministry said
more mining and importing of coal will be necessary to meet the energy needs of the growing
industrial economy. The Hindustan Times noted that no one participating in the
just-concluded winter session of Parliament acted like India's promise at the COP28 climate
conference to begin eliminating fossil fuels was sincere. COP28, hosted by fossil fuel
superpower the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in December, climaxed with an ostensibly "historic"
agreement to "transition away from fossil fuels." Stronger language that would have called for
a more aggressive "phase out" was removed from the final joint declaration, but it was still the
first climate conference agreement to explicitly discuss eliminating coal and oil on a near-future timetable.
Boom
Boom: Out Go the Lights! Ruling like the dictator whom he says Donald Trump
aspires to be, President Joe Biden has decreed restrictions, if not prohibitions, on gas stoves,
gas furnaces, gasoline-powered cars and trucks, and other products. Congress has passed no
such laws for Biden to sign. Instead, he has acted unilaterally, as despots do. [...]
Biden's "Climate!" guru, John Kerry, attended the just-concluded COP28 global-warming hoe-down in
Dubai. Some of its 80,000 participants got delayed en route, as their private jets bogged
down as 17 inches of snow closed Munich's airport. Kerry soldiered forth and soon
declared that "There shouldn't be any more coal power plants permitted anywhere in the world."
He added: "I do not understand how adults who are in a position of responsibility can be avoiding
responsibility for taking away those things that are killing people on a daily basis." When coal
took a break from its homicides du jour, it also yielded 19.7% of U.S. electricity in 2022,
according to Biden's own Energy Information Administration. Biden's Environmental Protection
Agency unveiled edicts on Dec. 2 that would clamp down on methane emissions from new and
existing oil and gas wells. Methane and natural gas are essentially interchangeable.
So, this bid to reduce 58 million tons of methane through 2038 is a barely disguised billy
club to beat down the natural gas industry. Never mind that, last year, 39.9% of U.S.
electricity came from natural gas.
President
Biden just pledged to shut down 60% of America's electric power. The Biden
administration made two virtue-signaling proclamations at last week's COP28 conference in Dubai
that it says will help save the planet from climate change. The policies aren't likely to
change the planet's temperature by even one-tenth of a degree, but they might just destroy the
21st-century American industrial economy as we know it. First, Team Biden announced it will
stop production of all new coal plants in the United States. This comes on the heels of
President Biden's Environmental Protection Agency saying this year it would impose new power plant
emission regulations that are virtually impossible for coal plants to comply with. The bottom
line: No more coal. Period. But the White House was just getting started.
Vice President Kamala Harris trumpeted the next day new rules to "sharply reduce methane from the
oil and natural gas industry." The administration calls methane a "super-pollutant" that it
wants to eliminate because it's "many times more potent than carbon dioxide." But methane is
effectively a hydrocarbon that comes from natural gas.
The Editor says...
Methane is a naturally-occurring gas. It is not a pollutant; it is beneficial; it is not something to avoid.
Climate change is not a crisis. The climate will always change. The climate does not respond to legislation.
You might as well burn all the hydrocarbons you need, because the earth isn't being ruined by your use of them.
The billions of people who live in China and India couldn't care less about methane or carbon dioxide, and if they
don't care, you might as well use as much natural gas as you like, because it won't make any difference.
Newt
Gingrich: U.S. Climate Czar John Kerry Is 'Not Mentally Sound'. John Kerry's
call to end all coal-powered electricity generation is "silly" and "self-destructive," writes
former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, and "makes the United States look delusional." In
his punchy essay, Gingrich insists that it is "not hyperbole or exaggeration" to call John Kerry
"crazy," since the word crazy means "marked by thought or action that lacks reason."
Mr. Kerry's failing mental state was on full display during his recent "emotional speech" to
the United Nations Climate Change Conference, where he made a plea to "end all coal burning power
plant construction in the entire world."
Most Deserving
Of A Lump Of Coal. Climate czar John Kerry, who must have nightmares of everyone's
carbon footprint but his own, dreams of outlawing coal-fired power plants across the world.
Doing so is "how you can do something for health," he said from the United Nations 28th global
warming cocktail party in oil-rich Abu Dhabi. Avoiding blackouts and holding down electricity
prices are also good for health, but health is not what the warming activists are interested
in. After declaring that "there shouldn't be any more coal power plants permitted anywhere in
the world," the White House's climate hector in chief admitted "the reality is that we're not doing
it." How dare India, with a growing population of 1.43 billion, displease the imperious
Kerry by asking "private firms to ramp up investments in new coal-fired power plants to meet a
dramatic rise in electricity demand and bridge nearly 30 gigawatts of additional requirement by
2030." How dare the Chinese unleash "a massive coal power expansion" to meet its needs.
It's as if they want to get a small taste of the sweet life Kerry has enjoyed for all of his now
nearly 80 years on Earth, the advantages that come only when cheap and plentiful electricity is
available at the flip of a switch. He won't stand for it.
Biden
to phase out American (coal) power. Reports indicate that the United States has
committed to phasing out coal power plants, and sooner rather than later, though no specific date
has yet been given. The U.S. joins 56 other nations who have similarly pledged to rid
themselves of coal power. U.S. "special envoy" John Kerry recently announced that Washington
has agreed to join something called "the Powering Past Coal Alliance" which means the Biden
administration has effectively vowed to build no new coal plants and to phase out existing
plants. Kerry said the U.S. and other PPCA nations "will be working to accelerate unabated
coal phase-out across the world," and added, "the first step is to stop making the problem worse:
stop building new unabated coal power plants." Due to other Biden administration "regulatory
actions" and "international commitments" already in the works, there is some speculation that it
may target 2035 as a coal-free date.
US
Joins New Climate Pact to Shut Down All Coal Plants. The United States has "proudly"
committed to not build any new coal-fired power plants and to get rid of existing ones entirely,
John Kerry, special presidential envoy on climate matters, said on Dec. 2. "To meet our goal
of 100 percent carbon pollution-free electricity by 2035, we need to phase out unabated coal," he
said in a statement, in which he announced at the annual United Nations COP28 climate change summit
in Dubai, United Arab Emirates that the United States had officially joined a coalition of 56 other
countries who all plan to ditch coal in the name of climate change. "We will be working to
accelerate unabated coal phase-out across the world, building stronger economies and more resilient
communities. The first step is to stop making the problem worse: stop building new
unabated coal power plants."
The Editor says...
Carbon dioxide is not carbon, and carbon dioxide is not a pollutant. So, technically,
we already have "100 percent carbon pollution-free electricity."
US
commits to shutting down its coal plants during COP28. The Biden Administration is
forging ahead with its green agenda by committing the United States to not building any new coal
plants and phasing out existing plants. U.S. Special Envoy for Climate John Kerry announced
at the annual United Nations climate change summit, known as COP28 and which is being held in
Dubai, although no date was given for when the existing plants would have to go. "We will be
working to accelerate unabated coal phase-out across the world, building stronger economies and
more resilient communities," Kerry said in a statement. "The first step is to stop making the
problem worse: stop building new unabated coal power plants." Kerry said America was
joining the Powering Past Coal Alliance, a pact of nearly 60 countries that have promised to
accelerate the phasing out of coal-fired power stations, except the very few that have carbon
capture and storage.
The Editor says...
Nobody voted to outlaw the combustion of coal, which would certainly lead to widespread blackouts.
Nobody voted for John Kerry to have that kind of authority, either.
Putting
oil spills into perspective. I am 70 years old. My electricity has been
provided by a coal-fired power plant my entire life. I have been privileged to have AC for
around 60 years. My heat has been provided by natural gas almost all my life. I have
lived within one mile of the coal plant, with scrubbers, for 44 years. I raised three
children in this close proximity. Not once, that I can remember, did I worry about the air
quality or worry about opening the doors and windows. We are all very healthy. Our
current power plant was updated in 2005, at the cost of several hundred million. It passed
all environmental standards yet now, Democrats want to put it out of existence to claim they can
change the climate. It is a shame they care so little about the poor and middle classes that
still have to pay off the plant, and now a replacement.
Major
coal port remains blocked by climate protesters. Protesters have spent the night
blockading the world's largest coal port over what they say is the failure of government to act on
climate change. Several hundred protesters blocked Newcastle Port's shipping lane on
Saturday, remaining overnight and into Sunday with the action due to end at 4 pm. The group
behind the protest, Rising Tide, claims over half a million tonnes of coal will be prevented from
leaving the port for the duration of the action. Protesters are demanding the government stop
allowing new coal projects, tax fossil fuel export profits at 75 percent to fund community and
industrial transition, and pay for climate loss and damage.
The Editor says...
What "climate loss and damage" exists? What does that mean? Where is this damage?
Can you prove that man-made climate change inflicted damage on anything? No, you can't.
Here's
why a $2M coal mine in Wyoming could be worth $37B. A former Wall Street banker who
dished out $2 million for an old coal mine in rural Wyoming has possibly hit a $37 billion mother
lode after the discovery of "rare-earth elements" at the site, according to a report. Randall
Atkins, the son of infamous oil tycoon Orin Atkins, bought the sleepy Brook Mine outside of
Sheridan, Wyo., sight unseen, 12 years ago. However, recent tests conducted by government
researchers revealed that the 15,800-acre mineral reserve contains what might be the largest
unconventional rare-earth deposit in the country, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Liberal
billionaire commits $500 million to destroying America's coal industry.
[Scroll down] Enter Michael Bloomberg, former New York mayor, and one-time 2016
Democratic presidential nominee. Recently, Bloomberg announced a $500 million initiative
aimed at closing all remaining U.S. coal-fired power plants. Why would someone commit such
resources against an industry that has provided affordable and reliable energy for decades?
The likely culprits: greed, ego, and political influence. Bloomberg's contributions aren't
solely for environmental causes. While pinning down his full portfolio is challenging, he's
invested in natural gas, renewable energy, and media outlets such as Bloomberg Green, which promote
a green-focused narrative. It seems Bloomberg might view environmentalism not just as a cause
but also as a business venture.
They shut down the coal-fired power plants and look what happened. Rollin',
rollin', rollin' blackouts in... Tennessee?! [W]hat has the TVA —
America's largest government-owned utility, by the by — given up and replaced that
brings them to a place where they have to institute rolling blackouts? The first thing to
consider is the influx of people the region is seeing. According to the TVA's own webpage
[...] It sounds like everyone who didn't move to Florida stopped in TN. [...] But if you can't keep
the power on, those gains will be fleeting. The second thing to consider is, again, the fact
that the TVA is owned by the federal government. It puts them under extraordinary pressure to
go along with whatever the latest "thing" is as far as the clean/renewable energy push goes, and it
seems this is where it's starting to trip them up. They're shooting for "net zero" emissions by 2050.
Germany
Fires Up Coal Power Plants for Winter to "Save Gas". The German Government on
Wednesday approved putting coal power plants back online from October until the end of March 2024
to address scarce natural gas this winter and avoid shortages, Reuters reports. Following
Russia's invasion of Ukraine and a drop in Russian gas imports to Germany, Berlin reactivated
coal-fired power plants and extended their lifespans, with a total output of 1.9 gigawatt hours
generated last winter. The Government said it will make proposals by next summer on how to
'offset' the increased carbon dioxide emissions the plants will generate this winter.
Germany
Brings Back Mothballed Coal Plants to Help Keep Lights On. Germany will bring several
mothballed coal plants back to the market this winter to ensure that Europe's largest economy can
keep the lights on when demand peaks. An order to allow the renewed activation of units
belonging to RWE AG and LEAG was passed by the cabinet on Wednesday, according to an economy
ministry release. TheThe move should help save gas and prevent supply shortages in the
upcoming heating season, it said. [Paywall]
EV
Battery Factory Will Require So Much Energy It Needs A Coal Plant To Power It. A
$4 billion Panasonic electric vehicle battery factory in De Soto, Kansas, will help satisfy the
Biden administration's efforts to get everyone into an EV. It also will help extend the life of
a coal-fired power plant. Panasonic broke ground on the facility last year. The Japanese
company was slated to receive $6.8 billion from the Inflation Reduction Act, which has been pouring
billions into electric vehicles and battery factories as part of its effort to transition America
away from fossil fuels. The Kansas City Star reports that the factory will require between
200 and 250 megawatts of electricity to operate. That's roughly the amount of power needed
for a small city.
Michael
Bloomberg pumps $500 million into [a] bid to close all US coal plants. Former New
York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced on Wednesday he will pump $500 million into the next
phase of his energy transition campaign, aiming to shut down "every last" coal plant in the United
States and slash gas-fired capacity in half by 2030. The $500 million infusion into his
decade-long Beyond Carbon initiative aims to "finish the job on coal" by working with state and
local organizations to force the closure of the roughly 150 coal plants that have not yet retired,
slash current gas generation in half and block the construction of new gas-fired plants.
Carbon
County, Utah, Named for Its Abundance of Coal, No Longer Produces It. I had been
slowly trending toward conservatism before the 2008 presidential election. After 40-plus
years of being a liberal, one just can't quit cold turkey, or cold donkey, as the case may
be. But I remember the night that sealed the deal. It was when I learned that Obama
planned to bankrupt the coal industry. Obama's declaration was more than a nod to the
environmental lobby. Democrats are anti-fossil fuels, but at the time, I thought they did not
yet have the clout to completely shut down the oil and gas fields. I suspected that coal
might be a bit more vulnerable. A few hours east of where I Iived lies Craig, Colo. It
has always been a town that depended on its coal mines to survive. Without them, the town and
its residents would fall on hard times. A few hours to the south of my home is Price,
Utah. It is in Carbon County, which is so named because of the coal deposits found there.
China is building new coal power so fast that
'energy transition' by the West is meaningless. Bloomberg reported on August 30 that
a recent update by British/Dutch oil giant Shell seems to have quietly abandoned a
previously-announced radical plan to cut the company's carbon emissions. Meanwhile Shell will
increase investment in finding and producing more oil and natural gas. The same media
platform reported August 29 that China's government has now approved the building of more new
coal-fired power plants than are currently operating in the United States. The researchers
who worked this out stated that these new coal plants are mostly in places with lots of existing
coal power, and will provide capacity beyond that needed to back up renewables. This would
appear to be a tacit admission that more fossil fuel energy is required to meet rising demand for
electricity, even as Chinese population growth has stagnated.
The
'Climate Emergency' Is a Hoax. More than 1,600 scientists, including two Nobel
laureates, have signed a declaration saying that "There is no climate emergency." [...] Of course
it would be helpful to research what can be done to relieve the problems brought about by man, such
as the "hole in the ozone layer," which is now closing, but climate change is not an apocalyptic
emergency and needs to be attended to without bringing devastation to the hundreds of millions of
people already in extreme poverty. The Biden administration, however, appears not to be
concerned about the widespread poverty and massive starvation that will be caused by the
unavailability of cheap and reliable energy in underdeveloped countries, or the inflation caused by
the skyrocketing prices that are crushing Americans "barely able to afford one meal a day".
These are man-made problems, created by importing expensive (nearing $100 a barrel
again) — often dirtier — oil from adversaries of the United States, such as
Russia and Venezuela, instead of extracting it far less expensively at home. The Biden
administration also does not seem concerned that so long as China and India keep burning
coal — the Chinese Communist Party is permitting two new coal-power plants a
week, easily cancelling out whatever benefits the US might be providing, and reportedly
exceeding "all developed nations combined" in carbon emissions.
From
Poverty to Moon Landing: How Coal Propelled Indian Economy. On August 23, India
landed a craft near the Moon's South Pole — an historic feat matched only by three other
countries and made possible by the subcontinent's largely uninhibited use of fossil fuels.
The acceleration of coal usage between 2000 and 2020 played a pivotal role in bringing electricity
to billions and ushering in a new era of economic growth and improved living standards. So
much so, that a nation that once did not even have enough food for its population now has funds for
space missions. India is a country with a long history of energy poverty — a term
that encapsulates the struggle of millions to access basic electricity services. In 1995,
only about 50% of the people had access to electricity. Vast segments of the population suffered
stunted economic development and substandard education, healthcare and overall quality of life.
Rural homes were shrouded in darkness after sunset, hindering productivity and limiting opportunities.
King
Coal Outdistancing Wind/Solar/Hydro/Other Renewables. In the worldwide battle for
electric generation, coal isn't down and out. It isn't even on the ropes. According to
World Energy Data (formerly BP's data collection report), coal is still the champ. In 2022,
coal accounted for 35.4% of global electric generation, followed by natural gas (22.7%), hydro
(14.9%), nuclear (9.2%), wind (7.2%), solar (4.5%), geothermal, biomass, and other renewables
(3.6%). The historic trends contradict the conventional view that fossil generation has been
declining, while renewables are gaining. According to the data, "The share of low carbon
fuels (nuclear, hydro, wind & solar) peaked at 36% in 1995, coinciding with COP1 [the first UN
conference of parties]."
While
Biden Shuts Down U.S. Coal, China's Coal Use Surges To Record Levels. As much as it's
reported that the world is going through a transition away from fossil fuels to wind and solar
energy, the data doesn't support it. The International Energy Agency released its 2023 Coal
Market Update on Thursday, which shows that global coal consumption in 2022 rose by 3.3% to a
record 8.3 billion tons. While the use of coal in European countries and the United States
has declined, those reductions are offset by increases in Asian countries, primarily India and
China. Thirty years ago, the U.S. and European share of coal consumption was 40%. By 2024,
the IEA predicts it will fall to 8%. Rep. John Bear, R-Gillette, told Cowboy State
Daily that the efforts to reduce emissions in the U.S. by shutting down coal plants will have no
impact on global warming because Asian countries are moving full steam ahead with coal.
Biden
Brags About Killing Coal Plants As Grid Operators Warn Of Rolling Blackouts.
President Joe Biden boasted that there will be no more new coal-fired power plant developments in
the U.S. during a Wednesday speech in Chicago, Illinois, even as the U.S. continues to grapple with
energy problems. Biden bragged that his economic and energy policies have disincentivized any
future development of coal-fired power plants while touting the merits of green energy technology
his administration's policies favor, according to video of his speech. His remarks come about
one month after a May 2023 grid assessment report from the North American Electric Reliability
Corporation, which warned that the power grids serving most of New England and a large majority of
Americans who live west of the Mississippi River face "elevated risk" of rolling blackouts this
summer if weather conditions are hotter than normal.
South
Africa's grid is dissolving — climate activists hit hardest. I ran across
this article in Climate Change News decrying the fact that the coal lobby in South Africa is
fighting against shutting down the coal industry and replacing it with renewables. It's a
tale filled with evil carbon villains. [...] If only the mean, nasty coal people would let the
activists work their magic, all would be rainbows and sunshine and butterflies fluttering in the
breeze. Sad, really, that such mean people are so powerful. [Tweet] Of course, the
story ignores one minor point: South Africa's power grid is collapsing, with electricity shut
off to residents for 8-13 hours a day. The problems that most South Africans face these days
has nothing to do with carbon "pollution;" it is the fact that they are forced to use candles to
light their homes and watch their food rot for lack of refrigeration. That the coal lobby has
any political power at all is a miracle in South Africa. The country is falling apart before
our eyes, becoming a failed state after decades of being one of the only functioning countries on
the continent. The power company? Apparently not as well functioning as the coal lobby,
perhaps because it is run by the government which is a socialist mess.
Unreliable
Green Energy Has the World Running Back to Coal and Nuclear. Tokyo's move away from
nuclear energy was entirely because of the unwarranted fears surrounding the technology.
However, once it was understood that Fukushima was more of a natural disaster than a fundamental
technological failure, the country began to reverse its nuclear retrenchment and is now fully on
track with an ambitious plan to use power reactors. Historically, much of Japan's electricity
needs have been met by fossil fuels, especially coal. Then, in the late 2000s, like most
developed economies of Europe and North America, Japan was confronted by pressures to reduce coal
use to address a purported climate emergency. However, Japan now realizes that it can
continue to use coal using state-of-art technology, which reduces pollution significantly. In
its coverage of a new clean-coal plant backed by $384 million of public funds, Nikkei Asia reports
that the country's initiatives are bearing fruit and providing much needed electricity.
Joe
Manchin threatens to oppose Biden nominees over upcoming power plant crackdown.
Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., is threatening to oppose all of President Biden's
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) nominees over an expected regulation targeting power plant
emissions. Manchin, who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, blasted the
Biden administration for aiming to shut down fossil fuel-fired power plants regardless of the
impacts on the nation's power grid. The Democratic lawmaker argued that neither the
Bipartisan Infrastructure Law or Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), both of which he supported, gave
the EPA authority to regulate power plant emissions. "Neither the Bipartisan Infrastructure
Law or the IRA gave new authority to regulate power plant emission standards," Manchin said in a
statement to Fox News Digital on Wednesday [5/10/2023].
Green
New Deal Appeasement Leads Nowhere. The sad story of North Dakota's largest
coal-fired power plant, Coal Creek Station, should be an important lesson for anyone involved in
carbon-based energy. The prior owner of Coal Creek was Minnesota-based Great River Energy,
which has come under growing pressure from the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission to rethink its
coal dependency and was looking at its options, including mothballing the dependable plant that was
producing reliable and affordable electricity for 1.7 million consumers in Minnesota and
Wisconsin. In 2021, Rainbow Energy, based in North Dakota, agreed to buy the plant. The
sale closed in mid-2022. Rainbow Energy's plan to save Coal Creek Station included a
large-scale carbon capture and storage project. That plan should have been music to the ears
of Green New Dealers. Rainbow Energy's carbon sequestration plan had several significant
technical hurdles and it was also going to be expensive.
China
automating mines to improve safety as coal output grows. China is pushing automated
technology to improve the safety and efficiency of its coal mining industry, the world's largest,
which has long been plagued by safety lapses. At the Hongliulin mine, run by state-owned
Shaanxi Coal Group, telecoms equipment giant Huawei Technologies has installed 5G technology that
reduces the number of workers underground, replacing them with machines directed from the comfort
of air-conditioned "virtual mines" on the site's surface.
World
builds more coal power in spite of pollution, pledges and coal end-date. The world is
still developing new coal power, in spite of it being the most polluting fossil fuel, of promises
to phase down coal and despite agreements that all coal stations should close by 2040. These
are the [...] conclusions of a report by California-based NGO Global Energy Monitor (GEM), which
tracks energy projects around the world. Nearly all newly commissioned coal projects are in
China, said GEM, which called China the "glaring exception to the ongoing global decline in coal
plant development". The world already has around 2,100 gigawatts (GW) of capacity already,
while an additional 176 GW of coal capacity is under construction at more than 189 plants, and a
further 280 GW is planned. The global capacity to burn coal grew by 19.5 gigawatts last year,
enough to light up about 15 million homes. That 1% increase comes just as the world should be
retiring its coal fleet four and a half times faster to meet climate goals, the report said.
Here's a news bulletin for John Kerry: China couldn't care less about climate change. Kerry
Threatens More Biden Executive Orders, Thinks China-Russia Will Help Combat Climate Change.
Turns out Joe Biden's climate czar is deeply concerned about our imminent death from climate change, but
don't worry, he has a plan to save us all — we'll just get the Chinese, Russians, and Indians
to work with us: [...] It's hard for me to believe that Russian President Vladimir Putin wakes up
wondering if he's not helping the U.S. reach "the goals we've set." Actually, I'm guessing he
doesn't give a whit, and if anything takes pleasure in defying us. Meanwhile, China and its leader
Xi Jinping may say the right things about climate change at international conferences, but their main goal
is to build more coal-fired power plants, which they continue to do at a prodigious rate.
The causes
of skyrocketing global natural gas and coal prices. Skyrocketing natural gas and coal
prices are not a failure of the fossil fuel industry, but the total failure of anti-fossil fuel
policies, which falsely promised that if we dramatically restricted fossil fuel energy
production, green energy could easily replace it. There is no physical reason that the
natural gas and coal industries can't meet rising demand. The world has hundreds of years'
worth of gas deposits and thousands of years worth of coal deposits. But governments
radically restrict the freedom to utilize those deposits. There is no technical or economic
reason the natural gas and coal industries can't meet demand. These industries have gotten
radically more capable and efficient in the last two decades — especially natural gas
with fracking. But governments radically restrict their freedom. In Europe, fracking
and other shale gas technologies could produce a lot of gas, but Europeans have over and over
chosen to ban fracking -- reassuring citizens that solar and wind would provide all the energy they
need. How is that going? America has been called "the Saudi Arabia of coal." At today's
prices, America's coal industry would love to be powering the world. But it can't because of
onerous restrictions on coal transport, as well as myriad domestic restrictions on desperately-needed
coal production.
Energy
Secretary Jennifer Granholm praises China. What at first would appear to be a
head-scratcher comes sharply into focus only when you understand that China is constantly
increasing its greenhouse gas output without U.S. rebuke. Its output is now greater than all
the other developed nations combined! Nothing the rest of the world (i.e. America and
Europe both committed to net zero) does will achieve Biden's stated goals to "save" the
planet. China greenlights two coal plants a week while the U.S. and Europe shutter their own,
risking brownouts and people dying from the cold! Why are we such zealots for dumping our
traditional sources of energy with nothing on the near horizon to replace our needs? Granholm
knows what's going on, and, like our President, both are in the tank for an ever-ascendant China.
Britain
uses coal-power back up for the first time with supply tight. Britain's National Grid
called on reserve coal-power units for the first time to provide electricity during a period of
expected tight supplies on Tuesday as a cold snap sweeps the country. The energy grid
operator warned in October that homes could face three-hour rolling power cuts this winter if the
country was unable to secure enough gas and electricity imports. Contracting some coal plants
to remain available is part of its tool box to help prevent cuts.
China
barrels ahead on coal plant construction. Joe Biden's greenie czar, John Kerry, has
been looking like a boob lately, jetting around the world in a plume of greenhouse gas emissions,
and talking up China as America's partner in making the climate green. [...] Coal is king in China
and to the Chinese, John Kerry is just another Western green idiot to pat on the head as the real
business of state powers onward. They had a good time playing him with his greenie games,
however. Just this past year, Kerry was touting China as a partner in the quest to go green,
and China played along with the farce to perfection.
China
permits two new coal power plants per week in 2022. Coal power plant permitting,
construction starts and new project announcements accelerated dramatically in China in 2022, with
new permits reaching the highest level since 2015. The coal power capacity starting
construction in China was six times as large as that in all of the rest of the world
combined. 50 GW of coal power capacity started construction in China in 2022, a more
than 50% increase from 2021. Many of these projects had their permits fast-tracked and moved
to construction in a matter of months. A total of 106 GW of new coal power projects were
permitted, the equivalent of two large coal power plants per week. The amount of capacity
permitted more than quadrupled from 23 GW in 2021. Of the projects permitted in 2022,
60 GW were not under construction in January 2023, but are likely to start construction soon,
indicating even more construction starts in 2023. In total, 86 GW of new coal power
projects were initiated, more than doubling from 40 GW in 2021.
As
Biden Wages War on American Coal, China Makes a Massive Move with the Power Source.
China approved 168 coal-fired power plants in 2022, the most rapid expansion of the country's
coal-fired power capacity since 2015, according to a report by the Centre for Research on Energy
and Clean Air (CREA) and Global Energy Monitor (GEM) Monday [2/27/2023]. Chinese companies
began constructing 50 gigawatts (GW) worth of coal-fired power capacity in 2022, more than
triple the rest of the world put together and spiking 50 percent from 2021, according to the
report. Conversely, President Joe Biden's signature Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is expected
to lead to the retirement of 30 GW to 60 GW of U.S. coal-fired power plants by
2030, by making it more difficult for coal to compete with renewables, E&E News reported,
citing an analysis by analytics firm Rhodium Group.
Joe
Biden Meets the Tar Baby. As EE News said recently, "Coal's survival beyond
2030 is not consistent with [President] Biden's emission goals." Biden's climate envoy John
Kerry in Glasgow assured his UN colleagues that, "by 2030 in the United States, we won't have
coal." Indeed, the last U.S. coal-fired power plant came online over a decade
ago. Except for a few tiny nations, the rest of the world may be giving lip service to coal's
coming funeral. But in the real world, global power generation from coal rose 9 percent
in 2021 to a projected 10,350 terawatt-hours, and many Asian nations are increasing their reliance
on the tried and true provider of heat and electricity. In 2022, global coal demand was
expected to return to its all-time high (set in 2013), then surpass that level in 2023.
Projections are that, by 2025, countries in Asia will use half of the electricity in the
world. The biggest user is China, whose share has risen from just 10 percent in 2000 to a
projected 33 percent by 2025.
India's
Uncompromising Commitment to Coal. This week, the UK scrambled to ready its coal plants as wind turbines
froze in extremely cold weather. It is no surprise as coal is one of the most reliable, affordable and abundant
energy sources in the world. In fact, coal is still the largest contributor to global power generation.
Leaders of Asian countries know this and are not inclined to risk their objective of economic liberty with overreliance
on highly volatile and expensive "renewable" technology. A country soon to become the world's most populous, India
faces a plethora of challenges, and it does not want to add to the troubles of a sometimes-fragile energy system.
So it is that strategists are keen on increasing the country's dependency on coal despite global calls to reduce
emissions from the combustion of fossil fuels.
China
To Accelerate The Construction Of Coal-Fired Power Plants. China expects to add 70 gigawatts (GW) of
coal-fired power generation this year, up from 40 GW of capacity from coal installed in 2022, a report from the
power sector's group, China Electricity Council, showed. The coal additions, however, will not be the biggest
capacity increases in China in 2023, per the report quoted by Bloomberg. Solar and wind will see massive growth in
capacity additions this year, too, with solar power expected to add a huge 100 GW of capacity and wind —
another 65 GW, China Electricity Council said. China's electricity generation capacity from renewable sources
is expected to jump above 50% for the first time this year. [...] Although renewable energy installations are set to
jump, coal-fired capacity additions in China will also surge this year as Beijing has put more emphasis on energy
security since the autumn of 2021 when power shortages crippled its industry.
Environmentalism
will be the ruin of Germany. To add insult to injury, in 2022, even Germany's much-vaunted environmental
goals have been missed. If Germany's green zealots thought that sacrificing industry would be good for the planet,
they were wrong. Coal, one of the most polluting energy sources of all, provided a vital lifeline in 2022, with
Germany's coal power output increasing by 20 percent on the previous year. Nevertheless, it seems there are no
limits to German madness. Despite Germany's reliance on coal this year, economy minister Robert Habeck has
recently announced that Germany will now give up coal entirely by 2030 — eight years earlier than
originally planned. This move comes just as Germany's elites are pushing for more heat pumps to replace gas
boilers for home heating and for electric vehicles to replace petrol cars. Both of these will require even more
electricity to be produced, yet the German government seems determined to produce less. All of this is a recipe
for economic disaster — in Europe's most important economy. Could a hostile power have designed a
policy more devastating to the fundamentals of the German economy than that of the current government? Probably
not. In the short term, the only way the government's proposals make any sense is if Germany is planning to go
back to using Russian gas. That might explain the German government's reluctance to more effectively support Ukraine.
German
village to be razed for coal mine. Activists built barricades and set them on fire while the police
prepared for the planned eviction of the village Luetzerath. [...] Even though global coal demand is set to increase
only marginally this year, it is enough to push it to an all-time high, amidst the global energy crises, says the
International Energy Agency (IEA). The IEA's latest Coal 2022 report forecasts that the world's coal consumption
will remain at similar levels in the next few years in the absence of strong efforts to accelerate the transition to
clean energy use.
Cold
winter exposes climate frauds: Germany returns to coal. This is weird. After "leading the
way" for the climate communists, Germany now faces a freezing winter and ballooning energy crises —
they're at the precipice of an economic meltdown, so they're bringing back their coal. [...] [Carlos Fernandez]
Alvarez acknowledges that a transition away from gas and coal as a source of energy is at this moment, not achievable
without forcing people to return to the Dark Ages. Ramrodding through policy to conform to "climate goals" results
in "an unprecedented energy crisis" — it's just not feasible. Secondly, Alvarez eviscerates the
seriousness of the "climate crisis." It's obvious the powers that be don't mind sacrificing the prosperity and
comfort of the average citizen, so if it were actually a crisis, they'd make us use candles. But it's
not a crisis, rather it's communism in disguise, and therefore they can't do too much too soon, it's a boil the
frog type strategy.
'Necessary
evil': France refires coal plant amid energy woes. The end of France's coal era seemed so certain last
year that the operator of one of the country's last coal-burning plants posted an upbeat educational video on YouTube
titled "Let's visit a coal plant that's going to be destroyed!" The plant in the northeastern town of Saint-Avold
indeed halted coal production as scheduled earlier this year — but not for long. This week, its workers
were back at the controls, transporting coal from storage heaps and refiring furnaces, as part of emergency efforts to
keep the heat and electricity on this winter.
From
a Time When Communism Was Taught Right. [Scroll down] We see now that China is showering entities
like the World Health Organization and many organizations in the United States with Chinese cash so they toe the party
line. Many universities, think-tanks, and media have been corrupted. Many corporations are beholden to cheap
labor — think slave labor — to produce their goods and services. Others provide service
contracts that are configured to the restrictive nature of China. These same companies hope to export their
restrictive contracts from China to the United States. Climate change hysteria is pushing for the elimination of
fossil fuels in the United States and elsewhere. The World Economic Forum is driving these changes on behalf of
the Chinese government, Meanwhile, China is clamoring for the purchase and extraction of American minerals and building
fossil fuel plants without pollution controls at an exponential rate to fuel its economic growth and rising influence in
the world.
Despite
a bloodbath quarter for electricity prices, hated Brown Coal still sells at just 4c per KWh. Despite
setting price records — averaging $200/MWh across the whole quarter for the whole five-state National Energy
Market, there's like a cone of silence around the price of brown coal. The ABC is happy to evangelize about
30 minute "renewable energy records", but they don't mention that the three-month total system costs went off like
a bomb. Somehow Australia has all that free cheap green power and yet the wholesale costs exploded. [...] The
average wholesale price for all generators last quarter was 20 cents a kilowatt hour (or $200 per megawatt hour),
but brown coal generators were still able to supply during that same incendiary quarter for just at
4¢ a KWh. That was the average "winning bid". So last quarter brown coal was one fifth the
price of black coal, and one sixth the price of gas or hydro, and no one is talking about it.
Australia —
largest coal exporter in world — still has 300 years of coal left. We, the Global Crash Test
Dummies of Renewable Energy, have the fourth largest known reserves of coal in the world. We have so much coal we
can keep digging it up at the current rate for the next 294 years (assuming we don't discover more, which we
will). If we didn't export three quarters of our coal, but used it all ourselves, it could power Australia for the
next 1,000 years. (But we'd miss the money — better to sell the stuff before nukes make it
worthless). We have so much more coal than we need, most years we are the world's largest exporter of coal.
Indeed, Australia contributes fully one third of the entire global coal export trade. (Three other countries,
China, India and the US, dig up more than we do, but they use it themselves.) Coal also makes up 3% of our
entire GDP, employs near 50,000 people, is one of our top two exports, and brought in $54 billion dollars last
year. If any nation was going to ask hard questions about the need to abandon coal it should be us. Instead,
our leaders (bar Abbott) trip over themselves in the rush to sell out the national interests. All for the glorious
pursuit of symbolic achievements in planetary air conditioning. Our industrial competitors beam with joy as they
pat us on the back, praise our greenness, and burn our coal.
West Virginia Hates
Sen. Manchin Now. Senator Manchin's dirty 'Inflation Increase Act' deal, its betrayal of coal
country, army of IRS agents, and inflationary spending has paid off some of his backers and made Bill Gates very
happy. Gates was described as having personally lobbied Senator Manchin and Schumer in "anticipation of a rare
moment in which significant federal dollars might be secured for the clean-energy transition." Billions of those
dollars, ripped out of the hands of truck drivers, veterans and small businessmen, will have been "secured" for Gates
and his ventures. The Microsoft founder was described as having "tapped into a relationship with Manchin that he'd
cultivated for at least three years". [...] Now Manchin's dirty deal may cost him his Senate seat. A new poll
released Wednesday by Jackson County radio station WMOV 1360 AM and Oregon-based Triton Polling and Research found that
U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin is vulnerable after his support for the Inflation Reduction Act.
America
was built on coal. Now Biden wants to abolish it. The one promise that President Joe Biden has
faithfully kept is his pledge to "close down" fossil fuels. We get two-thirds of our energy in America from fossil
fuels, and almost one-third of our power comes from coal. That's quadruple the amount of energy we get from wind
and solar, which are niche forms of energy. But Biden doesn't see it that way. He recently reiterated his
pledge to end coal production altogether. "No one is building new coal plants because they can't rely on it,"
Biden said on Nov. 4 while in California. "We're going to be shutting these plants down all across America and having
wind and solar." I hope the people in Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Wyoming are listening because thousands
of mostly union jobs are associated with the coal plants he wants to shutter. Biden says we need to "shut down"
these plants and the jobs that come with them because we need to combat climate change. One problem: Most of
the rest of the world is using more coal even as we use less. Even the sanctimonious Europeans are turning to
coal because their natural gas supplies from Russia are no longer reliable.
The
Massive Increase In China's Coal Production This Year. While the rest of the world is cutting back on coal
production and shutting down coal-fired power plants, China is going full-steam ahead, doing quite the opposite.
The increase in China's coal production in 2022 will be nearly three times more than the largest European producers in a
year. If the world thought China peaked in coal production a decade ago, think again. China's coal production
reached a high of almost 4 billion tons in 2013, declined to a low in 2016, then rebounded, and is estimated to reach
a new all-time high in 2022.
China
has caused more pollution in 8-years than Britain has in the last 220, report claims. China is responsible
for 14 percent of all emissions throughout history, making it the second biggest polluter in the world, while the USA is
in first place as it is responsible for 25 percent of all emissions. In comparison, the UK has emitted just
4.6 percent of all emissions, which is the fifth highest in the world. The Telegraph has reported that China has
caused more pollution since 2013 than Britain has since the Industrial Revolution first began. It comes at a time
former Labour leader Ed Miliband recently suggested Britain should pay to help developing countries recover for "loss
and damage" from climate change.
Biden
Keeps Promising To Make Energy More Expensive. Believe Him. Yes, we're going to make energy more
expensive. That's Joe Biden's closing message for 2022. "We're going to be shutting these [coal] plants
down all across America and having wind and solar," Biden told a crowd in deep blue California on Friday, arguing that
it was "cheaper" to generate electricity from wind and solar. Is it? In California, which not only
leads the nation in "clean energy" production but is leading the rest of us into rolling blackouts, residents pay
24.62 cents per kilowatt-hour for energy, around double the national average. There are only three other
states where residents fork 20 or more cents over, the isolated Hawaii and Alaska and the frack-banning New York.
The price of a gallon of gas in California is around two dollars over the national average, at $5.458. In Texas,
it's $3.173. The president also forgot to mention that affordable natural gas, propelled by technological
efficiencies like fracking, is as much a reason for the struggles of coal.
Senator
Joe Manchin Pretends to be Surprised That Joe Biden is Banning Coal Powered Energy. Yesterday, Joe Biden
declared that all coal-fired electricity plants in the U.S would be shut down, saying, "we're going to be shutting these
plants down all across America and having wind and solar." Today, West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin, the senator
who gave Joe Biden the vote he needed for the 'inflation reduction act' also known as the climate change investment act
that will eliminate all oil, coal and natural gas development, pretends to act surprised that Joe Biden will destroy the
West Virginia coal mining industry.
Biden
Says the Quiet Part Out Loud About Climate Change And His Handlers Are Trying To Save The Situation. In a
move that surely had his tapioca dealers talking themselves back from the ledge, the President stated that they would be
shutting down coal-fired power plants 'across America'. West Virginia may be the first state that comes to mind
when one thinks of coal country, but Pennsylvania is a close second and is home to one of the key senate races of this
election. Democrat senate hopeful, Fetterman, was likely stunned by Biden's recklessness ... and her husband
probably was too.
Is Biden's
Real Problem, Senility or Leftism? The Biden administration disaster can be put down to 1 part senility
and 4 parts leftist insanity. What else could explain doing this before a crucial election in a coal state where
the Dems are struggling on energy issues? ["]Biden made the comments on Friday when discussing energy,
stating that coal plants cost too much to operate and advocated for renewables as an eventual replacement.
'No one is building new coal plants because they can't rely on it,' Biden said. "Even if they have all the
coal guaranteed for the rest of the existence of the plant.' 'So it's going to become a wind generation,' Biden
added. 'And all they're doing is, it's going to save them [...] a lot of money and using the same
transmission line that they transmitted the coal-fired electric on. We're going to be shutting these plants down
all across America and having wind and solar power.'["] Why? That's the obvious question that comes
to mind. The message isn't new, but the timing is spectacularly bad.
Manchin's
rebuke shows how toxic Biden's energy views are. It's not often that a senator launches a brutal, frontal
assault on a president from his own party. It's even rarer when he does it just before a national election.
But that is exactly what West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin just did to Joe Biden. At issue was Biden's recent
speech attacking coal, a bedrock of the West Virginia economy. Manchin was furious over Biden's promise to shut
down all of America's coal-fired power plants. That view might be red meat for Biden's audience of
green-power advocates and rich California donors, but it is poison in West Virginia. And it is those West
Virginians who elected Manchin, the only Democrat still standing in a state that is now deep red. [...] President
Biden's comments are not only outrageous and divorced from reality, they ignore the severe economic pain the American
people are feeling because of rising energy costs. [...] Shutting down coal-fired plants is hardly a new position for
Biden. He said as much while campaigning for president. But why return to that theme just before an election
when high energy prices are already a political burden? Some combination of Biden's usual foot-in-mouth disease,
his quest for rich donors, and an effort to spur turnout among base voters.
Europe Is Transitioning -- To
Coal! In Germany, they are tearing down a wind farm to make room for the expansion of an open pit lignite
coal mine. Dismantling of wind turbines has already begun. Lignite is brown coal. It has been mined at
the mine in question for well over a hundred years. RWE, the German company that owns the mine has also announced
that it is returning lignite-fired coal units that were previously on standby to service. Those plants came back
online this month. "The three lignite units each have a capacity of 300 megawatts. With their deployment,
they contribute to strengthening the security of supply in Germany during the energy crisis and to saving natural gas in
electricity generation," RWE said last month.
Coal
mine demolishes neighboring wind farm to boost country's energy supply, drawing ire of climate activists.
A German energy company is dismantling a wind farm to allow for an adjacent coal mine to expand its operations,
officials said. The German coal mine Garzweiler, operated by energy company RWE, admits the situation appears to
be "paradoxical" — sacrificing one energy source for another — but defended the decision as
necessary to strengthen supplies amid the ongoing energy crisis, Oilprice.com reported. "We realize this comes
across as paradoxical," RWE spokesperson Guido Steffen said in a statement. "But that is as matters stand."
The Greens' Cloud Cuckoo Land.
Two recent developments in Australia add to the overwhelming evidence that Western governments are living their
deluisions. Of course, there are many more than two such developments. I've just picked two of them at
random. The first concerns the Liddell coal power station in the Hunter region in the state of New South Wales
(NSW). Liddell is being closed down prematurely in April next year. Incidentally, Eraring, the largest power
station in Australia (at 2.3 GW), also in NSW, will close prematurely in 2025. The Australian Energy Market Operator
expects more early closures. On cue, it's been announced that the closure of Loy Yang, supplying 30 percent of the
state of Victoria's power, will be brought forward ten years to 2035. No odds are being offered on bets it will close
earlier than that. It's all part of the continuing shutdown of coal power stations in Australia. Meanwhile, China,
India, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, et al, are still building them, and using heaps of Australian coal to power them.
Coal
power plant closure leaves schools underfunded, hundreds unemployed in NM. The clamor of second graders
breaking away from lessons to form lunch lines has gotten quieter in a rural New Mexico community, where families losing
coal jobs have been forced to pack up and leave in search of work. At Judy Nelson Elementary, 1 in 4 students
have left in an exodus spurred by decisions made five years ago to shutter a coal-fired power plant and mine that sit just up
the road from the school in a largely Navajo community. The plant and mine had provided electricity to millions of
people across the southwestern U.S. for nearly a half-century. The San Juan Generating Station burned its last bit
of coal Thursday. The remaining workers will spend the coming weeks draining water from the plant, removing
chemicals and preparing to tear down what has long been fixture on the high-desert horizon.
Demand
for coal in Europe a boon for Tanzania. The sleepy Tanzanian port of Mtwara mainly dealt in cashew nuts
until late last year. Now it bustles with vessels loading up with coal, as Russia's invasion of Ukraine drives a
worldwide race for the polluting fuel. Tanzania traditionally exports thermal coal only to neighbouring countries
in East Africa; sending it further afield was out of the question, as it required trucking the material more than 600
kilometres from mines in its southwest to Mtwara, the nearest Indian Ocean port. Europe's crippling energy crisis
has changed all that.
Germany's
Russian gas crisis sparks coal rush. "A rush like this in the summertime, it's unheard of —
everybody wants coal," says Frithjof Engelke, a supplier of the briquettes which have become a hot commodity in the
German capital. A looming shortage of Russian gas in the wake of the Ukraine war has reignited enthusiasm for this
method of heating private homes despite its sooty residue and heavy carbon footprint. Engelke, 46, head of the
century-old Berlin business Hans Engelke Energie, says it's brought a bonanza for his family business: "My holidays will
have to wait." He and his team are frenziedly taking orders, organising deliveries by truck — now booked
out until October, and getting supplies ready for those who come directly to pick up coal from his warehouse.
Coal
industry wants to slow down proposed regulations. Grid operators and coal interests
are urging the Environmental Protection Agency to rethink a series of proposed rules to crack down
harder on pollutants from coal-fired power plants, a signature environmental move by President Joe
Biden's administration that starkly contrasts the industry-friendly approach of former President
Donald Trump. In April, the Biden administration proposed a number of rules designed to
reduce the release of toxins and other dangers from coal plants. That includes nitrogen oxide
and mercury pollution, as well as cross-state smog. But such steps would make it nearly
impossible to keep coal plants running, the industry argues. Coal interests see it as a gut
punch to an industry that is already on its heels, with the future being focused more on
lower-emitting sources, such as gas and renewable wind and solar.
Germany's
painful lesson for US climate warriors on the dangers of going green. [German
leaders] last week said they now plan to keep the country's last three nuclear plants running, at
least temporarily, to avoid having to divert natural gas for electricity. That pauses a
years-long march away from nuclear power that's backed by much of the German public (even though
nuclear-energy production emits virtually no greenhouse gases). The government's also looking
to restart 16 mothballed coal-burning power plants. That's right: coal — one of
the dirtiest fossil fuels and largest sources of carbon emissions. So much for leading on
clean energy. Germany had little choice: After Russia cut its gas exports by 80% and
threatened to end them altogether — punishment for Berlin's support for
Ukraine — Germany (along with much of the rest of the continent) faces the prospect of a
truly bitter winter, with inadequate supplies of gas and other fuels to see it through. Its
energy regulator says gas consumption must fall 20% to avoid shortfalls, and the government's
already begun imposing limits.
The Editor says...
When very cold weather comes to town, not one resident is going to care how dirty the coal is, or what
happens to the carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere, as long as the power stays on.
Hawaii
Electricity Prices To Skyrocket As Final Shipment Of Coal Arrives. Hawaii is receiving its final shipment of
coal this week, which Gov. David Ige called a huge step forward in the state's transition to clean energy. What he
meant was that local are about to pay a lot more for basic essentials. A law put in place a couple of years ago will
finally shut down the island's last coal burning power plant. And since coal is the dirtiest — but
cheapest — source of power for Oahu, it means that all else equal, power prices are about to skyrocket.
Coal
plants are being kept online to prevent blackouts as green transition falters. Coal-fired power plants in
several states are delaying planned shutdowns in order to avoid blackouts and energy shortages as the delayed development of
renewable energy sources is leaving gaps in states' power grids amid high energy demand. At least six coal plants in
New Mexico and three other states are temporarily halting their retirement as utility providers say import tariffs and other
supply disruptions on solar panels imposed by the U.S. Commerce Department are making it difficult to meet high demand,
according to Reuters. Fossil fuels like coal plants and natural gas are preventing blackouts by filling the gaps in the
grid that are being created by the push to implement green energy nationwide amid President Joe Biden's aggressive energy
transformation plan.
Coal
is making a comeback and consumption is expected to return to 2013's record levels. Coal prices are soaring and
global coal consumption is expected to return to record levels reached almost 10 years ago as the global energy supply crunch
continues. While investors in coal stocks are having a field day thanks to high coal prices, curbs on carbon emissions
are taking a backseat as markets and governments scramble to stock up on traditional energy supply amid bottlenecks caused by
the Ukraine war, analysts say.
Green
Fail: Germany to Reconnect First Coal Power Plant to Energy Grid. In a demonstration of the failure of
Germany's pursuit of so-called "green energy" and its policy of relying on Russian gas in the meantime, a coal-fired power
plant will be reconnected to the nation's electricity grid. While the economic powerhouse of Europe — so
called — scrambles to secure energy sources before the winter months, the previously shuttered Mehrum coal power
plant in Lower Saxony will become the first to once again be connected to Germany's grid.
Austria
to reopen closed coal-fired power station, despite climate goals. Austria is preparing to reopen a coal-fired
power station that closed in 2020, over fears of Russian gas supplies being cut due to the war in Ukraine. The EU
imposed sanctions against Moscow after it started the conflict and European countries are now preparing for retaliation from
the Kremlin in relation to energy imports. According to Christof Kurzmann-Friedl, a site manager at the power plant,
every option is needed right now to reduce the impact. "We are preparing ourselves for the fact that we will no longer
have the same certainty of gas flow that we have become accustomed to in recent years and decades, and that every
contribution that can be made to replace the use of gas will be called upon," Kurzmann-Friedl said. "Coal is a
particular possibility, let's put it that way, and could help reduce gas consumption." However, the EU has major
ambitions to reduce carbon emissions, including a pledge to become carbon neutral by 2050, and restarting the use of coal
represents a major setback for the bloc's goals.
Europe
Snaps Up Coal From Abroad to Fill Gap Left by Russia. A hunt by Europe's coal consumers to replace Russian
cargoes with shipments from across the globe has boosted imports to a key hub by more than a third, helping to fill severely
depleted stockpiles. Coal poured into the Antwerp-Rotterdam-Amsterdam region — a huge transport hub for
energy and commodities — in the first half of this year, with imports surging 35% to 26.9 million tons compared
with the same period last year, according to Kpler.
Power
cost hike, supply crunch ahead as last Hawaii coal plant closes. Hawaiian Electric (HECO) said Oahu residents
should get ready to pay even more for electricity this fall. A massive coal power plant is closing, and renewable
energy intended to replace it won't be ready in time. Always Investigating has the details. Coal is the cheapest
but dirtiest source of power for Oahu, and a law put into place a couple years ago brings that to a hard stop Sept. 1, even
though replacement power projects are behind schedule. That means consumers can cut back, try solar and batteries, or
pay more for the oil-generated power that will have to patch the gap this fall. How much more is not yet known.
Coal:
Europe's security blanket, the Third World's necessity. How many lives do European coal plants have?
Nobody knows. But by now, most of the world understands that Europe's reliance on coal is no longer deniable. In
a time of global energy instability featuring an embargo on Russian energy, the EU's wealthiest nations have embraced coal as
a savior like the Peanuts character Linus grasping his blanket. Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands are planning to
utilize their coal plants to make up for a shortage in power from gas plants. Although many gas drilling projects have
been resurrected around Europe, electricity from gas plants is set to decrease due to the Russian ban. This return to coal
prompts us to revisit promises made by these very same nations to end coal dependency. Is the reign of King Coal inevitable?
One
more blockbuster Supreme Court decision could still be coming. West Virginia vs. the EPA asks whether important
policies that impact the lives of all Americans should be made by unelected D.C. bureaucrats or by Congress. This
SCOTUS could well decide that ruling by executive agency fiat is no longer acceptable. The case involves the Clean
Power Plan, which was adopted under President Barack Obama to fight climate change; the program was estimated to cost as much
as $33 billion per year and would have completely reordered our nation's power grid. The state of West Virginia,
joined by two coal companies and others, sued the EPA, arguing the plan was an abuse of power.
Coal-fired
dragon in China ignores climate zealots. China has once again shrugged off global calls for reductions in
fossil fuel emissions by reaffirming its commitment to produce and consume more coal than ever. Developments in the
coal sector during the past six months indicate that the dragon is determined to avoid a repetition of 2021, when more than
17 provinces experienced unprecedented blackouts due to energy shortages. While the Western media were busy covering
COVID lockdowns, vaccines and woke nonsense in 2021, millions of households in China were thrust into darkness by
electricity-supply failures. Industrial plants were forced to shut down and economies slumped in at least 15
provinces. Already the world's biggest consumer of coal, China is now eager to increase consumption to stave off energy
shortfalls. Having produced a globe-leading 4.1 billion tons of coal last year, the country plans to add 300 million
tons of production in 2022. Between July and October 2021, the ANI news agency reports, China added 464 metric tons of
annual capacity, which is greater than the annual production of South Africa — the world's seventh largest producer.
At least 169 new coal mines are expected to be added to the 1,600 existing mines in the coming years.
Germany
to fire up coal plants as Russia turns down the gas. Germany must limit its use of gas for electricity
production and prioritize the filling of storage facilities to compensate for a drop in supply from Russia, Economy Minister
Robert Habeck said Sunday [6/19/2022]. In a move that goes against the principles of his environmentally-friendly Green
Party, the country will also have to increase the burning of coal, Habeck said. Russian gas company Gazprom announced
last week that it was reducing supplies through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline for technical reasons, saying there had been
delays in the repair of compressor turbines by the German company Siemens Energy. Germany has come under intense
criticism in the past, particularly from the United States, for its reliance on cheap Russian energy sources, which
Washington has always seen as a security risk for Europe.
India
to reopen coal mines as demand for energy soars. In the past month, as India broiled under a historic heat wave
and consumed a record amount of electricity for cooling, the Coal Ministry announced it would reopen old mines and increase
output by 100 million tons. As cities went into rolling blackouts because of electricity shortages, the Power Ministry
ordered plants that burn imported coal to run at full capacity. The environment ministry has given coal mines
permission to boost production by up to 50% without seeking new permits, according to a May 7 memo.
India
and China Coal Production Surging By 700M Tons Per Year: That's Greater Than All U.S. Coal Output. If you
think the world is moving beyond coal, think again. The post-Covid economic rebound and surging electricity demand have
resulted in big increases in coal prices and coal demand. Since January, the Newcastle benchmark price for coal has
doubled. And over the past few weeks, China and India have announced plans to increase their domestic coal production
by a combined total of 700 million tons per year. For perspective, US coal production this year will total about
600 million tons. The surge in coal demand in China and India — as well as in the U.S., where coal use
jumped by 17% last year — demonstrates two things: that the Iron Law of Electricity has not been broken, Second,
it shows that it is far easier to talk about cutting emissions than it is to achieve significant cuts.
What
Energy Price Spike? Aussie Greens Call for Coal Ban. [Scroll down] The new Australian Labor
Government, which was elected on a promise of strong climate action, will likely have to depend on a coalition with Green
politicians to pass legislation. But Labor's razor thin parliamentary majority is in peril, if Labor caves in to their
Green coalition partners, and triggers even worse energy price spikes for ordinary Australians with radical fossil fuel
bans. Doing nothing is also a risky choice. Australia's coal exports might be going strong, but our fossil fuel
power stations are rapidly approaching the end of their service life. Power companies over the years appear to have
responded rationally to open political hostility, by running their equipment into the ground, patching rather than
maintaining, to squeeze every last dime out of their investments before some radical green politician pulls the plug.
Our crumbling fossil fuel power station infrastructure is all but ready for the scrap heap.
Net
Zero? India Plans to Double Coal Use by 2040. As the USA and Europe retreat from prosperity, India seems
determined to overtake China, with a 400 million ton boost to coal production in the next two years, and a massive relaxation
of environmental rules and other incentives to boost coal mining and industry.
Get
ready for more blackouts because of environmentalist policies. People across the United States and in many
other countries are already experiencing sticker shock when they receive their utility bills this year. The price of
energy is continuing to climb along with the price of gasoline. Unfortunately, according to the leader of one energy
industry analysis group, that's not going to be the end of the bad news. There are already places where the electrical
grid is under so much strain that rolling blackouts have been enacted again and we're only going to see more of that going
forward. This issue has little or nothing to do with Russian energy supplies or the war in Ukraine. The reality
is that in many parts of the United States, we're barely producing enough electricity to meet the demand for power, and
thanks to environmentalist policies put in place by the government, we're shutting down coal-fired power plants at a rate far
faster than we can replace all of that juice through other methods.
Coal has lots of staying power.
Global coal-fired power rebounded last year to record levels amid high natural gas prices and economic revival from the
pandemic, per the International Energy Agency and data-tracking green group Ember.
Green
Germany Weighs Reopening Coal Power Plants amid Energy Crisis. Germany is considering reopening some of its
decommissioned coal power plants in the hopes of getting a handle on its ongoing energy crisis. The reopening of
shuttered plants is seen as an option as the country struggles to ween itself off of its addiction to Russian fossil
fuels. While authorities have already rejected plans of delaying the decommissioning of the remainder of its nuclear
power stations, a new plan involving either delaying the shut down of coal fire plants that are still in operation, or the
re-opening of plants that have previously been terminated, is now on the cards.
China
Seeks to Cut Reliance on Coal Imports With Mining Boom. China plans a massive increase in coal mining, a move
that will dramatically reduce its reliance on imports and deal a blow to its near-term climate actions. The National
Development and Reform Commission, the nation's top economic planner, told officials from major mining regions at a meeting
late last week that it wants to boost domestic production capacity by about 300 million tons, according to people familiar
with the matter. It also plans to build a 620 million-ton stockpile of the fuel split between government, miners and users.
The Editor says...
Obviously China has no intention of cutting its own throat to avoid carbon dioxide emissions. If China
isn't afraid of CO2, it doesn't do any good for the rest of us to avoid CO2, either.
Ships Sail For South
African Coal After Russia Sanctions. Europe's surging demand for coal is reviving an infrequent trade lane for
shipments from South African mines. The fossil fuel typically heads east from Richards Bay Coal Terminal, the
continent's biggest export hub. Of the 59 million tons of coal shipped from the South African port last year, only 4%
went to Europe and more than 86% was delivered to Asia. There may have been a shift in that balance since Feb. 20 as a
handful of bulk carriers have headed west round the Cape of Good Hope after calling at Richards Bay, according to ship
tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. At least two stopped directly at RBCT. Europe's key coal price climbed to a
record on Wednesday as sanctions and companies' own decisions to stop trading with Russian counterparties mean traders are
trying to buy elsewhere.
The West's
Green Energy Delusions Empowered Putin. How has Vladimir Putin — a man ruling a country with an
economy smaller than that of Texas, with an average life expectancy 10 years lower than that of France — managed
to launch an unprovoked full-scale assault on Ukraine? [...] Putin knows that Europe produces 3.6 million barrels of oil a day but uses
15 million barrels of oil a day. Putin knows that Europe produces 230 billion cubic meters of natural gas a year
but uses 560 billion cubic meters. He knows that Europe uses 950 million tons of coal a year but
produces half that.
[Emphasis added.]
EPA
emissions case [is] not a slam dunk for coal interests even with a conservative court. Coal interests and the
Environmental Protection Agency just faced off before the Supreme Court in a case that could drastically choke off the
agency's ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. West Virginia led petitioners to have the
court put locks on the administrative state, which court-watchers of all persuasions agree that conservative justices want to
achieve. But some are doubting after Feb. 28's oral arguments that the case is a guaranteed win for the judicially
conservative view, even on a court with six justices nominated by Republicans, in large part because of the tricky procedural
circumstances of the case. Underpinning West Virginia v. EPA is a petition by a mix of coal-producing
states and coal companies asking the high court to establish whether the Clean Air Act gives the agency broad authority to
restrict power plant emissions, including by employing "outside the fence" regulations, or those reaching beyond an
individual, existing stationary source, as the Obama-era Clean Power Plan attempted to do.
The Future
Of Global Coal Production. Coal is the world's most affordable energy fuel, and as such, the world's biggest
commodity market for electricity generation. Unfortunately, as Visual Capitalist's Niccolo Conte notes, that low-cost
energy comes at a high cost for the environment, with coal being the largest source of energy-related CO2 emissions.
Despite its large footprint, coal was in high demand in 2021. As economies reopened following the start of the COVID-19
pandemic, countries struggled to meet resurgent energy needs. As a readily available low-cost energy source, coal
filled the supply gap, with global coal consumption increasing by 450 million tonnes or around +6% in 2021.
China
Wants to Buy 100 Million Metric Tons of Coal from Russia. The governments of China and Russia are developing an
agreement that would see Beijing purchase 100 million metric tons of coal from Moscow, the Kremlin announced on Friday
[2/198/2022]. "[A]n intergovernmental agreement with the People's Republic of China is being developed, and the figure
is 100 mln tonnes [of coal]," Sergey Mochalnikov — the Head of Department of Foreign Economic Cooperation and Fuel
Markets Development at the Russian Energy Ministry — told reporters on February 18. "In the coming years,
consumers should receive as much coal as they need," Mochalnikov said. "Russian coal exports have very good prospects
due to reduced supply on the world market," Mochalnikov noted on Friday.
As
Colorado coal plant shuts down, a town dependent on coal for jobs grapples with a bleak-looking future. In a
quiet valley tucked away from Colorado's bustling ski resorts, far from his hometown in northern Mexico, Trinidad Loya found
a way to support his family's American dream: coal. He, his son and grandson — all named Trinidad
Loya — all have worked for the coal plant in Craig, Colorado, the eldest Loya having started there more than 30 years
ago. The plant employs 180 people, paying higher salaries and providing far more job security than most other jobs in the
rural area in northwest Colorado about 40 miles from Steamboat Springs. That's all about to change. The coal plant is
closing, along with the mine that feeds it, employing nearly another 115 workers.
As
coal use surges, America finds it's hard to unplug from carbon. So much for the myriad claims about going
"beyond coal." According to a new report from the Rhodium Group, U.S. coal consumption jumped by 17 percent last year
compared to 2020 levels. That's a huge increase, which Rhodium says was "largely driven by a run-up in natural gas
prices." Rather than burn gas, which averaged about $4.93 per million Btu last year — more than two times the
price in 2020 — many electricity producers chose to burn coal instead. The surge in domestic coal use is
significant for two reasons. First, it proves again that coal remains an essential fuel for electricity producers both
here in the U.S. and around the world. Second, it shows that the Biden administration's pledge to decarbonize the
electric grid by 2035 is little more than wishful thinking. Hate coal if it makes you happy, but the reality is that
power producers have relied on it ever since Thomas Edison used it to fuel the world's first central power plant in Lower
Manhattan in 1882.
The
Climate Movement and It's 10 Biggest Failures of 2021. [#3] COP26 fails to 'consign coal to history.' The
president of this year's annual UN climate meeting (COP-26) set as a conference goal the "consigning of coal to history."
But ahead of the conference, West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin exercised his own veto of sorts to effectively block President
Biden from zeroing out the U.S. coal industry by 2030. Neither the coal-loving Chinese nor Russian presidents (both putting
off "net zero" until 2060) even bothered to attend the conference. The leader of coal-dependent India showed up but
delayed his country's elusive net-zero goal until an unimaginable 2070.
China
fires up giant coal power plant in face of calls for cuts. China, under fire for approving new coal power
stations as other countries try to curb greenhouse gases, has completed the first 1,000-megawatt unit of the Shanghaimiao
plant, the biggest of its kind under construction in the country. Its operator, the Guodian Power Shanghaimiao
Corporation, a subsidiary of the central government-run China Energy Investment Corporation, said on Tuesday that the plant's
technology was the world's most efficient, with the lowest rates of coal and water consumption.
Global
Coal Power Demand On Track For Record As Green Energy Transition Crumbles. There's no question that the
'greenification' of the global economy has returned many industrial countries to coal in 2021. New data from the
International Energy Agency (IEA) shows that the amount of electricity generated worldwide from coal is on track to hit a
record high. IEA's Coal 2021 report says global power generation from coal soared 9% in 2021 to an all-time high of
10,350 terawatt-hours. The rebound comes amid a rash of green policies and stupid political choices, such as
decommissioning oil and gas-fired power plants and fossil fuel exploitation projects, ironically resulting in an energy
crisis worldwide.
EIA: Coal-fired
power generation surges 22% in past year. The share of coal in U.S. power-generation is rising for the first
time since 2014 amid Joe Biden's crackdown on oil drilling and pipelines. The Energy Information Administration found
coal-fired power generation has increased by 22 percent over the past year amid surging prices of natural gas and oil.
The cost of coal power stands at nearly $2 per million of British Thermal Units. Meanwhile, natural gas costs almost $5
for the same amount of energy.
Chinese
plan to cause Australia 'economic pain' from trade bans backfires. Communist China's plan to bring Australia's
economy to its knees through economic boycotts has backfired after the nation had to wind back some of its policies as its
energy crisis worsened. Since September, the Asian superpower has been struggling to cope with a power crisis leading
to rolling blackouts and factories shutting down across the country. Some of the outages were so severe that Chinese
citizens had to live without traffic lights and phone reception in some areas. But even though more than two-thirds of
China's electricity comes from coal-fired plants, the nation refused to buy any Australian coal. [...] But in China's latest
customs report, it revealed that last month it imported 2.78 million tonnes of Australian coal in what could be a relaxation
of its ban and a major backflip on its part.
The
Coming Coal Crisis. [Scroll down] For self-appointed climate changers, coal is an easy target. It
produces more carbon dioxide emissions than natural gas, diesel, gasoline, or propane. Additionally, although
smokestack scrubbers can remove much of the sulfur dioxide and other pollutants in coal plant exhaust, such technologies
aren't used everywhere. Coal mining also produces methane, another greenhouse gas, and can harm rivers, mountaintops,
and other ecosystems. The problems with coal and other fossil fuels are even easier to emphasize when the environmental
harms of solar, wind, and other renewables are minimized or ignored. Yet as winter approaches amid worldwide energy
woes, one-sided rhetoric on coal is giving way to cold, hard reality. A crisis of not enough coal being available to
meet the world's needs may be in the offing.
China
and India are right to keep coal. COP26 came to an end this week. But in the media coverage of the
conference, there has been zero effort made to understand why two of the biggest consumers of fossil fuels have pushed back
at attempts to reduce coal use. It is much more comfortable to run stories about how poor countries around the world
are suffering instead. Last Wednesday, for example, the BBC's climate editor told the story of a Madagascan family
facing life-threatening consequences from the world's first climate change made famine. But to my knowledge there has
been no comparable look at the millions of families in India and China who depend on coal to provide them with life-saving
electricity. From the perspective of India, this is the West — having fuelled its own economic growth during
the 19th and 20th centuries thanks to coal — now kicking the ladder away. As one Indian entrepreneur put it:
'Why should Indians be asked to reduce carbon emissions, when the West has been polluting the planet for decades, and has
reaped the benefits?' Li Gao, director general of the Chinese ministry's department of climate change, asks: 'Many developing
countries don't even have electricity. In this situation, if you don't use coal, what will you use?'
John
Kerry says US 'won't have coal' by 2030. President Joe Biden's climate envoy John Kerry said the United States
won't have coal plants by 2030. "By 2030 in the United States, we won't have coal," Kerry said Tuesday [11/9/2021]
during an interview with Bloomberg at the United Nations's COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland. "We will not
have coal plants." The U.S., the world's largest economy, generates nearly 25% of its electricity from coal despite the
rapid retirements of coal plants in recent years that have struggled to compete with cheaper and cleaner natural gas and
renewable energy. Kerry's comment is among the most explicit to-date of a Biden official making clear that the
administration sees no role for coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel, in the future power grid. The U.S. refused to join a
pledge among more than 20 countries agreed to this week at COP26 to phase out coal use at home.
Workers
Wanted: Miners Offered $100k Per Year As Coal Prices Soar. Coal supply shortages in Asia and Europe are
pushing prices for the dirtiest fossil fuel to record highs and have become a challenge for US suppliers due to a shortage of
miners, according to Bloomberg. For the last three and a half decades, the number of coal mining jobs in the US has
collapsed from 180,000 to 42,500 in August. The industry remains 9,500 miners short from pre-COVID times. With
coal prices worldwide screaming to all-time highs ahead of winter as China and Europe scramble for supplies, the US coal
industry is failing to find new miners willing to do the dirty work as demand soars.
U.S.
Coal Industry Says [Coal is] Almost Sold-Out For 2022. U.S. coal miners are enjoying the surge in demand for
the fossil fuel, with almost all of their production through the end of next year — and some into 2023
even — already sold, according to a Bloomberg report. Prices are higher, too. According to the report,
Arch Resources, the second-largest coal miner in the United States, has sold its 2022 output at prices 20 percent above
current spot market rates. This suggests that this year's surge in coal demand may not be just a short-lived hiccup in
the energy transition. Share prices of coal miners are also rising amid the demand surge. Peabody Energy Corp.,
America's largest coal miner, saw its stock gain 17 percent within a day earlier this month. U.S. coal-fired
electricity generation is expected to increase this year for the first time since 2014, after years of decline, according to
information published by the Energy Information Administration.
Rep
Donalds Explains Why Biden's Energy Policies will Drive CO2 Emissions Up. Rep Donalds (R-FL) ripping into
Congressional attempts to intimidate energy producers and violate their First Amendment rights, and explaining that China and
Russia are not attending COP26 because they want to "build an economy". [Video clip] Rep Donalds
demonstrates an impressive grasp of the issues, explaining that if Democrats punish gas production, energy producers will go
back to burning coal, and emissions will rise — because gas or coal are the only options. A lot of
power plants these days which burn coal actually turn the coal into a gas before burning it, so it is surprisingly
straightforward to flip a modern gas generator back to burning coal, or vice versa, once the appropriate gassifier equipment
is installed. No doubt utility companies are already preparing for the switch. If Biden's democrats shut down the
US gas industry, because of the climate methane scare or continued harassment of fracking, coal use will surge almost overnight.
Coal
is making a comeback. Supplies are so scarce that Pa.'s and NJ's electric grid operator is worried. Coal,
a pariah fuel for climate activists, has made a quiet comeback this year in the post-lockdown economic resurgence. Coal
stockpiles at power plants are getting so low that the regional electric grid operator, PJM Interconnection, has taken steps
to prevent a system collapse this winter similar to Texas earlier this year. PJM, based near Valley Forge, this month
imposed new rules on power plants in 13 states and the District of Columbia to make sure electricity generators do not
run short of fuel during a cold snap. The rules could force some coal generators to curtail operations to build up emergency
reserves, increasing power prices already on the rise.
Al Gore:
'Time to say goodbye to coal, oil and gas worldwide'. Former Vice President Al Gore called on the world to "say
goodbye to coal, oil and gas" to fight climate change in a video released Friday ahead of the upcoming UN COP 26 global
warming conference. Oil, gas and coal are the source of 79% of U.S. energy consumption, according to the latest data
from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Nuclear energy provides 9% of U.S. energy, while renewable energy
accounts for 12%. Gore called on public and private sector leaders to "get real" about immediately reducing greenhouse
gas emissions and about moving away from fossil fuels to "clean" energy.
China
Launches 'All-Out' Coal Production Campaign. China on Tuesday [10/19/2021] launched a major effort to ramp up
coal production and stabilize coal prices ahead of an anticipated surge in electric power demand this winter. China's
National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) reportedly ordered mine operators to "produce as much coal as possible."
CNN noted on Wednesday that China made an effort to scale back coal production this year to placate climate change activists,
but those desultory efforts simply evaporated in the face of rolling blackouts that interfered with the Chinese Communist
Party's (CCP) industrial goals.
Who
loves coal? One week to Glasgow and China is suddenly digging up record amounts of coal. China is holding
a busted flush in the Global Green Poker game. In late summer, local bureaucrats in two-thirds of China's provinces
started enforcing power-saving measures on companies, but after four weeks of rolling blackouts the middle kingdom is so
desperate for coal it can't keep pretending to be Green. The Rust Belt factories were grinding down, homes were even
losing power, winter is knocking at the door and the only thing with fuel in China were the prices. It's the worst
energy crisis in a decade, and there's no holding out for another three weeks to fool the rest of the world into thinking it
cares about "carbon". Instead a national communist committee called the China's National Development and Reform
Commission (NDRC) has apparently ordered mines to go all out — and they are. The word is that China is now
digging up nearly 12 million tons of coal each and every day. If they keep this up it will be a "One Billion Ton"
quarter, and potentially nearly a 4-billion-ton year. That's about 8 times Australia[']s entire annual production
and about six times the US's.
While
Western Nations Kill Energy, China Builds Coal Plants By The Dozen. The United Nations Climate Change
Conference is due to start on Oct. 31 in Glasgow, Scotland — a city built by the coal and steel industries.
Alok Sharma, the president-designate for the conference, was in Paris last Tuesday solemnly declaring that "Responsibility
rests with each and every country ... because on climate, the world will succeed, or fail as one." Continuing the theme,
one of the conference logos observes "The Climate Has No Borders" — which is great, so far as it goes, but someone
forgot to tell China. It's Charlie Brown, Lucy, and the football for the dozenth time, with environmental activists and
climate bureaucrats playing the part of Charlie Brown; China, a genocide-committing, nuclear-armed Lucy; and the football,
China's promised phasing out of coal.
China's
plan to build more coal-fired plants deals blow to UK's Cop26 ambitions. China plans to build more coal-fired
power plants and has hinted that it will rethink its timetable to slash emissions, in a significant blow to the UK's
ambitions for securing a global agreement on phasing out coal at the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow. In a statement
after a meeting of Beijing's National Energy Commission, the Chinese premier, Li Keqiang, stressed the importance of regular
energy supply, after swathes of the country were plunged into darkness by rolling blackouts that hit factories and
homes. While China has published plans to reach peak carbon emissions by 2030, the statement hinted that the energy
crisis had led the Communist party to rethink the timing of this ambition, with a new "phased timetable and roadmap for
peaking carbon emissions".
India
facing massive, widespread power outages as worldwide shortage of coal takes plants offline. What the Greenies
in America and throughout the West don't seem to understand when they rip the use of fossil fuels, especially coal, is that
there is a vast part of the world that is still developing to our standards and as such, they require a lot of energy in
order to convert their economies to scale with those of the developed world. That takes a lot of power generation, and
a lot of power generation can cost a lot of money — far more than the citizens of said developing country can
afford. So the alternative for these developing nations is to fund their growth with electric power generation that is
as efficient as it is cheap, even if said power generation isn't up to our environmental standards. That generally
means coal-fired power plants. And do you know which countries have a lot of them? China and India, both of which
are now facing power shortages this winter due to a global dearth of coal.
Green
Policies Return the World to Coal. There's scarcely a place in the modern world which will not be feeling the
high cost and discomfort of a shortage of energy supplies and their increasingly soaring prices. [...] Some of the shortages
are due to accidents, like the cutting of an undersea cable to the UK, but most are due to green policies and stupid
political choices, ironically shutting down oil and gas-fired power plants and fossil fuel exploitation and transport at the
demand of the greens, who grossly overestimate both global warming and the ability of air, sun and water to take their
place. Ironically, this means coal — the dirtiest possible fuel — is back in huge demand[.]
Despite an import ban on Australian coal, China relented and has begun unloading Australian coal because of an extreme power
crunch. Coal is now in demand in Europe as gas prices soar and the EU's energy policies are [largely] responsible.
US
Desperate for Coal Miners to Meet Soaring Global Demand. Coal supply shortages in Asia and Europe are pushing
prices for the dirtiest fossil fuel to record highs and have become a challenge for US suppliers due to a shortage of miners,
according to Bloomberg. For the last three and a half decades, the number of coal mining jobs in the US has collapsed
from 180,000 to 42,500 in August. The industry remains 9,500 miners short from pre-COVID times. With coal prices
worldwide screaming to all-time highs ahead of winter as China and Europe scramble for supplies, the US coal industry is
failing to find new miners willing to do the dirty work as demand soars.
Europe
is switching back to coal to survive bleak winter. Having banned fracking in much of Europe and with low wind
speeds compounding the continent's energy crisis, gas prices in the UK and much of Europe are going through the roof. A
shortage of affordable natural gas is forcing European companies to switch to coal to survive a bleak winter.
How
the Tories have fuelled Britain's energy crisis. Britain is caught in an energy crisis of the government's own
making. It is true that gas prices have spiked all over the world — but Britain is suffering more than
most. Energy suppliers are going out of business, thanks to the government's price cap. Even fertiliser companies
are going bust, with serious knock-on effects for the food industry: the British Meat Processors Association says shortages
could hit within a fortnight. The trigger for this crisis has been the sudden surge in demand for gas as the global
economy recovers from the Covid lockdowns. Gas prices have doubled in the United States, for example. In Britain,
however, prices are five times higher. Why? Because America exploited fracking technology and capitalised on its
huge inland gas reserves. Britain passed up the fracking opportunity, in spite of vast reserves found in Lancashire and
Yorkshire. We are living with the consequences. While the UK government is right to phase out the burning of coal
(easily the dirtiest form of energy, emitting around twice as much carbon dioxide as gas plants), it is also running down our
gas infrastructure without providing a viable alternative.
The Editor says...
Carbon dioxide is not dirty. Carbon dioxide is not a pollutant. The emission of carbon dioxide is not something
to be avoided — especially if China has no such intentions. Burning coal is a lot better than watching
everyone freeze in their dark little homes. If electricity is cheap and plentiful, coal looks really good.
Learn from this experience. "Renewable" energy is unreliable. China isn't playing your game. There is
no "climate emergency." The climate changes all the time, imperceptibly. Fire up your coal-powered generators
and live your life!
Europe's
energy crisis: A switch back to coal is on the cards. Having banned fracking in much of Europe and with
low wind speeds compounding the continent's energy crisis, gas prices in the UK and much of Europe are going through the
roof. A shortage of affordable natural gas is forcing European companies to switch to coal to survive a bleak
winter. Low wind speeds have compounded the continent's energy crisis, prompting utilities to turn to coal to bridge
the shortfall. The deepening energy crisis comes at a time when Western governments are trying to push emerging and
developing countries to agree Net Zero targets at COP26 in Glasgow later this year. Europe's embarrassing coal comeback
will make any Net Zero demands almost impossible for politicians from the UK and Europe not least because they are also
dealing with the growing fear of a voter backlash from the cost of Net Zero and rising energy bills. The Spectator's
editorial this week as spot on when it warned Boris Johnson that instead leading the world on Net Zero he "should be prepared
for other countries to see, in his energy policy, an example of what not to do".
Goodbye
To Coal? Not So Fast! The obituary of coal as an energy source has been written many times, but rumors
of coal's death are premature, as two stories in the news show. In the U.K., Britain is forced to fire up coal plant
amid record power prices and winter squeeze. Like the U.S., Britain has been relying increasingly on wind power.
Funny thing about that — it doesn't work when the wind stops blowing. [...] Coal has its faults, but unlike wind
and solar, it is reliable and cheap. Global demand for coal continues to grow, and Australia is a major exporter.
A representative of the United Nations requested or demanded that Australia stop producing and selling coal.
Britain
forced to fire up coal plant amid record power prices and winter squeeze. The UK has turned to a coal-fired
power station to help boost its energy supply after global gas and power prices hit new highs and wind farms produced very
low levels of electricity. National Grid ESO, which balances Britain's electricity supply and demand, asked EDF to fire
up two units at its West Burton A power station in Lincolnshire. They had previously been on standby. The
Government plans to phase-out coal-fired power by 2024 in an effort to slash carbon emissions. Most coal-fired power
stations have closed, but some remain available to help meet demand[,] particularly in emergencies. Wind power now
generates about 20 [percent] of UK electricity across the year but varies hugely day by day.
Chinese
Coal Prices Soar To Record High Ahead Of Surge In Mining. Remember when China vowed last year hit peak carbon
emissions in 2030 and to reach carbon neutrality in 2060? Maybe it will (spoiler alert: it won't). [B]ut long before we
hit 2060, China plans on taking coal-based pollution to the next level.
The
world needs more energy, not green BS. In 2013, the World Bank, despite acknowledging many people's lack of
access to electricity, said that, because of climate change, it would no longer be supporting the development of coal-fired
power stations. [...] Coal is the cheapest form of energy, but it is denied to all those who can least afford the
alternatives. According to data compiled by the Sierra Club, a green, anti-coal NGO, there are 51 coal-fired power
plants scheduled for construction in Europe, with a total capacity of 36 gigawatts (GW). Yet in Africa and the Middle
East — where there are far fewer champions of climate change — there are just 29 coal-fired power-plant
projects in the pipeline, with a total capacity of 20 GW. Meanwhile, a whopping 219 GW of capacity has been
announced in China, and India has plans to increase its capacity by 75 GW. The toxic excreta of UN bodies and
green NGOs can be seen in these massively uneven patterns of development.
Asia coal
demand surge in stark contrast with U.N. climate warning. The latest U.N. report makes it clear that coal must
exit global energy systems if there is to be any chance of avoiding severe climate disruptions. The problem is that for
much of Asia, it's still the go-to fuel in periods of high demand, and this doesn't appear to be changing at anything like
the required pace. [...] Coal demand, and prices, have been stoked by a recovery in power generation as the region's
economies emerge from the coronavirus pandemic and as warm temperatures boost the use of air-conditioning. While this
is likely a short-term situation, Asia is still the epicentre for the construction of new coal-fired generators, with several
countries including China and India currently building massive capacity and advancing plans to build even more.
China
To Build 43 New Coal-Fired Power Plants. China is planning to build 43 new coal-fired power plants and 18 new
blast furnaces — equivalent to adding about 1.5% to its current annual emissions — according to a new
report. The new projects were announced in the first half of this year despite the world's largest polluter pledging to
bring its emissions to a peak before 2030, and to make the country carbon neutral by 2060. The news shows that at least
some in China are prioritizing economic growth over emissions reductions — although some analysts say they are
still optimistic that China will reach its climate targets.
China restarts coal mines
to keep up with power demand. Operations at 53 shuttered coal mines in China will once again come to life, as
China struggles to keep up with increased power demand, according to a statement by the National Development Reform
Commission in China. Last week, China announced it would restart 38 coal mines in Inner Mongolia. Now, China has
announced it will resume operations at 15 more coal mines, in the regions of Shanxi and Xinjiang. The mines will
operate for a year and will produce as much as 44 million tons of coal, which China hopes will satisfy the growing calls for
power amid an intense heatwave and tick up in industrial activity. China has struggled to answer the calls for both
increased power and decreased emissions. The news coincides with a scathing UN report that suggested this week that
unless the world takes immediate large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, there will be no way to limit global
warming to 2-degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
If Coal
Is Dead, Then Why Are Ships So Full Of It? Amid all the talk of global warming, climate change-induced
catastrophes, decarbonization and green finance, the global trade in "dirty" coal is enjoying an ironic renaissance.
Bulk ships are busy transporting coal to Asia — and to eco-conscious Europe — boosting freight income
for some of the very shipowners who publicly tout their environmental bona fides to investors. "Turns out the news of
the demise of coal has been greatly exaggerated," said Stifel analyst Ben Nolan in a new client note. "Despite an
unseemly carbon footprint, coal demand is actually accelerating this year."
Keep
your Green New Deal. Coal is making a comeback. Global energy usage shrank significantly during the
pandemic lockdowns and remained comparatively low during the winter. But now that the United States is reopening, along
with much of the rest of the world, energy demand is spiking at unprecedented levels. In order to meet the increasing
need, many countries, including America, are turning to a much-vilified but very reliable source. Coal-fired power
plants are driving up the need for more coal. This trend flies in the face of all of the promises and treaties that
have been in vogue of late, with countries promising to reduce their "carbon footprints" and go to renewable, green energy
technologies. The reality of the current state of green energy is sinking in, however, and people are going to meet
that demand for electricity however they have to.
Ocasio-Cortez
Wants to Shut Coal Plant Expert Says Would Turn Puerto Rico Into 'Third-World Country'. Progressive "squad"
member Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) cares about the people of Puerto Rico. So much so that she is
actively advocating to turn off 20% of the power for the already "electricity-challenged island." Once again, she is
putting her liberal agenda and climate talking points ahead of the actual human beings whose livelihood relies upon the
decisions made by Ocasio-Cortez and her colleagues in the faraway land of D.C. Daily Wire reports: "During a
Thursday hearing for the House Natural Resources Committee, the lawmaker expressed a desire to close down AES Puerto Rico's
coal plant in Guayama, which — according to Center for Industrial Progress founder Alex Epstein, who testified
before the committee — provides 20% of the power for the 'electricity — challenged island."
The
G-7's crime against humanity. Climate activists and their media allies were much chagrined that the G-7 would
not agree on a fixed date to stop burning coal. Germany plans to burn coal until at least 2038. Japan is building new
coal plants at home and financing them around the world. And despite the best efforts of the Obama-Biden administration,
much of the U.S. remains reliant on coal and will be so for years to come. But don't get the idea that the Biden
administration supports coal or recognizes its value to the U.S. electric grid. "At the 11th hour, however, Biden's
officials became nervous about the impact on domestic politics and the White House refused to sign off on [a timeline for
{the} end {of} coal use], which then had to be left out of the final summit communique, according to officials, and a diplomatic
note summarizing the meetings," reported Bloomberg.
Justices
deny Wyoming, Montana coal suit against Washington. The U.S. Supreme Court decided Monday [6/28/2021] that it
won't allow Wyoming and Montana to sue Washington state for denying a key permit to build a coal export dock that would have
sent coal to Asia. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito voted in the minority in the ruling against letting the
two states sue the third in a case that would have gone directly before the high court.
State
Treasurers Send Message to Banks: If You Drop Coal, We Will Stop Using You. Over a dozen Republican state
treasurers sent a clear message to financial institutions Tuesday [5/25/2021], threatening to pull their assets if they
"de-bank" fossil fuel firms. John Kerry, the Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, is leading the Biden
administration to push banks to help reduce the carbon emission in the United States, according to Axios. This has also
been criticized by the Senate Republican lawmakers on the Banking Committee. All the Republicans already sent a letter
to stop pressuring banks to make energy-related lending commitments.
Communist China: World's
Biggest Climate Polluter Keeps Polluting. Communist China, in 2020, built over three times as much new coal
power capacity as all other countries in the world combined — the equivalent of more than one large coal plant per
week, according to a report released in April by Global Energy Monitor. Also in 2020, China's CO2 emissions rose by
1.5% while those of most other countries fell. Although, in 2020, the world retreated from coal, these retirements were
eclipsed by China's new coal plants. Even before China built those new plants, it was already the world's biggest
emitter of fossil fuel carbon dioxide (CO2): In 2019, China was responsible for almost 30% of CO2 emissions —
roughly twice the amount emitted by the US, then the second largest emitter. China, the planet's primary coal consumer,
already has the largest concentration of coal plants globally; in 2020, it produced 3.84 billion tons of coal, its highest
output since 2015. In addition, China, in 2020, imported 304 million tons of coal, up 4 million tons from 2019.
Coal
workers deal with uncertain future with Biden's infrastructure plan. It is a resource that cannot be measured
just by the power it produces. "Coal means everything to this part of the country," said coal miner Matt Huonker.
"Without the coal mines in this area, there wouldn't be an Ohio Valley I wouldn't think," coal miner Michael Knight
said. In some parts of America, families are fueled by coal. It's been that way for generations. "You're
either a coal miner or you're not," said Rick Altman with the United Mine Workers of America.
US coal production set to rise, in blow to Biden's climate
goals. Coal plant retirements are likely to slump to their lowest level since 2014 in President Biden's first year in
office, according to federal data. The U.S. Energy Information Administration projects more than 4 gigawatts of coal
retirements this year, down from 9.4 GW in 2020. Some 22 GW is slated for shutdown through 2024, compared with
41 GW during the Trump administration. The U.S. coal fleet total is roughly 220 GW. The slowdown may be an
anomaly. Many analysts expect coal to resume its long-term decline after a brief rebound this year. But the dynamic
hints at a potential risk to Biden's climate ambitions.
19
States Ask Supreme Court to Rein In EPA Powers Over Coal Plants. West Virginia and 18 other states are asking
the Supreme Court to review the scope of the Environmental Protection Agency's regulatory authority over greenhouse gases
after an appeals court struck down a Trump-era rule months ago on carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power
plants. "The case, if granted, would be the biggest climate question to reach the Supreme Court in more than a decade,"
according to Bloomberg Law. In Massachusetts v. EPA (2007), the Supreme Court gave the agency the power to
regulate greenhouse gases. The Jan. 19 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit was a victory
for left-wing environmentalists that helped clear the way for the then-incoming Biden administration to impose new
restrictions on the energy sector.
Sen.
Manchin: Compare 667 coal plants being built around world to zero in U.S.. As lawmakers debate energy
policies to address climate change, West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin said the American public needs to
understand that new coal-fired plants are being constructed around the world but there are zero new ones in the U.S.
Manchin was asked for his opinion on putting a price on carbon as a way to combat climate change. "Putting a tax, and
really a tax to pass onto the consumer, will not fix the problem," Manchin said during a discussion organized by the National
Press Club on Monday [4/19/2021].
In
message to Joe Biden, India embarks on new coal boom. India has set in motion the biggest ever auction of coal
mines in the country despite the fossil fuel's key role in contributing to global warming. The country will put 67
mines on the block, the most in a single auction. Winners will be allowed to produce and sell the fuel, a reform meant
to dislodge state monopoly over the domestic coal market and open it up to private firms. The deadline for submitting
technical bids is May 27 and electronic auctions have been scheduled from June 28 to July 28, the coal ministry said on
Thursday [4/8/2021]. The auction sends mixed signals at a time when the world's third-biggest emitter of greenhouse gases
needs to shed its dependence on coal. India is under growing pressure to improve its climate commitments, which have
forced government officials to debate a possible net-zero emissions target. The country is one of the most vulnerable
to climate impacts, and coal mining and burning also contributes to deadly air pollution.
As
an industry faces destruction, it grows a voting coalition. Imagine if you had a job. A good job, one
that required skill and critical thinking and had a broad impact in the community where you lived. [...] Within two decades,
your profession goes from being championed by the Democratic Party and labor officials to one that they want to destroy. [...]
[The workers] acknowledge their industry is in the center of a political storm and their fate does not rely on how many improvements
the industry does to make it clean. "Politicians and the press need a good guy and a bad guy to either win a race or tell a story.
We used to be the good guys that everyone stood up for," [John] Fisher says and then shrugs. "Now we are the bad guys."
Mexico
was once a climate leader; now it's betting big on coal. As the climate crisis worsens and clean energy prices
plunge, governments around the world have been weaning their economies of coal and other fossil fuels. Mexico is moving
in the opposite direction. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, popularly known as Amlo, has unveiled plans
to buy nearly 2m tons of thermal coal from small producers like Rivera. He also plans to reactivate a pair of
coal-fired plants on the Texas border, which were being wound down as natural gas and renewables took a more prominent role
in Mexico's energy mix.
The Editor says...
There is no climate crisis. A climate crisis can't "worsen" if there is no crisis in the first place. Mexico is moving in
the opposite direction from socialist "governments around the world," which just shows that on the issue of coal consumption, Mexico
is the only country operating on common sense. And what is "thermal coal?"
Kamala
Harris Tells Unemployed Coal Miners That After Biden Kills Their Jobs They Should Work Reclaiming Abandoned "Land
Mines". Joe Biden killed tens of thousands of jobs his first day in office when he canceled contracts with the
Keystone XL pipeline. Biden and his "Climate Envoy" John Kerry are waging war on the energy sector but fear not because
Kamala Harris is here to save the day. Kamala Harris talked about creating news jobs in her interview and shared her
brilliant idea to "build back better" ...by reclaiming abandoned land mines in West Virginia. "All of those skilled
workers who are in the coal industry and transferring those skills to what we need to do in terms of dealing with reclaiming
abandoned land mines."
China's
2020 coal output rises to highest since 2015, undermining climate pledges. China's coal output rose last year
to its highest since 2015, despite Beijing's climate change pledge to reduce consumption of the dirty fossil fuel and months
of disruption at major coal mining hubs. The world's biggest coal miner and consumer produced 3.84 billion tonnes of
coal in 2020, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed on Monday [1/18/2021]. China's coal output dropped
after reaching a peak of 3.97 billion tonnes in 2013, as Beijing axed excessive mining capacity and promoted clean energy
consumption. But production is rising amid surging industrial demand and an unofficial restriction on coal imports
aimed at shoring up the domestic mining industry.
African
nations planning 1250 new coal and gas power plants, new study reveals. A new study into Africa's energy
generation landscape uses a state-of-the-art machine-learning technique to analyse the pipeline of more than 2,500 planned
power plants and their chances of successful commission. The study shows the share of non-hydro renewables in African
electricity generation is likely to remain below 10% in 2030, although this varies by region. The research, published
in Nature Energy, from the University of Oxford predicts that total electricity generation across the African continent will
double by 2030, with fossil fuels continuing to dominate the energy mix — posing potential risk to global climate
change commitments.
China loves coal
far more than wind. We have all heard about China building a lot of coal plants, but the central role coal
plays in their booming economy is amazing. It is a big reason they are the world's leading manufacturer. China
generates almost twice as much electricity as the U.S. they generate more from cheap coal than we do from all sources.
This makes them very competitive industrially. China has some wind power but they are smart enough not to let it get in
their way (unlike us). Renewables are driving our power costs through the roof, while China wisely wallows in cheap
juice. By way of scale, not too long ago the U.S. burned about a billion tons of coal a year to make electricity.
We generated about 2,000 gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity from coal, roughly half of our total 4,000 GWh. The
foolish war on coal has reduced that to around 600 million tons, with further reductions scheduled.
Coal powers China.
While the West wages war on coal, hydro-carbons power China's industrial and military might. China uses massive amounts
of coal to generate electricity, smelt metals, and manufacture cement — they generate almost twice as much
electricity as the USA, and two thirds of that is coal-powered. In China, wind power is a token 5% (probably earning
carbon offsets from western shysters). But the stop-start power from wind/solar is not allowed to interrupt reliable
base-load generators like coal. [...] It is a green fantasy to expect cheap reliable power from wind-solar. And only
UN climateers could believe that China will cap coal usage any time soon.
China
Recolonizes Africa. Joe Biden has pledged that one of his first acts as President will be rejoining the Paris
climate treaty — which gives China a complete pass on reducing emissions until at least 2030. Even
Biden's designated "climate envoy," former Secretary of State John Kerry, says the existing treaty "has to be stronger," but
then claims China will somehow become an active partner, instead of the competitor and adversary it clearly is. His
rationale: "Climate is imperative, it's as imperative for China as it is for us." As to China employing more
Green technology and abiding by (much less strengthening) the Paris agreement, the evidence is at best spotty, at worst
completely the opposite. President Trump pulled the United States out of Paris, but between January 2017 and May 2019
the US had shuttered 50 coal-fired power plants, with 51 more shutdowns announced, bringing the total shutdowns to 289 (330
once announced shutdowns also take place) since 2010, soon leaving under 200 still operating.
2020
wasn't all bad: There's good news about climate change. Two important climate stories have somehow evaded
media attention. The first is that the authoritative International Energy Agency now recognizes that the high-emissions
(and therefore high-warming) scenarios associated with future energy use are flat-out wrong, and the second is that global
greening is fighting global warming. [...] In its revelation, the IEA relies heavily on a withering article by University of
British Columbia's Justin Ritchie in the journal Energy, showing that the United Nation's future energy use scenarios
generally employ what he calls a "return to coal hypothesis," in which coal use expands dramatically to the year 2100.
The high-end scenario used by the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change simply ignores the rapid fuel-switching
that is occurring as hydrofractured natural gas displaces coal for electricity generation, especially in the U.S. Yet,
the panel's future energy consumption model producing the greatest warming is based upon the primitive notion that oil will
soon be depleted and there will be a massive switch to coal, as Ritchie notes.
Joe
Biden Just Promised No Coal Power Plants Will Ever Be Built In America If He Wins. Democratic Presidential
Nominee Joe Biden promised at the first presidential debate in Cleveland on Tuesday night that he will prohibit the creation
of any new power plants that require fossil fuels if he is elected. "Nobody's going to build another coal-fired plant
in America. No one is going to build another oil-fired plant in America," Biden said. "They're going to move to
renewable energy." Biden instead suggested that a complete move to renewable energy would be the cheaper and more
effective option, stumbling over his words and mixing up which number point he was on as he tried to explain himself.
Renewable
Energy Fairy Tales. Electricity in the U.S. is generated by using coal, natural gas, nuclear energy and
hydroelectricity. About 7% comes from wind and solar. Coal is well suited for generating electricity. We
have vast resources and modern plants are nearly pollution free. But coal is being driven out of business by the Sierra
Club that has a long running hysterical campaign against coal. Although they blame coal for every medical malady
imaginable, the real reason the Sierra Club hates coal is that it emits carbon dioxide when burned and they believe that a
great global warming disaster from CO2 is looming.
New
York Pension to Coal Companies: Evolve or We'll Divest. The New York State Common Retirement Fund, the
third-largest U.S. public pension fund, said it may divest from coal mining companies that aren't ready to move away from
relying on thermal coal for profits. The fund is reviewing 27 miners that earn at least 10% of revenue from mining
thermal coal that's burned by power plants to produce electricity, either directly for industries or to supply power grids.
The Editor says...
I read a lot of news articles every day, and this is the first time I've ever heard of thermal coal.
China
[is] Adding New Coal Power Plants Equivalent to Entire European Union Capacity. China is planning to build
another 300 coal-fired power plants that will produce the equivalent of all the coal-fired power plants in the 28-nation
European Union. Despite signing climate-change treaties to reduce CO2 emissions, including the United Nations-sponsored
2009 Copenhagen Accords and the 2015 Paris Agreements, China's coal-fired power capacity quintupled from 195 gigawatts in
2000 to 973 gigawatts in 2018. While China relentlessly increased its coal-fired power generation, 1,756 gigawatts of
planned coal-fired power capacity was canceled between 2010 and 2018, according to Global Energy Monitor. Already
accounting for almost half of the world's 2,024 gigawatts of coal-fired capacity, the Financial Times reported that China
will add another 148 gigawatts of domestic coal-fired power, about the same as the European Union's 149 gigawatts
of existing coal-fired capacity.
Joe Biden Suggests
Coal Miners Should Learn To Code. Former Vice President Joe Biden suggested Monday that displaced coal miners
should learn to code. "Anybody who can go down 3,000 feet in a mine can sure [...] learn to program as well," Biden
said at a New Hampshire event Monday [12/30/2019]. He added later: "Anybody who can throw coal into a furnace can learn
how to program, [...]!" Biden's adversarial posture toward the coal industry bears similarities to that of 2016 Democratic nominee
Hillary Clinton, who said her administration would "put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business."
Coal
consumption likely to rise as growing demand for electricity generation in developing countries. Coal
consumption is set to rise in the coming years as growing demand for electricity in developing countries outpaces a shift to
cleaner sources of electricity in industrialised nations. [...] While this year is on track for biggest decline ever for coal
power, that is mostly due to high growth in hydroelectricity and relatively low electricity demand in India and China, said
Carlos Fernandez Alvarez, senior energy analyst at the Paris-based IEA. Despite the drop, global coal consumption is
likely to rise over the coming years, driven by demand in India, China and Southeast Asia. Power generation from coal
rose almost 2% in 2018 to reach an all-time high, remaining the world's largest source of electricity.
Climate
lunatics vs. the laws of physics. According to reports, a cohort of Greta worshipers in the Northeast has been
throwing their bodies in front of coal-filled freight trains for at least the past month in the hopes of stopping these
fossil fuel payloads from reaching their destinations. Video footage of an incident in Worcester, Massachusetts, as one
example among many, shows a handful of rabid climate activists almost getting run over by one of these freight trains while
it was en route to New Hampshire. Similar incidents have occurred at various other points along the same track.
An activist group known as "350 New Hampshire Action" reportedly took ownership of at least one of these dangerous stunts,
announcing that nobody was hurt but that the trains "refused to stop" — as if they somehow should have turned
right back around and gone back to the coal mine. But momentum is a real thing, unlike climate change.
Joe
Biden is coming for your job. Seems it's not enough for the such leftists to come for your toilet paper, your
salt shaker, your meat, your SUV, or your air conditioner, Biden wants your job, too. Your livelihood. All for
your own good. Oh sure, he promises to replace it with something else, something green, see, as the state central
planners dictate. We all know well that worked out last time Biden got his way and did what he could in the Obama
administration to put coal miners out of business.
Bloomberg
calls for closing all coal-fired power plants to combat climate change. Democratic presidential candidate Mike
Bloomberg is calling for a 50 percent reduction in carbon emissions over the next 10 years to battle climate change. To
achieve that goal, the former New York City mayor and multi-billionaire business and media mogul on Friday [12/13/2019] unveiled a plan
that would shutter all 251 remaining coal plants across the country by 2030 and replace them all with clean energy. He would also
phase out gas-fired power plants.
The Editor says...
Follow-up question: Mr. Bloomberg wants to "replace them all with clean energy" — from what source?
Is Mr. Bloomberg promoting nuclear energy?
Fossil
fuel production on track for double the safe climate limit. The world's nations are on track to produce more
than twice as much coal, oil and gas as can be burned in 2030 while restricting rise in the global temperature to 1.5C,
analysis shows. The report is the first to compare countries' stated plans for fossil fuel extraction with the goals of
the Paris climate agreement, which is to keep global heating well below 2C above pre-industrial levels, and to aim for 1.5C.
It exposes a huge gap, with fossil fuel production in 2030 heading for 50% more than is consistent with 2C, and 120% more
than that for 1.5C. Scientists have warned that even the difference between 1.5C and 2C of heating will expose hundreds
of millions of people to significantly higher risks of extreme heatwaves, drought, floods and poverty.
The Editor says...
[#1] One-half degree of temperature change is literally imperceptible. If the temperature changes one-half degree in the next
60 seconds, right where you are sitting now, you won't notice it. One-half degree is not enough to "expose hundreds
of millions of people" to anything at all, let alone the laundry list of drought, floods (concurrent with the drought?),
poverty, famine, pestilence, stratospheric ozone depletion, or anything else. [#2] The mining, sale, and combustion
of coal is not the only factor at work in the climate. There are many other natural sources of heat and carbon dioxide.
[#3] The self-important pencil pushers in Paris do not have the magic formula for a Goldilocks temperature that must
never be exceeded. [#4] Any news outlet that prints "1.5C" when they mean "1.5°C." or "1½ degrees
Celsius," is a news outlet with lazy writers. In the age of electronic publishing, punctuation costs nothing, and it is
omitted or misused only by incompetent journalists.
Feeding the Fat Green
Pigs. In the era before coal, oil and electricity, the environment suffered greatly. Whales were
slaughtered for lamp oil; forests were cleared for firewood, mine props, building materials, roofing shingles and sailing
masts; London ("The Big Smoke") and Pittsburgh ("The Smoky City") were smothered in smog from open fires, charcoal kilns and
iron smelters; horses powered public and military transport and city streets were layered with horse manure. Then came
the hydro-carbon revolution. Kerosene lamps saved the whales and coal-powered steam engines delivered electricity
(clean-coal-by-wire) to the cities — and much of the sulphurous smogs disappeared. Coke from coal replaced
wood charcoal to make iron and steel. Steel and concrete saved the forests and trucks and railways allowed the
farmland, which once fed millions of horses, to produce food for humans.
Coal is Still King
and Growing. China publicly demands the USA fulfill Obama's Paris Agreement pledges, and makes a big deal of
their conversion to green energy. However, behind the scenes the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative is starting to look
like a gigantic coal plant construction exercise. China is the world's largest producer and user of coal. It's
helping to pay for and build power plants in at least a dozen countries, and though many are solar, wind, natural gas, and
hydro projects, the bulk of the Chinese investment is in coal. [...] China burns more coal that the rest of the world combined.
67
protesters arrested for demonstration at coal power plant. Scores of climate change protesters were arrested
outside a coal power plant in New Hampshire on Saturday [9/28/2019] as they staged a demonstration calling for the facility
to be shut down. About 120 people gathered outside Merrimack Station in Bow, New Hampshire, on Saturday afternoon,
with 67 people being arrested, according to the Bow Police Department.
Amy
McGrath Accused of Using Coal Miners as 'Political Pawns'. Randy Robbins and Albrow Hall are both coal miners
suffering from black lung who traveled to Washington, D.C., earlier this summer to raise awareness about the disease.
They were asked after the trip to participate in a reenactment of their bus ride to Washington that they believed was going
to be used for a documentary for the Black Lung Association. It came as a shock, then, when footage of their bus ride
appeared on the airwaves as the centerpiece of a McGrath attack ad against Republican senator Mitch McConnell (Ky.).
Now, their lawyer is asking the McGrath campaign to pull the ad from the air.
Vistra
to shutter 40 percent of its coal plants, in central, southern Illinois. Illinois will become less reliant on
coal-fired power plants by the end of the year. Under an arrangement with the state, Vistra Energy soon will shut down
40 percent of its eight-facility fleet in central and southern Illinois. Phil Gonet, president of the Illinois Coal
Association, said that could cause problems. "We think it's very dangerous to embark on a policy to replace baseload
power, which operates all the time and is available all the time, with unreliable energy from renewables," Gonet said.
Trump's
EPA Finalizes Plan To Repeal And Replace Obama-Era Coal Plant Regulations. The Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) finalized its plan to repeal and replace an Obama-era regulation that critics said would cost thousands of coal
industry jobs. The Clean Power Plan never went into effect. The U.S. Supreme Court issued a stay on its
implementation in 2016. EPA's replacement plan, called the Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule, asks states to improve coal
plant efficiency. "ACE is an important step towards realigning EPA actions so they are consistent with the rule of law
and the original mission of the agency," Mandy Gunasekara, a former Trump EPA official who worked on ACE, told The Daily
Caller News Foundation.
Trump
administration finishes off Obama-era anti-coal Clean Power Plan. The Trump administration on Wednesday
[6/20/2019] finished its repeal of the Clean Power Plan, the heart of the Obama-era climate legacy, and replaced it with a
rule that extends a lifeline to the coal industry by giving states more leeway on reducing power plant emissions. The
replacement, the Affordable Clean Energy rule, places the focus on improving efficiency in the U.S. electricity grid.
It puts states in charge of developing plans to lower greenhouse gases and allows flexibility to upgrade coal-fired
generation.
Bias alert!
That's just water vapor rising into the air, not soot, not CO2.
The World Returns to Coal.
A major report by energy giant BP said the world was returning to coal, and without shale gas from the US and LNG exports
from Australia the emissions reduction picture would be much worse. Massive investments in renewable energy were needed
but would not be enough to satisfy increasing demands for power, most notably in China and India. BP said global
emissions overall were up 2 percent last year as the unexpected return to coal gathered pace.
Energy
and Geopolitics Are under Attack. Fossil fuels — particularly natural gas — will be the
leader for decades ahead when it comes to soft power, national security, and robust economic growth for mature and emerging
markets. Political moves, similar to Michael Bloomberg donating $500 million to kill coal use in the U.S., could slow
natural gas's growth, but if they do, they will also devastate the country and its Western allies geopolitically.
Coal
plant closure to cost Navajos tens of millions and 900 good jobs. Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez and Vice
President Myron Lizer outlined their vision for addressing declining revenues while maintaining direct services for the
Navajo people in the upcoming budget process for the Navajo Nation. President Nez presented a budget message to the
members of the 24th Navajo Nation Council's Budget and Finance Committee on Tuesday [5/28/2019]. For the upcoming new
fiscal year that begins on Oct. 1, the current revenue projection is approximately $158 million, which is a $14 million
decrease from the current fiscal year budget of $172 million. For fiscal year 2021, the Nation's revenue projection is
expected to drop significantly to $132 million due to the closure of the Navajo Generating Station and Kayenta Mine.
Mike
Bloomberg Devotes $500 Million To Kill Coal Jobs, Influence 2020 Elections. Former New York City Mayor Michael
Bloomberg will spend $500 million to close every remaining U.S. coal-fired power plant and stop the expansion of natural
gas. Bloomberg will fund environmental activist lobbying campaigns in state legislatures, city councils and public
utility commissions. Activists will demand officials replace coal plants with renewable energy, not natural gas.
"We're in a race against time with climate change, and yet there is virtually no hope of bold federal action on this issue
for at least another two years," Bloomberg said in a statement Thursday [6/6/2019].
The Editor says...
We are NOT "in a race against time" to stop global warming. There is no abnormal global warming. Any time you hear a
politician push for immediate action, it is almost always for the purpose of deception.
Michael
Bloomberg pledges $500M to shutter U.S. coal plants. Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Friday
will launch what he calls the largest ever coordinated campaign to beat climate change, which will close all U.S. coal plants
by 2030. Bloomberg said the $500 million program, Beyond Carbon, will put the United States on track toward a 100 percent
clean energy economy by working with advocates to "build on leadership and climate progress already underway."
Australian Politics, Upside-Down.
The Liberal/National Party's election victory in Australia on May 18 was the latest electoral result to shock the punditry.
Like Brexit and Donald Trump, it was a conservative victory that few expected. Voters in Queensland, Australia's agricultural
and industrial power center, turned to the LNP in support of the proposed Carmichael coal mine that would provide up to
5,000 jobs to the local economy — but which the Labor Party and Green Party opposed. Labor's supposedly
unlosable "climate change election" proved a debacle, as exit polls predicting that the party would gain up to 18 seats
turned out to be wildly inaccurate.
How
to lose the unloseable election: be anti-coal. The climate vote evaporated. Australians want the Adani
coal mine built and running. They also aren't willing to vote for climate change action, even in some of the wealthiest
inner city seats. All the badly designed polls supporting "climate action" [misled] the pundits. If only they had
read skeptical blogs, they'd have known that people can tick the believer box free of charge, but when it costs, climate
action always ranks at the bottom, and no one wants to pay for it themselves, not even $10 a month. If people don't
even pay for carbon flight offsets or donate to environmental causes, they certainly won't consciously vote to lose jobs and
spend billions. Ultimately, even in 2019, more than half of all Australians don't buy the UN climate scare. It
was only 2017 when 60% of Australians said they were OK with dumping Paris if they could cut their electricity bills.
The
"limitless" Geothermal from old UK coal mines. The Earth gets hotter by 2.5[°]C to 3.5[°]C with each
100m depth. It's what makes geothermal energy possible, anywhere. In the UK geothermal could meet the nation's
heat demands for at least 100 years, say Jon Gluyas, Andrew Crossland and Charlotte Adams of the Durham Energy
Institute. Properly managed it could last indefinitely. Given that heat does not travel well, geothermal must be
developed locally. Fortunately, accessible heat lies beneath or adjacent to most major UK population centres. It
has around 23,000 abandoned coal mines, all deep heat sources, surrounded by the towns and cities built to serve them,
amounting to 40% of UK housing stock.
Obama-Era
Judge Slams the Brakes on Trump Order to Open Fed Lands to Coal Mining. A federal judge in Montana delayed a
Trump administration attempt to open up more federal lands to coal mining Friday [4/19/2019], The New York Times
reported. U.S. District Court Judge Brian Morris ruled that the Trump administration illegally overturned a moratorium
placed on coal mining on federal lands by former President Barack Obama. Obama instated the policy in 2016 as part of
his administration's environmental agenda to cut coal usage.
EPA
seeks to fire up coal industry by rolling back Obama-era standards. The Environmental Protection Agency on
Thursday proposed rolling back the Obama-era rules on coal-fired power plants, a key element of the previous administration's
so-called "war on coal" that President Trump has vowed to end. The agency moved to scale back the Obama
administration's 2015 Clean Air Act performance standards on greenhouse gases from new, modified and reconstructed
coal-powered utility stations, regulations that have been denounced as all but impossible to meet.
Trump Has Another
Plan Up His Sleeve To Rescue Ailing Coal Plants. The Trump administration is reportedly preparing to give the
coal industry a boost by rolling back another Obama-era environmental regulation. The Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) on Thursday is expected to rescind a rule that requires new coal plants to be fitted with carbon capture technology,
according to several officials who spoke with The New York Times. Under the Obama-era mandate, new coal plants were not
allowed to emit more than 1,400 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt-hour. The Trump administration is due to raise
this limit to 1,900 pounds. "It's fantastic that the Trump EPA is repealing the Obama EPA's ban on new coal-fired power
plants," Junkscience.com publisher Steve Milloy said in May when The Daily Caller News Foundation exclusively reported the
administration's mumblings of the rule rescission.
Green
Energy is the Perfect Scam. [Scroll down] The public has been exposed to relentless propaganda promoting
green energy as beneficial and less expensive. The public is the greatest victim, but most people don't know that they
are being victimized, so there is little incentive to organize against the scam. There are certain other victims such
as the coal industry and coal miners. But these groups mostly don't understand that they are victimized by a scam.
Due to the propaganda they may actually believe that burning coal is undesirable and dangerous. Thus, they lack a clear
mandate to organize against the scam. (Modern coal generating plants are environmentally clean.)
Are
Existing Coal-Fired Power Plants Less Expensive Than New Gas, Wind or Solar? Almost 40 percent of the nation's
coal fleet has retired or announced plans to retire. Does it make sense to continue retiring even more coal-fired power
plants? There are different ways to answer this question. One way is to consider the dispatch cost ($/MWh) that
dictates the order in which plants are dispatched at any given moment. A higher dispatch cost means a plant operates
less and, therefore, its revenues are less. However, the dispatch cost includes only variable costs, such as fuel; it
does not include other costs, such as maintenance and capital expenditures, which are an important consideration over a
longer period of time. A better way to answer this question is to consider the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE),
which captures all of the costs (variable, fixed, capital and financing) of an electricity resource over its lifetime.
The
Chinese coal fired steam engine from hell. While Elon is charging up the EV to save the world, in China somewhere coal-fired
steam trains live on, burning coal, hauling coal, spewing coal up in the air. Get a load of this industrial marvel. This is
the Fossil Fuel Nightmare Express. Raining live climate destruction at 6pm. [Video clip]
The New Age of Coal. No
matter how hard environmental do-gooders are trying to kill coal, they're clearly not succeeding. According to a new report by the Energy
Information Administration, despite the ongoing fear-mongering from the left, coal continues to be a major source of power generation in both
developed and emerging nations, accounting for as much of the world's electricity today as it did in the 1990s. As it turns out, coal has
proven to be incredibly resilient in Asia and Africa, where it has been pushed up by rising demand.
Pelosi
renews Obama's 'war on coal,' backs group looking to shut down coal plants. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi,
D-Calif., is renewing President Barack Obama's so-called "war on coal" by backing a radical initiative to shut down more than
a third of U.S. coal plants by 2020 — a line of attack that spectacularly backfired for Hillary Clinton in 2016.
[...] The "Beyond Coal" website describes coal as "an outdated, backward, and dirty 19th-century technology." "The
Beyond Coal campaign's main objective is to replace dirty coal with clean energy by mobilizing grassroots activists in local
communities to advocate for the retirement of old and outdated coal plants and to prevent new coal plants from being built,"
the website says. It advocates retiring a third of the nation's coal plants by 2020, replacing most retired coal plants
with "clean energy solutions such as wind, solar, and geothermal" and "keeping coal in the ground in places like Appalachia
and Wyoming's Powder River Basin."
Coal hits the
political fan in Germany. Germany's "climate chancellor" Angela Merkel has shocked the climate alarmist world
by declining to support tighter Paris Agreement emission targets for the European Union. Her place as the leading EU
alarmist was already threatened when Germany admitted that they could not meet their 2020 target and now it is probably gone
for good. France, which does not have the problem of coal fired electricity, will no doubt become the new leader.
That its juice comes mostly from green-hated nuclear power apparently does not count against it. At least it is not the
even more hated coal, right? Reducing, or even eliminating, the use of coal is becoming a very big political issue in the EU.
Don't
subsidize coal; just stop trying to kill it off. When President Trump speaks Tuesday [8/21/2018] on energy
policy, he is speaking on an industry utterly changed in the past 20 years. At the turn of the century, Americans
fretted over how much we depended on foreign oil. We worried so much about running out of gas that import terminals
were built so that foreign firms could ship liquefied natural gas for use in our pipelines. How things have changed.
U.S. dependency on foreign oil isn't even an issue anymore, as the U.S. approaches its new role as a net exporter. And
natural gas has proven to be so abundant, thanks to fracking, that prices have plummeted. Not only are those import
terminals being refitted to serve as export terminals, but gas has also overtaken coal as the largest source of electrical
generation in the U.S.
EPA:
Trump's easing of coal rules could kill 1,400 people per year. The Trump administration announced plans on
Tuesday [8/21/2018] to ease Obama-era restrictions on coal-fired power plants, but an Environmental Protection Agency
analysis of the new rules said they would increase carbon emissions and could cause up to 1,400 premature deaths each year.
The Editor says...
[#1] Carbon dioxide is not carbon. [#2] Show me the death certificate of any person whose death was
caused by carbon dioxide emissions from a power plant. It doesn't happen.
Total
Failure of the climate crusade. A couple of days ago, we noted that this year's edition of BP's annual
Statistical Review of World Energy report on global energy use is out, and it contains one of the most telling charts about
the failure of the climate crusade's "war on coal" ever presented. Most of the lamestream media coverage has focused on
this particular chart from the BP report, which shows coal having a small uptick in 2017 after several years of decline.
Doesn't look like much, does it? Just a blip. Nothing for the enviro-faithful to worry about, the net trend is still
down, right? They are blaming president Trump for it.
Trump
administration floats plan to save coal plants. The Trump administration may soon take action to try to save
the nation's struggling coal and nuclear plants. The White House is considering a measure that would require electrical
grid operators to purchase electricity from coal and nuclear plants that are at risk of going offline, according to a draft
memo circulated before the Department of Energy, viewed by Bloomberg. Under the proposal, the president would exercise
emergency authority to carry out the directive, which the memo reportedly says is necessary to preserve national security.
Burn
coal not wood if you care about the climate. It's all very well thinking about how long it takes one year's
wood-pellet electricity to become neutral, but power stations need more fuel every year and if we keep razing more land, the
carbon debt keeps growing. In the two scenarios below the biomass industry keeps growing linearly every year. But
[eventually] people settle down on the whole biomass idea and stop razing extra forest in 2050. Even so, the total industry
carbon debt keeps accruing for another 56 years until presumably the regrowth reaches a point where it is pulling in more carbon
[than] the yearly raze produces. It takes 144 years after the industry stops expanding before the net carbon
debt is back to zero.
Time to Dismiss
the Nanny State. The Canadian government makes an excellent example of an over-zealous nanny that perceives
itself as all-knowing and sees its role as the protector of citizens against all (government-defined) problems. The
most fundamental of these, from the government's perspective, are (catastrophic man-made) climate change and
inequality. The government considers these the source of a myriad of other problems that it wants to solve, such as
carbon "pollution," poverty, and unemployment, to name just a few. And lucky (some seem to think) for Canadians, the
government has enacted a solution for everything. The government's plan is to slay climate change by mandating a carbon
tax on the provinces and by subsidizing companies to develop uneconomical renewable energy sources (solar and wind). Some
provinces are eager helpers in these efforts. Ontario, for example, has forced the shut-down of coal-generated power
and subsidizes unreliable, expensive wind energy. This has resulted in the electricity prices up to four times
higher in Ontario than in coal-burning Alberta.
House
Votes to Modify Emissions Limits for Some Coal-Fired Power Plants. The U.S. House of Representatives approved
legislation modifying Obama-era air pollution rules for certain types of coal-fired power plants. The House passed the
Satisfying Energy Needs and Saving the Environment Act, sponsored by Rep. Keith Rothfus (R-PA), by a vote of 215 [to]
189 on March 8. The bill would set less stringent standards for hydrogen chloride and nitrogen dioxide emissions
from power plants that burn coal refuse, a waste byproduct of coal mining, to produce electricity. Such plants are
found predominantly in Pennsylvania.
EPA's
Pruitt Declares End to Obama's 'War on Coal'. Sunday [4/22/2018], Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Administrator Scott Pruitt stated there was an end to the "war on coal" in America. Pruitt told New York AM 970 "The
Cats Roundtable" host that the EPA is not in the business of picking of winners and losers in the energy industry, chastising
former President Barack Obama's administration for declaring war on coal.
Love
those 30 year old coal and nuclear plants — nothing gives cheaper electricity. A US report shows how
fantastically cheap and bountiful old coal and nuclear plants are. The LCOE or the Levelized Cost of Electricity
includes the costs of the concrete, turbines, car parks and coal, plus the maintenance and salaries. It reveals that
thirty year old, and even fifty year old coal plants, are the gift from past generations — enormous infrastructure,
built and paid for, and ready to churn out bargain electrons. Or in crazy-land, ready to be blown up.
America
Is Finally Catching Up on Clean Coal. When Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Paris climate agreement last June, France,
Germany, and Italy were quick to subject Washington to a never-ending barrage of criticism. But in what can be described only as the
height of hypocrisy, these same countries have been more than happy to keep their power plants running using American coal. As
so often when coal is involved, the gap between their rhetoric and action exposes the painful dishonesty infecting the debate.
Europeans
rip Trump on climate change, import record amounts of U.S. coal. As France, Germany and Italy chastised President Trump for
rejecting the Paris climate accord in June and mocked the U.S. for turning its back on the environment, their nations were busy importing
record amounts of American coal. The U.S., federal data show, is seeing something of a coal renaissance, but the boom —
partly the result of Mr. Trump's aggressive policies to roll back Obama-era regulations on the fuel — largely has benefited
foreign markets. Some of the biggest buyers are also the biggest critics of the Trump administration's climate policy, including China
and leading European nations that now claim to be the world's leaders on fighting global warming.
California
Will Block Oil And Coal Shipments, Risks Constitutional Battle. California officials plan on preventing the
federal government from transporting oil and gas using existing pipelines in the state, according to a report Wednesday [2/7/2018]
from The San Francisco Chronicle. Officials on the California Coastal Commission are urging the federal Bureau of Ocean
Energy Management (BOEM) to rescind plans allowing companies to drill for oil off the coast. They are still hoping for
an exemption from the oil drilling plan, that Florida has received.
A Fire That Never Dies.
Centralia's day of disaster came on May 27, 1962, when local firefighters, sent to clear out a landfill site, set the garbage
on fire. Now, the landfill was on an abandoned strip-mining pit. As the fire heated up, it spread downward, into
the mine shafts beneath the town, and ignited the seam of coal upon which Centralia was built. All attempts to extinguish
the underground fire failed, and then things began to get really ugly in Centralia[.]
When
clean, affordable fuel isn't good enough for Gore. One of the most damaging legacies of the Obama
administration's "war on coal" was the creation of a 2015 rule that limits carbon-dioxide emissions on new coal-fired
stations to 1,400 pounds per megawatt-hour of electricity generated. [...] This makes no sense. Besides the fact that
carbon dioxide is plant food and so the very opposite of pollution, the technology of carbon-dioxide capture on a full-scale
power plant is still a technological fantasy. In fact, the agency was banning even the most modern, very efficient,
supercritical coal-fired stations because their carbon-dioxide emissions are at least 20 percent above the EPA limit.
Considering that America has 22.1 percent of the world's proven coal reserves, the greatest of any country and enough to last
for 381 years at current consumption rates, it is a tragedy that the U.S. can no longer build new, clean, coal-fired power
stations to replace its aging fleet of coal plants.
Trump's Energy Success.
One of the president's major successes is in the area of energy policy. Along with energy secretary Rick Perry, the president is overseeing
the recovery of the American energy sector from the low point it hit under the Obama administration. By a combination of executive orders
totally restrictiong drilling on federal lands and EPA assaults on fracking and coal-mining, including a total ban on mountaintop-mining, Obama
prosecuted a "war" not just on coal, but on fossil fuels generally. Now America has become the largest producer of oil and gas and a major
exporter of natural gas. The U.S. now produces significantly more hydrocarbons than second-place Russia and twice as much as Saudi Arabia.
As coal-mining is restored, pipelines are laid, and new wells are drilled, hundreds of thousands of jobs are being created across the economy, not
just in drilling and mining, but in support services. The effect on the economy is already being felt.
End
the 'war on coal'. At last week's Environmental Protection Agency public hearing on the withdrawal of the Clean
Power Plan in Charleston, anti-coal activists were out in force. The meeting was swamped with activists —
Climate Justice Alliance, Sierra Club, Citizens Climate Lobby, Natural Resources Defense Council, etc. Several groups
also met at the University of Charleston, to discuss, according to the New York Times, the "environmental, health and climate
benefits of reducing coal consumption." They apparently do not understand that the abundant, low-cost energy provided
by coal laid the foundations of the industrial revolution and modern society. Low-cost energy provided continuous power
for factories and trains that transported goods and raw materials. In the 20th century coal-fired power stations
provided the reliable, inexpensive supply of electricity that is the lifeblood of our economy. The world still has huge
resources of coal (the U.S. has a 381-year reserve at current usage rates) that could be burned in modern clean power
stations. Sadly, in the Western world, environmentalists are working to shut down existing coal-fired stations, and
prevent new ones from being built. Yet, hundreds of new coal-fired stations are being built in the rest of the world to
power expanding economies.
Why Is Asia Returning
to Coal? Just a few short years ago, few would have dared to predict that coal could have a future in the
energy policies of emerging and developed countries alike. Yet the fossil fuel is undergoing an unexpected renaissance
in Asia, buoyed by technical breakthroughs and looming questions about squaring development with energy security. For
Japan, coal has emerged as the best alternative to replacing its 54 nuclear reactors, which are deeply unpopular with the
population and seen as symbols of devastation after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster six years ago. Mindful of
the public mood, the government of Shinzo Abe has completely given up on the country's dream of nuclear self-sufficiency, and pulled
the plug in December on the $8.5 billion experimental reactor project at Monju. On February 1, the government pledged
to decommission all reactors and replace them with 45 new coal-fired power plants equipped with the latest clean coal technology.
Everyone
cutting coal use except for most of the world and most of the banks. Australia's big four banks are fighting
over themselves to turn down the chance to profit from coal loans and tell the world. Months ago, Westpac went on a
low-coal diet, declaring like a kind of vegan-keto-banker that they won't consider a loan unless the coal mined has at least
6,300 kilocalories per kilogram. Presumably they will lose weight, or at least lighten up by a few shareholders.
Last week our National Australia Bank announced they are waiting for the carbon capture fairy to conquer some laws of
chemistry and economics before they finance coal mines again.
Mining
up 28.6 percent — in a single quarter. Those jobs aren't coming back the liberal liars scolded
us. Hillary and Obama wanted tor retrain coal miners as computer programmers. We elected Trump, and in April, May
and June alone, mining increased 28.6 percent.
IEA Says
Southeast Asia Will Keep Coal Demand High. The International Energy Agency (IEA) says the need for cheap
electricity in Southeast Asia will drive global demand for coal for power generation through 2040, even as many countries
continue to retire coal-fired plants and cancel projects for new coal facilities. IEA, which is set to release its
World Energy Outlook 2017 on November 14, this week said India and Southeast Asia will account for the majority of the
use of coal in the coming years, as those areas' economies continue to grow and demand for electricity rises.
Clean
Power Plan Repeal Will Save $33 Billion in Compliance Costs. Repealing the Clean Power Plan will save $33 billion
in costs passed onto energy consumers, according to senior Trump administration officials. The Environmental Protection Agency
formally began the process of repealing the Obama era rules on limiting carbon emissions of power plants on Tuesday [10/10/2017],
with Administrator Scott Pruitt declaring the "war on coal is over." The EPA entered a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking into the
Federal Register and will be open 60 days for public comment. White House officials said repealing the regulations, which
set strict emission standards for coal-burning power plants, was following through on President Donald Trump's promises to protect
the coal industry.
Trump
is overwriting Obama's unlawful green schemes. The first year of Donald Trump's presidency has been
characterized — despite his bumptiousness — not by executive overreach, but executive
retrenchment. The populist Trump has operated within constitutional lines better than his technocratic predecessor, who
used tendentious readings of the law and sweeping bureaucratic actions to impose his policies on immigration, health care,
college campuses and the environment. The Clean Power Plan, which sought to reduce US carbon emissions to 32 percent
below 2005 levels by 2030, was government by the administrative state on a scale that has never been attempted before.
Trump's EPA Officially Ends Obama's War On Coal (America
Won). In a major boost to jobs and the economy, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt announced Monday [10/9/2017] that the
administration is moving to officially scrap the Clean Power Plan, President Obama's signature regulatory program to kill the coal
industry by curbing emissions from coal-fired power plants[.]
EPA
Set To Repeal Obama's Clean Power Plan On Coal Regulations. The Trump administration continues to rollback
failed Obama-era policies with a measure to remove coal regulations. On Monday [10/9/2017], EPA Chief Scott Pruitt
announced the president will scrap the Clean Power Plan. The plan, which Pruitt called "unfair," would have imposed
stringent emissions standards on coal-fired power plants. Critics claimed it would kill thousands of jobs, but it was
put on hold by the Supreme Court over a year ago and has never taken effect.
The Editor says...
The article above includes the photo (left) with the caption,"In this Sept. 4, 2011 file photo, smoke rises from the stacks of the main plant facility at the
Navajo Generating Station, as seen from Lake Powell in Page, Ariz." But this is a canard. Smoke does not emanate from a power plant and then disappear
into the atmosphere in a few seconds. That is the behavior of water vapor, especially in the dry Arizona air.
E.P.A. Announces Repeal of Major
Obama-Era Carbon Emissions Rule. The Trump administration announced Monday [10/9/2017] that it would take formal
steps to repeal President Barack Obama's signature policy to curb greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, setting up a
bitter fight over the future of America's efforts to tackle global warming. At an event in eastern Kentucky, Scott
Pruitt, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, said that his predecessors had departed from regulatory norms in
crafting the Clean Power Plan, which was finalized in 2015 and would have pushed states to move away from coal in favor of
sources of electricity that produce fewer carbon emissions. "The war on coal is over," Mr. Pruitt said.
"Tomorrow in Washington, D.C., I will be signing a proposed rule to roll back the Clean Power Plan. No better place to
make that announcement than Hazard, Kentucky."
The Editor says...
Carbon dioxide is not carbon. Please don't write about "carbon emissions" when you mean "carbon dioxide emissions."
Inconvenient
energy fact: It takes 79 solar workers to produce same amount of electric power as one coal worker. In an
April 25 New York Times article ("Today's Energy Jobs Are in Solar, Not Coal") reporter Nadja Popovich wrote that
"Last year, the solar industry employed many more Americans [373,807] than coal [160,119], while wind power topped 100,000
jobs." Those energy employment figures are based on a Department of Energy report released earlier this year that
provides the most complete analysis available of employment in the energy economy. But simply reporting rather
enthusiastically (see the NYT headline again) that the solar industry employs lots of Americans, more than twice as many as
the number of coal miners and utility workers at electric power plants using coal, is only telling a small part of the story.
The
Future of Energy Is Still Coal. First, in 1990, 88 percent of the world's energy came from fossil fuels.
After more than 25 years and over a trillion dollars in subsidies for "renewable" energy, in 2015 the world's share of energy
from fossil fuels was ... 86 percent. At this rate, it will take 150 years to get fossil fuel energy down to
75 percent of the world's total energy supply.
Coal
Boom: 1600 new plants in 62 countries around the world — increasing 43%. "End-Coal" Global Coal
Tracker does a magnificent job of showing how essential coal is around the world, and which countries are pathetically
backwards in developing new coal plants. It's probably not what the "CoalSwarm" team was hoping to achieve, but this
map is a real asset to those of us who want to show how tiny Australia's coal fired assets are compared to the rest of the
world. The site itself is a fancy-pants high gloss major database and website that also shows how much money is in the
"anti-coal" movement.
WV
governor pitches coal plant subsidies to Trump. President Trump is "really interested" in an idea to pay power
plants to buy Appalachian coal, West Virginia's governor said. Gov. Jim Justice, who was elected last year as a
Democrat but switched to the Republican Party last week at a Trump rally, told Bloomberg News that he pitched a $15 per ton
federal subsidy for coal-fired power plants to use eastern United States coal. Justice recently spent some time with
Trump and made the proposal before his public switch to the GOP, he said.
EPA official won't be
missed. Elizabeth Southerland [...] spent 30 years at the EPA, most recently as director of the Office of
Science and Technology for the agency's Water Office. [...] She flat-out lied when she said there is no war on coal.
The news the media
buries. The media moguls think if they report only the bad that the good news will cease to exist. But
the good news is out there. U.S. exports of coal rose 60%, Reuters reported. The big increases are by England and
other European countries. It is part of the plan to make money, and to weaken Russia by making America the chief source
for energy in that market.
They
signed the Paris agreement, then bought our coal. Don't worry, Europe. We'll keep secret your need for
coal as a backup to all that wind and solar energy you pretend are all you need. Don't forget, West Virginia coal is
the best. Doesn't pollute like that brown coal the Germans and the Poles have.
Coal Is Number One. According to the EIA's July report, "EIA
estimates that the share of total U.S. generation fueled by natural gas during the first half of this year averaged 29%... In contrast,
coal's share of generation rose from 28% in the first half of 2016 to 30% in first half of 2017." For the full year 2017, EIA estimates that
coal will generate 3.453 million kilowatts per day, while natural gas, because of a rise in its retail price this year, will generate a
hair less, or 3.432 million kilowatts. Wind and solar remain niche sources of energy providing about one-seventh as much power as
coal and gas.
U.S.
Coal Exports Soar — Over 60 Percent Increase in 2017. Interestingly at the same time as a massive
natural gas investment by Petronas collapses in Canada due to energy policy and economic conditions surrounding weak LNG
prices, the U.S. Energy Information Administration highlights that U.S. coal exports are roaring back. Yes, elections
have real economic consequences. U.S. EIA data shows a gain of 60.3% so far this year in exports of both steam coal
(used to generate electricity) and coking coal (metallurgical coal used for steel manufacturing) as a direct consequence of
President Trump's common sense energy policy.
Listen
To Trump's Energy Secretary Slap Down New York Times Reporter On Coal. Energy Secretary Rick Perry slapped down
a question from a New York Times reporter on clean coal technology while touring an advanced coal-fired power plant Thursday
[7/6/2017]. New York Times reporter Carol Davenport asked Perry a question about exporting U.S. clean coal technology.
Coal
Boom: 1600 new plants in 62 countries around the world — increasing 43%. "End-Coal" Global Coal
Tracker does a magnificent job of showing how essential coal is around the world, and which countries are pathetically
backwards in developing new coal plants. It's probably not what the "CoalSwarm" team was hoping to achieve, but this
map is a real asset to those of us who want to show how tiny Australia's coal fired assets are compared to the rest of the
world. The site itself is a fancy-pants high gloss major database and website that also shows how much money is in the
"anti-coal" movement. Oh, that skeptics should have even 2% of these funds. Heffa Schücking, the director of
Urgewald, which created the maps, calls it a "cycle of coal dependency". Normal people call it "freedom and wealth".
US
coal mining surges in 2017 following last year's record decline. The United States, China and India, the
world's largest coal users, have increased coal mining this year by 6 percent following 2016's record global decline.
Among the three counties, production through May is up by at least 121 million tons compared to the same period last year,
according to data reviewed by The Associated Press. The change is most dramatic in the United States where production
is up 19 percent within just the first five months of 2017, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
Meet
the Face of President Trump's End to Obama's War on Coal: Third Generation Pennsylvania Miner. The sun
finally came out after a drenching rain storm in Pennsylvania's Alleghany Mountain country on the first day of the work
week. It marked a symbolic development for the coal miners whose future is brighter thanks to President Donald Trump's
efforts to revive an industry that the Obama administration had promised to all but abolish. For Joey Kostya, that
means he can continue a family tradition.
Getting more
coal and nuclear power on the grid should be a priority. Nearly 100 people are back to work in Pennsylvania,
where the newly opened Corsa Coal Corporation's Acosta Mine in Somerset County, Pa. will produce 400,000 tons of coal annually
for 15 years. President Trump vowed to end the war on coal and prioritize job growth, this mine opening shows he is
already on his way to making this dream a reality. Trump praised the mine's opening in the Rose Garden while he announced
the United States withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord, the gesture was meant to highlight Trump's focus on returning jobs
and stable energy to the nation over environmental policy. President Trump could not have selected a more pressing time
to make this announcement, as weakening infrastructure in our nations power grid has halted economic growth and placed our
entire country at greater risk for rolling blackouts.
Trump:
Opening of New Pennsylvania Coal Mine Is Due to "Less Regulation". In a videotaped message played during the
opening ceremony of a new coal mine in Friedens, Pennsylvania, on June 1 President Trump celebrated the opening as an example
of what can be accomplished when government eliminates the regulations that have stifled the coal industry. "One by one,
we're eliminating the regulations that threaten your jobs, and that's one of the big reasons you're opening today: Less
regulation," Trump said. "We have withdrawn the United States from the horrendous Paris Climate Accord, something that
would have put our country back decades and decades; we would have never allowed ourselves to be great again."
As
the World Cuts Back on Coal, a Growing Appetite in Africa. According to data compiled by CoalSwarm, an industry
watchdog, more than 100 coal-generating units with a combined capacity of 42.5 gigawatts are in various stages of planning or
development in 11 African countries outside of South Africa — more than eight times the region's existing coal
capacity. Nearly all are fueled by foreign investment, and roughly half are being financed by the world's largest coal
emitter: China.
The Editor says...
Irony: a coal consumer is called a coal emitter.
Greens
Forgive China their Coal Plants. The Center for American Progress, a well connected green left wing Washington
Think Tank, has written an article full of glowing praise for China's high efficiency coal plants, and the contribution those
plants are making towards reducing global CO2 emissions. [...] The Center for American Progress was founded by John Podesta
in 2003, the same John Podesta who later went on to run Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. Podesta has been
associated with the Clintons since at least the mid 90s. I find it fascinating that such a well connected left wing
organisation has made such an effort to sing the praises of Chinese coal.
'Green
20' Attorneys General Sue Trump To Preserve Obama Climate Policies. Four Democratic attorneys general sued the
Trump administration for reversing a moratorium on issuing coal mining leases on federal lands. Three of the Democratic
AGs — California, New York and Washington — come from states that do not produce coal. Only New
Mexico AG Hector Balderas comes from a coal-producing state.
Trump Brings
Back Half of Lost Mining Jobs — Already! Remember when liberals said there was NO WAY Donald Trump
could or would ever revive the coal industry? He was called a liar and a charlatan for going to West Virginia and
Pennsylvania and other parts of economically depressed Appalachia promising that he would bring back coal jobs. "Coal
is dead," the Sierra Club declared triumphantly to its donors last year. The standard refrain from the left was that
Trump is "lying" when he said coal jobs will can be resurrected. Well, coal is back.
Coal's
Colossal Comeback. Liberals have been saying that Donald Trump was lying to the American people when he said
that he could bring coal jobs back. Well, so far, he has delivered on his promise. There's more good news for the
coal industry. Earlier this month, Peabody Energy — America's largest coal producer — moved out
of bankruptcy, and its stock is actively trading again. Its market cap had sunk by almost 90% during Barack Obama's
years in office. Arch Coal is also out of bankruptcy. It turns out that, after all, elections do have
consequences. The Obama administration and its allies, such as the Sierra Club, tried to kill coal because of their
obsession with global warming. Regime change in Washington has brought King Coal back to life.
EPA's
Pruitt to coal miners: 'Regulatory assault is over'. The head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
visited a coal mine Thursday [4/13/2017], where he declared that the Trump administration is ending the "regulatory assault" against
fossil fuels. Pruitt spoke briefly at a portal building for the Harvey Mine in southwestern Pennsylvania, owned by Consol
Energy Inc., before touring a piece of North America's largest underground coal-mining complex in operation. He slammed the
Obama administration's environmental policies, calling them a "war on coal," and accused President Trump's predecessor of falsely
forcing Americans to choose between environmental protection and economic growth, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
Trump's
coal push grinds into high gear. The Trump administration could call Thursday "National Coal Day." Several
Cabinet officials are spreading out to push clean coal, coal power plants and coal mining. The activities got started
Wednesday afternoon [4/12/2017] when Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke met with Native American leaders to brainstorm ways the Trump
administration can help prevent one of the largest coal-fired power plants in the country from shutting down in Arizona.
China
buys more U.S. coal, sends North Korea packing. China is banning shipments of coal from North Korea because of
last week's missile test and has made up the shortfall by importing more coal from the United States. The news comes
just days after President Trump met with Chinese President Xi Jinping at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, where the
administration said North Korea's missile tests would be a top priority in the talks.
EPA
Resists Order Requiring Assessment of Job Losses. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) continues to
resist a judge's order requiring the agency to determine how many coal mining and coal power plant jobs its emissions
regulations have eliminated. The ruling by Judge John Preston Bailey of the U.S. District Court in Wheeling, West
Virginia was handed down in a case in which coal producer Murray Energy sued EPA in 2014 alleging the agency failed to
fulfill its duties for decades and account for the economic impact, including job losses, caused by its rules. This is
the second time Bailey has ruled against EPA in this case. In October 2016, citing Section 321(a) of the 1970 Clean Air
Act, Bailey ruled the Clean Air Act requires EPA, on a continuous basis, to calculate job loses, including coal mine and
power plant layoffs, caused by its regulations. Bailey gave EPA 14 days to submit a plan for assessing job
impacts of its regulations on the coal industry.
Now that Obama is out of the way... Coal
boom: Hiring spikes 'through the roof'. West Virginia coal industry executive Mike Grose knows fake news
when he sees it. And the headlines claiming that President Trump's new executive order to dismantle clean power rules
won't revive mining employment were Exhibit A. "It's growing, a lot better than it ever was," said Grose, owner of
Superior and Elite Coal Services, a mining employment firm. "Once Trump was elected, I have increased staff 20-fold.
Once he was elected, it went through the roof." From his office in central West Virginia, where he connects miners to
several East Coast companies, Grose said that in anticipation of a Trump victory many mine operators readied for a hiring blitz.
German
coal, gas plant output at 5-year high in January. German coal and gas-fired power plant output in January rose
to its highest in almost five years as cold weather boosted demand while below average wind and record-low winter nuclear
availability reduced supply, according to power generation data compiled by think-tank Fraunhofer ISE.
The
comeback of coal. America was built on coal. Fossil fuels, following the demise of windmills and the like
as the sources of inefficient production of electricity, provided the spark that ignited American industry and made it the
industrial leader of the world, and kept it the leader for more than a century and a half. "America," said Winston
Churchill on the eve of World War II, "is a mighty boiler, and once alight there is no limit on what it can produce." Coal
fired that boiler. Despite an eight-year assault on coal by fanatics who dream of an America cut down to size, coal is
still responsible for almost a third of America's electricity. Wind and solar power, despite enormous subsidies of more
than $100 billion over the last decade, still produce less than 5 percent of America's energy.
More
good news for West Virginia coal. The rescinding this week of an EPA rule on where coal companies can put rocks
and dirt in strip mining — falsely called "coal mining waste" by the media — was not the only good news
for West Virginia coal miners. China today [2/18/2017] announced it will not accept any coal from North Korea from now
until the end of the year (Western year, not Chinese). Enter West Virginia coal. This is a great opportunity to put
miners back to work. One-third of the coal mined in this state is sold overseas. The No. 10 U.S. export to China
is coal. So the supply line is there, and ready to expand. West Virginia is the Saudi Arabia of coal.
President
Trump Signs Bill Repealing Obama's Lame-Duck Coal Regulation. Another Campaign Promise Fulfilled —
People's President Trump signs a resolution of disapproval bill today eliminating one of President Obama's last minute
regulations intended to cripple the coal industry. Prior to signing the repeal, President Trump held a brief presser
with legislators and some very happy coal miners.
CRAwling
from the Obamanation we just suffered. Liberals say coal is losing to its nemesis natural gas in the free market.
What they leave out is that EPA regulations unnecessarily increase coal costs. If you really want a free market, dump the
taxpayer subsidies for alt-energy such as windmills.
Demon Coal.
Coal is a gift that we have in abundance. The vast reserves of coal guarantee the United States energy for hundreds of
years. Coal is efficient. No fuel, other than uranium, is cheaper. Coal burns clean in modern plants.
Strip-mining coal in the modern way improves the landscape. According to the Energy Information Administration, the
U.S. demonstrated coal reserve base is 477 billion 2,000-pound tons, enough for more than 500 years at current consumption
rates. In the eyes of the diminishing crowd of believers in catastrophic global warming, coal is evil, a demon.
Why? Because it is mostly carbon, and when coal is burned, carbon dioxide (CO2) is created. CO2 is supposed to
create a disaster. As the predicted disaster (global warming) fails to materialize, a new disaster (extreme weather) is
invented. The disasters that never materialize are blamed on CO2 and indirectly on coal.
Balkan push for new
coal-fired plants raises environmental concerns. A Chinese company began work on Monday on a $715 million
(£573 million) expansion of a Serbian coal mine and a new power plant, part of a wave of investment in new coal-fired
plants in the Balkans that is at odds with EU policy of reducing coal use.
Shutdown
of coal plants raised electricity rates, failed to reduce pollution: Report. Ontario's hell-bent
determination to phase out coal-fired generation raised electricity rates without significantly improving air pollution
levels, a new Fraser Institute report says. Report co-author Ross McKitrick, an economics professor at the University
of Guelph, said the findings should act as a cautionary tale for Alberta and Ottawa currently going down the same road.
Even though there was reliable information available at the time that showed Ontario coal was not a big player in common air
pollution ingredients, the political agenda made it impossible to discuss less expensive options to full closure, he said.
Japan
plans to build 45 new coal power plants in next decade: EIA. Japanese companies are planning to develop
about 45 additional coal power plants in the next decade, as the country gradually ramps up its nuclear power generation
following the Fukushima disaster in 2011, the US Energy Information Administration said Thursday [2/2/2017]. [...] While no
significant coal-fired capacity is expected to come online before 2020, the 45 new coal power plants are expected to add more
than 20 GW of capacity in the next decade, it said.
Senate
votes to kill Obama coal rules. The Senate passed a resolution Thursday [2/2/2017] repealing regulations on the coal
industry that were issued by the Obama administration in its eleventh hour. The resolution passed, 54-45, one day after
the House approved its own resolution of disapproval. The measure now will be sent to President Trump, who is expected
to sign it. The resolution helps to fulfill part of Trump's pledge to help coal miners get out from under the weight of
increased regulation on their industry.
US
EPA Backs Off Haze Rule for Texas Power Plants. Texas has more than a dozen coal-fired power plants in the state, with
the capacity to generate 19,000 megawatts of electricity. In March Texas sued the EPA to block a regional haze plan it implemented
in January that was expected to result in the closure of seven coal fired power plants in the state. Under the 1999 Regional Haze
Rule the federal government and states governments were supposed to work together to improve visibility in the U.S.'s 156 national parks
and wilderness areas. The January rule offered by EPA was intended to improve visibility in Texas's Big Bend National Park and Guadalupe
Mountains National Park. The power plants targeted by EPA's haze plan were located hundreds of miles from the parks in question.
Utah
Counties Sue Federal Government to Halt 'Illegal' Coal Leasing Moratorium. Six Utah counties, comprising the Rural Utah Alliance, are suing the
U.S. Department of Interior (DOI) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in Federal District Court to overturn a moratorium on federal coal leases the secretary
of the interior issued in January 2016. The lawsuit, filed in late November, argues the moratorium was an "unwarranted agency overkill" that will decimate
rural Utah counties.
Mitch
McConnell is getting ready to unravel Obama's coal rules. As part of the President's eleventh hour surge of new
rules which are intended to hamstring any reforms sought by the Trump administration, the Interior Department recently rolled
out a new "stream protection" order. This move would once again vastly expand the definition of open waters and
restrict industrial activity which might, in theory, impact them under the Clean Water Act. The long and the short of
it was yet another barrier to any sort of coal mining in the country.
Obama
rushes out 11th-hour regulations targeting beleaguered coal industry. At the eleventh hour, the Obama
administration on Monday rolled out regulations to crack down on coal mining across the country, a parting shot against the
beleaguered industry as the president leaves office. The regulations, designed to protect America's streams and
waterways from pollution produced during mining operations, will add significant costs to coal mining companies, many of
which are struggling to operate. The Interior Department estimates that it will cost the coal industry about
$81 million each year to comply with the rule. The agency stressed that figure is just 0.1 percent
of the coal industry's "aggregate annual revenues."
The
Matter with Coal Country. George W. Bush won 60 percent of the Harlan County [Kentucky] vote in 2000.
John McCain won 70 percent in 2008, and Mitt Romney won 80 percent in 2012. Trump came in at just under
85 percent. Which is to say, Trump is about as popular in Harlan County as Clinton is in Philadelphia.
How
American Coal Could Come Back Leaner and Cleaner. When the Paris climate agreement entered into effect on November 5, Barack
Obama and Hillary Clinton both thought they had signed the death warrant of the American coal industry. Just over two weeks later, the new
president-elect has promised to undo the Obama era's "job-killing restrictions on the production of American energy." All of a sudden, coal
has gone from black sheep to DC darling. Had Clinton won the White House, the Paris deal would have given her and her environmentalist
backers the cover they needed to put every coal worker in the country out of business.
The Editor says...
If you are a unionized coal miner, you must ask yourself why you still support a union that sends your money to the Democratic Party.
Trump
announces plan to kill regulations, spark coal production. President-elect Donald Trump on Monday presented his
plan to build a wall against new regulations and kill many of President Obama's energy-stifling rules. In a video
statement he said that a Trump administration would eliminate two regulations for every new one. [Video clip]
What a
Trump Presidency Might Mean for Your Electric Bill. "Regulations that shut down hundreds of coal-fired power
plants and block the construction of new ones — how stupid is that?" The words are Trump's, yet arguably the
marketplace has exacted more of a toll on coal than President Obama's antipathy toward it. Market forces will lead to
an uptick in coal generation and production next year, as generators turn to coal in the face of slightly higher gas
prices. Yet the marketplace — and a near-universal antipathy among the nation's regulators and utility
companies toward coal-fired power — will severely hinder new coal plant construction. Altering power plants'
new-source pollution rules is a likely quiver in President Trump's arsenal of options for boosting coal. Trump's pledge
to revive the coal industry will prove an uphill climb, and he is better off slowing its death than trying to reverse it.
Trump's
Plan For Coal Country Is To Hollow Out The EPA. President-elect Donald Trump's campaign to jump-start the coal
industry is predicated on hollowing out the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), according to members of his transition
team. The EPA will be dialed back to focus solely on pollutants posing harm to public health and will cease its present
extracurricular focus on agenda-centered pollutants supposedly causing man-made global warming, Kathleen Hartnett-White, a
member of Trump's transition team, told reporters Monday [11/14/2016]. "He's very much for clean air and clean water," she
said. "But the better home for considering this discussion about carbon dioxide and climate is in the Department of Energy."
Hillary
Hates "Coal People", They're Deplorables Too. Former president Bill Clinton has referred to workers in coal
country as "coal people" and the "most anti-immigrant" of people. Hillary promised to put them all out of business,
but don't worry she's going to conjure up some jobs for them doing something. It won't be in alternative energy since
that kills jobs. The Clintons appear to have put "coal people" in one of the deplorable baskets because bill singled
out people in Kentucky and West Virginia to an audience of snooty Democrats in November 2015 and the speech was leaked.
Kerry
Praises Obama: 'He Has Been Able to Circumvent Congress' on Climate Change. In between waxing poetic about the
coming climate apocalypse and exchanging no less than two dozen self-congratulatory praises for being such an awesome
guardian of Planet Earth, Secretary of State John Kerry rejoiced during a panel discussion on climate change that a great
American industry responsible for supporting hundreds of thousands of blue-collar jobs is "now bankrupt." At a screening
of Leonardo diCaprio's new global warming film, "Before the Flood," Kerry lamented that it took this long for coal companies
to go out of business — a fate brought on largely by President Obama's aggressive environmental regulations —
saying that it would have happened earlier if "big coal" hadn't been so busy buying political support during Kerry's time in the Senate.
Democrats
Leaving Their Party In Massive Numbers. In this election nothing would cease to amaze me. We have the
state of Utah, a completely red state, polling closer than ever between the two parties. And now we have a state as
blue as the come, Pennsylvania, with a new emergence of red votes. The state is as solid blue as they come, but
Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton, has done quite a lot to offend the state. Starting with her declaration to put coal
miners out of business. [...] And with Pennsylvania, that will make a difference. Also, in the number of new young
voters identifying as Republican is growing. Not only that, but over 100,000 individuals have changed parties.
Leaving the democratic party they are now identifying as Republican in this election.
Hillary Clinton
might lose Ohio because she badmouthed coal. Ohio has voted for the winner of every presidential race since
Lyndon Johnson in 1964. It's the reason people say, "As goes Ohio, so goes the nation." The usual voting blocs in Ohio are
muddled this year. Union and coal voters like Saltkield are crossing party lines to vote for Trump. Meanwhile, some
Republicans, including Governor John Kasich, just can't stomach Trump. On top of that, basketball star LeBron James, a hero
in Ohio after winning the 2016 NBA championship, has endorsed Clinton. Political pundits don't talk about coal much.
But in southern Ohio, it's on everyone's minds. Trains rumble by hourly, often loaded with coal. More than Benghazi,
or deleted emails, what people in this part of America remember about Clinton is what she said about coal.
China
Stokes Global Coal Growth. China won praise for promising to peak its greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 at the
UN climate summit in Paris in 2015 — and trying to wean itself slowly off coal. Chinese manufacturers are
now major suppliers of cheap solar and wind parts worldwide. However, these efforts are being undercut by Chinese
backed coal power plants planned and under construction from Indonesia to Pakistan, Turkey to the Balkans — as
well as in Africa and Latin America. These could boost global emissions and lock developing countries into fossil fuel
intensive energy systems for decades.
Hillary's
In League With Groups To Destroy Energy Independence. This week, Politico reported that Hillary Clinton is aligned with the
same groups who are pushing to end the use of coal and shale energy in the United States. These policies will be destructive to states
like Pennsylvania, Ohio and Colorado and severely impact energy rates and jobs across the country.
Green
Pixie Dust Energy Policies. The Democrat policies are green pixie dust. They will never generate the
energy and revenues required to put America back to work and rebuild our aging, broken infrastructure. And they ignore
what developing countries are doing at a feverish pace: producing, buying and burning coal, oil and natural gas, to lift
billions out of poverty and bring them modern living standards.
Bill
Clinton Mocks 'The Coal People' In West Virginia, Kentucky For Supporting Trump. Speaking in Homewood, PA on
Friday [9/9/2016], Bill Clinton criticized the "coal people" in West Virginia for supporting Donald Trump. "We all know
how [Hillary's] opponent has done well down in West Virginia and eastern Kentucky," the former president told the crowd at
the Greater Pittsburgh Coliseum. "The coal people don't like any of us [Democrats] anymore."
Bill
Clinton: You Know, Those 'Coal People' Don't Like Us Anymore For Some Reason. In 2008, then-Sen.
Obama said, "If someone wants to build a new coal-fired power plant they can, but it will bankrupt them because they will be
charged a huge sum for all the greenhouse gas that's being emitted." Now, the president's war on coal has led to world's
largest private sector coal producer to declare bankruptcy. We have plant closures occurring across the country, as the
EPA continues in their "constitutionally reckless mission" to gut Americans of reliable sources of energy and jobs. The
EPA's regulations could cost us at least $3 trillion. In all, if Obama is successful in his war on coal, the
butcher's bill could be at least 125,000 jobs (some estimates are as high as a 1 million+), with a loss of $650 billion
in GDP over a ten-year period.
Here's
One Promise President Obama Has Kept. During the 2008 campaign, Barack Obama promised to "bankrupt" the coal
industry. Since April of 2105, six major U.S. coal companies have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy with the subsequent
loss of more than 80,000 jobs.
Obama
Kept His Promise, 83,000 Coal Jobs Lost And 400 Mines Shuttered. This Labor Day, America has 83,000 fewer coal
jobs and 400 coal mines than it did when Barack Obama was elected in 2008, showing that the president has followed through on
his pledge to "bankrupt" the coal industry. A 2015 study found the coal industry lost 50,000 jobs from 2008 to 2012
during Obama's first term. During Obama's second term, the industry employment in coal mining has fallen by another
33,300 jobs, 10,900 of which occurred in the last year alone, according to federal data.
Toxicologist
on cancer warnings: NC acted despite science. Officials in North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory's
administration are telling a string of misleading half-truths about the safety of well water near Duke Energy coal ash pits
containing a cancer-causing chemical and are responsible for any resulting fear and confusion, a state toxicologist said
after being attacked by state officials.
Coal
Country Is Wary of Hillary Clinton's Pledge to Help. [Scroll down] Now Washington is gunning for the
second pillar of the Appalachian economy, coal, and again a politician, Hillary Clinton, is promising to help —
with $30 billion over 10 years to revitalize coal country. As in the case of tobacco, the idea is not to save the old
economy, but to create a new one by retraining miners, investing in infrastructure and technology, and luring new industries.
Residents here are skeptical, and with good reason, some economists say. Much of the tobacco rescue came from a 1998 settlement
between tobacco companies and more than 40 states, requiring the companies to pay more than $200 billion over 25 years
to help the victims of tobacco — both those afflicted by cancer and lung disease, and those hurt economically by the
decline of the industry.
Warnings
of rate hikes as Oregon becomes 1st state to kill coal. The massive coal-fired plant in Boardman, Ore., is just
four years away from being shut down for good — at that point, Oregon coal production will be no more, after the
state became the first in the nation to completely ban coal power. The mandate, signed into law earlier this year, was
the result of an environmentalist-fueled push by the Democrat-controlled legislature. Under the plan, coal production
will end once the Boardman plant shutters in 2020 — utilities would still be able to buy coal power from out of
state for another 10 years, until a 2030 deadline to end coal use entirely. But the phase-out already has groups
warning that residents are headed for big rate increases and brownouts.
Oregon Outlaws Coal. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (D) on March 11 signed
into law a controversial bill that will ban the use of coal to generate electricity, beginning in 2030, making Oregon the first state in the nation to adopt legislation
that would outlaw using coal to produce electricity. The law also mandates 50 percent of Oregon's electricity come from renewables by 2040. Opponents of the
sweeping legislation, from policy experts to the state's own Public Utility Commission, say the new law will raise rates for Oregon customers without reducing carbon emissions.
One-third of Oregon's electricity comes from coal, primarily from out-of-state coal plants, which will continue to operate despite no longer being able to sell power to Oregon utilities.
Germany waters down
climate protection plan. Germany has abandoned plans to set out a timetable to exit coal-fired power production
and scrapped C02 emissions reduction goals for individual sectors, according to the latest draft of an environment ministry
document seen by Reuters on Wednesday [6/29/2016]. An earlier version of the draft document that was leaked in May had
suggested that Germany should phase out coal-fired power production "well before 2050" as part of a package of measures to
help Berlin achieve its climate goals.
U.S.,
Canada, Mexico pledge to generate 50 percent of energy from clean sources. The United States, Canada and Mexico
have agreed to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the oil and gas industry by increasing clean energy generation to 50 percent
by 2025. The North American Climate, Clean Energy and Environment Partnership will impose new restrictions on some
industries to reduce emissions following last year's United Nations climate change agreement in Paris that sought a global
reduction in emissions.
The Editor says...
The article immediately above reflects an interesting increment in the media's handling of the Global Warming Hoax. Energy sources that produce carbon
dioxide when they are consumed — which would include coal, petroleum, biofuel, and natural gas — are not considered clean any more.
But there is nothing dirty about carbon dioxide.
White
House eyes higher costs for coal mining. The White House issued a study critical of the federal coal-leasing
program Wednesday [6/22/2016], which the industry blasted as more of the same from an administration bent on curtailing coal
production by raising prices for consumers. The report says taxpayers are being shortchanged by lax oversight and
permissive royalty rules, blaming coal companies for gaming the system to enhance profits, according to the study from the
White House Council of Economic Advisers.
Westmoreland
Coal lays off 85 at San Juan Mine. Eighty-five hourly and salaried underground mine workers were laid off at
the San Juan Mine today [6/16/2016] because of a drop in demand for coal, according to Westmoreland Coal Co. officials.
Joe Micheletti — executive vice president of operations for Colorado-based Westmoreland, the new owners of the
underground longwall mine — said in a phone interview this morning that there was a workforce reduction because of
production cuts related to stricter environmental regulations. Nine more positions were eliminated through attrition or
retirement earlier this year, Micheletti said. But Barry Dixon — Kirtland district office business manager
for the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 953 — said this afternoon that union representatives
understood 88 workers would be impacted. Union representatives counted 52 miners who were laid off today. Dixon
said 36 workers' jobs were lost to attrition or retirement. The union represents all coal miners at the San Juan Mine.
Coal Production Hits 35-Year
Low. Coal production in the first three months of 2016 was 173 million short tons, the lowest quarterly level
in the United States since a major coal strike in the second quarter of 1981. Among the regions tracked by the EIA, the
Powder River Basin (PBR) in Montana and Wyoming saw the largest decline both in terms of absolute tonnage and as a percentage
of the previous quarter. Demand for coal has dropped off steeply as natural gas becomes the primary fuel source for
electrical generation. Electricity generation accounts for more than 90% of domestic coal use, but environmental
regulations have caused the fuel source to fall out of favor.
The Red Guards Are Green.
In Venezuela, which is admittedly ruled by a socialist regime, an iconic firm called Empresas Polar, which provides
everything from pasta to beer, is suffering under government price controls and regulations, and has been declared an enemy
of the state. The Wall Street Journal has been covering the fate of this firm in detail in a dramatic series of
articles. Here, the problem is actually worse. Rather than targeting just one firm, the Obama administration has
been seeking to destroy the entire coal industry, along with the jobs of tens of thousands of workers that the old-style
Marxists used to claim to represent. In their latest move, "the Obama Administration is giving the industry its last
rites by halting new coal leases on federal lands where mining is still profitable," the Journal noted. This is not
just Obama's policy. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that if she became president, "we're going to put
a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business."
The
next "green" plan: Have the feds seize coal plants and shut them down. You can almost smell the
excitement in the air around the green energy warrior community. The Washington Post ran an op-ed this week from
"environmental attorney" Stephen Kass in which he puts forth a bold plan for dealing with climate change and the nation's
stubborn refusal to let go of proven, reliable energy generation via fossil fuels. The big target in Kass' sights is
the coal industry and the nation's remaining coal fired power plants. With resistance growing to the Obama
administration's deceptively named Clean Power Plan, the author comes up with a more, shall we say... direct
plan of action. Just have Washington take over the coal plants and close them.
Hillary
Clinton Says She'll Put A Tax-Cutting Deregulator In Charge Of Economic Policy. Hillary Clinton made a big
announcement Sunday [5/15/2016], saying she'd put her husband "in charge of economic revitalization." Only problem is that
she's already forsworn all the policies Bill enacted while he was in office that led to the 1990s boom. "My husband,
who I'm going to put in charge of revitalizing the economy, 'cause you know he knows how to do it," Hillary Clinton said at a
rally. "And especially in places like coal country and inner cities and other parts of our country that have really
been left out."
The Editor says...
"Coal country" wasn't left out, it was cut out by left-wing politicians like Clinton and Obama, and earth-worshiping tree-hugging Democrat environmentalists.
U.S.
Has Lost 191,000 Mining Industry Jobs Since September 2014. The United States has lost approximately 191,000
jobs in the mining industry since September 2014 including approximately 7,000 that were lost in April, according to data
published today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The coal mining industry alone has lost approximately 10,900 jobs
since April of last year. "Mining employment continued to decline in April (-7,000)," the Bureau of Labor Statistics
said in its employment release this morning. "Since reaching a peak in September 2014, employment in mining has
decreased by 191,000, with more than three-quarters of the loss in support activities for mining."
Hillary
Clinton's coal flip-flop could prove costly in general election. Hillary Clinton's pitch to voters in
Appalachia fell flat this week, and she is in real danger of losing the West Virginia primary to Sen. Bernard Sanders
next week — but analysts say the former first lady has deeper problems in coal country that could spill into the
general election. Mrs. Clinton has shifted positions on coal over the past eight years, moving from high praise
for clean-coal technology and the fuel's role in U.S. energy production in 2008 to guaranteeing miners will be out of work
and coal mines shut down if she is elected to the White House in November. Although she has tried to distance herself
from those inflammatory statements and salvage her campaign in the pro-coal territory of West Virginia, Kentucky and
elsewhere, political analysts say there is little Mrs. Clinton can do to repair the damage. Attempts to appeal to
blue-collar workers in Appalachia and possibly snatch those states from the Republican column in November look futile.
"Climate Hustle" demolishes
climate alarmism. Without presenting it to the US Senate, as required by the Constitution, President Obama has signed the
Paris climate treaty. He is already using it to further obligate the United States to slash its fossil fuel use, carbon dioxide
emissions and economic growth[,] control our lives, livelihoods, living standards and liberties[,] and redistribute our wealth.
Poor, minority and working class families will suffer most. China, India and other developing economies are under no such
obligation, unless and until it is in their interest to do so. [...] That's why these countries have built over 1,000 coal-fired
power plants and are planning to build 2,300 more — while unaccountable EPA bureaucrats are shutting down US
coal-fired generators, and getting ready to block natural gas production and use.
Even
Hillary Clinton's pals can't pretend to believe her lies. Figuring she has the Democratic nomination sewn up,
Hillary Clinton this week headed to swing state West Virginia, aiming to "feel the pain" of coal country. But then she
ran into Bo Copley, a recently laid-off miner. He hit her with her comments from last month, explaining her clean-energy
program: "We're going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business," she'd said. Bo didn't like
that much: "I just want to know how you can say you're going to put a lot of coal miners out of, out of jobs, and then
come in here and tell us how you're going to be our friend."
Clinton
Flip-Flops on Coal, Now Wants Coal to Prosper. Hillary Clinton has a very complicated opinion of coal. In
March, she proudly declared, "we are going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business." Now, she says
she wants to see coal "continued to be sold and continued to be mined." Which is it?
Tearful
unemployed father who lost his job as a coal worker confronts Hillary Clinton. A tearful unemployed father who
recently lost his job as a coal worker has confronted Hillary Clinton about her plan to 'put the coal industry out of
business'. At an event in West Virginia on Monday, Bo Copley asked Clinton why voters should believe her pledge to help
revitalize the region's economy with initiatives including renewable energy. He was referencing Clinton's remarks to a
CNN town hall event in March, when Clinton talked about her plan for renewable energy, the economy and how she would help
America's coal country recover from an increasing switch to renewable energy.
Hillary
Clinton apologizes for saying she'd put coal "out of business". Hillary Clinton apologized on Monday [5/2/2016] for saying
she would put coal miners and companies "out of business" as president, calling her comment a "misstatement." "What I said was
totally out of context from what I meant," Clinton said. "It was a misstatement, because what I was saying is that the way things
are going now, we will continue to lose jobs." Clinton said during a town hall on CNN in March that she is the "only candidate
which has a policy about how to bring economic opportunity using clean renewable energy as the key into coal country."
The Editor says...
The parts of the country where coal can be found are not going to produce "clean renewable
energy" — whatever that means — just as easily. The only objection the Left has to the use of
coal is the eventual production of carbon dioxide when that coal is burned at a power plant. Carbon dioxide isn't
nearly the problem that unemployment is. In fact, carbon dioxide is not a problem at all. The Democrats oppose
coal because they hate capitalism.
Hillary
to tour Appalachian coal country, but one West Virginia town says she's not welcome. Hillary Clinton kicks off
a two-day tour through struggling Appalachia Monday [5/2/2016], and her first task will be trying to clean up her own comment
about putting coal companies 'out of business.' Clinton has pledged to plow more than $30 billion to help the region, but
she's been trying to dig out of a mess she made with her coal country comment in March. After Clinton said during a CNN town
hall in Ohio that, "We're going to put a lot of coal companies and coal miners out of business,' she immediately wrote West Virginia
Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democratic supporter, to try to walk back the comment.
Wyoming
Gov. Mead Opposes Legislation Meant to Help Depressed Coal. Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead (R) says he is
strongly opposed to legislation proposed in Congress that would shift money from a federal fund established to reclaim and
clean up thousands of abandoned mines to jobs programs in coal-mining communities that have been hit hard as a result of the
Obama administration's energy policies and restrictions on coal mining. The push in favor of the legislation is being
led by U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers (R-KY). House Appropriations Chair Rogers introduced the Revitalizing the Economy of
Coal Communities by Leveraging Local Activities and Investing More Act, or RECLAIM Act, on February 3, 2016. Rogers'
bill largely mirrors a budget request the Obama administration made in 2015, shifting $1 billion in currently unused funds
from the Abandoned Mine Lands (AML) program to provide economic redevelopment aid to coal communities now facing hard economic
times, according to a letter sent by Mead to his state's congressional delegation.
Tyranny:
Obama uses executive overreach to DECIMATE his latest target. Back when he was a senator running for president,
Barack Obama stated he would bankrupt the American coal industry. As president, he used the regulatory agency order and
extended the definition of the Clean Air Act of 1970. The U.S. Supreme Court did grant a request to temporarily block the
Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Power Plan as a lawsuit moves forward. It was the first time the Supreme Court
had ever halted federal regulations during a legal challenge. However, it may have truly come too late.
Promise
Kept: Barack Obama Breaks the Coal Industry. President Obama's war on coal has bagged its biggest trophy
to date: the bankruptcy filing by the largest U.S. coal company, Peabody Energy. Make no mistake about it, though,
Peabody's management and that of the rest of coal industry bears much of the blame for its own demise. It ought to
serve as a lesson for everyone else targeted by take-no-prisoners progressives.
King
Coal Is Losing His Throne. Peabody Energy, the world's biggest privately owned coal mining company, filed for
bankruptcy protection in the United States on Wednesday. The company becomes the latest casualty of a coal-market
bloodbath that has already pushed other big U.S. miners into insolvency in recent months. Peabody said in its bankruptcy
filing that the challenges facing the coal sector are "unprecedented" and include a slowdown in China, cheap natural gas, and
new environmental regulations.
Oregon Outlaws
Coal. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (D) signed into law a controversial bill on March 11 that will ban the use
of coal to generate electricity, beginning in 2030, making Oregon the first state in nation to outlaw using coal to produce
electricity. The law also mandates 50 percent of Oregon's electricity come from renewables by 2040. Opponents
of the sweeping legislation, from policy experts to the state's own Public Utility Commission, say the new law will raise rates
for Oregon customers without reducing carbon emissions. One-third of Oregon's electricity comes from coal, primarily from
out-of-state coal plants, which will continue to operate, although they will no longer sell their power to Oregon utilities.
With
collapse of coal industry, central Appalachian towns struggle to survive. Coal jobs in Kentucky and West
Virginia have been on the decline for decades — long before President Obama took office. According to data
from the Mine Safety and Health Administration, the two states together have lost 38,000 coal jobs since 1983. But job
losses in recent years have been especially staggering, the result of tighter regulatory policies and cheaper power plant
fuels, like natural gas. In Letcher County, the unemployment rate stands at 13.4 percent — the fifth-highest
county in the state. The highest unemployment rate is in Magoffin County, at 21.6 percent, followed by Leslie County,
with 13.7 percent.
Media Silent as
America's Largest Coal Mines Begin Mass Layoffs. America's two largest coal mines each laid off 15 percent of their
workforce — 465 employees — in one day. Not one national news outlet ran the story. This travesty
deserves national attention. Barack Obama and his EPA are continuing their War on Coal and War on Jobs... and no one in
America — except the miners, their families, and their communities — seems to care. Coal miners make an
average of $80,000 a year. That's $37,200,000 of taxable income gone. The local and state economy, which was already
struggling because of oil and gas layoffs, is collapsing and not one person outside of the state of Wyoming has spoken a word about it.
Peabody
And Arch Lay Off Employees At Wyoming Mines. The country's two largest coal mines are each laying off roughly
15 percent of their employees. Peabody Energy and Arch Coal both announced the layoffs Thursday morning. The cuts
will affect roughly 235 workers at Peabody's North Antelope Rochelle mine and 230 at Arch's Black Thunder mine. The
layoffs are the first major cuts in Wyoming, which had, until now, avoided the job losses that have affected Appalachia.
In statements, both companies said the layoffs are in response to weak market conditions for coal. Low natural gas prices,
a warm winter and new environmental regulations have all contributed to declining demand for coal.
EPA
Boss: Coal Regulations Are About the Politics of Power. In a classic case of exercising power for the sake of
power, Gina McCarthy (shown), administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), admitted that the real reason for
EPA regulations is "showing sort of domestic leadership as well as garnering support around the country for the agreement we
reached in Paris." Her admission against interest was made during testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee
on Tuesday [3/29/2016]. When grilled by Representative David McKinley (R-W.V.), about EPA regulations that are crippling
the coal industry, McCarthy did not dispute the charge that the regulations will have no measurable effect on "global
warming." Instead, she said that the "benefit" of the regulations is in flexing federal muscle over industry.
Wyoming's
two largest coal mines announce layoffs. The two largest coal mines in America announced massive layoffs
Thursday morning [3/31/2016]. Peabody Energy cut 235 people at North Antelope Rochelle, or 15 percent of the workforce at
America's largest mine. Arch Coal said it was cutting 15 percent, or 230 people, at its Black Thunder Mine near
Wright. The news comes in the face of an extended downturn in the coal market and amid a rising tide of environmental
regulations. It also marks a new chapter for Wyoming's coal industry, which has largely avoided the massive cutbacks
seen in Appalachia and elsewhere.
Coal
Industry Decline, Lives Destroyed. As Peabody Energy (BTU), the nation's largest coal mining company, teeters
on the brink of bankruptcy, it is a harsh reminder of the reality hitting a corner of the energy industry. Other large
coal mining companies have already collapsed and have destroyed the livelihoods of thousands of Americans who once made good
livings tied to coal. The US Labor Department says more than 27,000 coal miners have lost their jobs since 2009 along with
thousands of others whose jobs were tied to the coal industry. Hazard Kentucky, in the heart of the eastern Kentucky coal
country, has been hit especially hard. Unemployment in the surrounding area tops nine percent and young people say they
have no future.
Natural
Gas to Overtake Coal in 2016. Natural gas is on pace to overtake coal as the most popular fuel for electricity
generation, another sign of coal's struggles. The U.S. Energy Information Administration believes natural gas will provide
33% of generation in 2016, while coal's share will likely fall to 32%. That would be the first time that natural gas beats
coal on an annual basis. The EIA says natural gas and coal each contributed one-third of all electricity generation in 2015.
The Editor says...
"[C]oal's struggles" are completely artificial and entirely reversible.
Hillary
Clinton to Miners: Let Them Eat Coal. By now, most people probably know about one of Secretary Hillary
Clinton's biggest campaign gaffes to date: "we're going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business."
As soon as I heard it, I tweeted: "Imagine a presidential candidate running for office based on putting people out of work?"
I wasn't the only one shocked by the uncharacteristic clarity of her statement.
GOP's
message to voters should be this: Supreme Court fight is about Obama's abuse of power. This isn't about Judge Robert Bork, or the "Biden
Rule" — this is a fight about President Obama undermining the checks and balances established in the Constitution. For instance,
President Obama has tried to essentially shut down our coal industry through new EPA regulations limiting carbon emissions. These rules would create
a massive dislocation to our economy, which has long benefited from cheap energy, including abundant coal. That there is a significant cost to the
economy is clear; Hillary Clinton recently said "We're going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business." How right, and how
cruelly nonchalant that statement is.
Clinton:
'We're Going to Put a Lot of Coal Miners and Coal Companies Out of Business'. Hillary Clinton said that her
policies would "put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business" during Sunday night's Ohio town hall on CNN.
Clinton was asked by TVOne's Roland Martin about her Democratic primary success in states that tend to vote Republican in
general elections, and he wondered how she could carry such states once matched up with a Republican rather than a far-left
candidate like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.). Clinton has struggled against Sanders in states that voted for Barack
Obama in 2012, losing such contests as Michigan, New Hampshire, Colorado, Minnesota and Maine.
Hillary's
vow to kill coal miners' jobs finishes a vast Democratic betrayal. "We're going to put a lot of coal miners and
coal companies out of business," Clinton said Sunday night [3/13/2016] while boasting about her clean-energy program —
and with a big smile on her face. In fact, this is standard Democratic policy: President Obama's been throwing coal
miners out of work for seven years now, aiming to deliver on his 2008 pledge to "bankrupt" the coal industry.
Clean power, dirty
results. If President Obama were to demand that more than two-thirds of U.S. thread and cloth manufacturing be
replaced by massing together spinning wheels and hand looms, most Americans would openly mock it. Yet, he is doing just that
with electricity production. The U.S. Supreme Court recently placed Obama's Clean Power Plan (CPP) on hold while 27 states
challenge it through the federal courts to better evaluate the plan's potential economic and social damage. However much the plan
might reduce potential dangers of climate change, it will cause much more harm to middle-class and poor Americans if it is implemented.
Obama
Halts New Coal Mining Leases on Federal Land. In a move seen by many critics of President Barack Obama as a
continuation of his administration's "war on coal," Interior Secretary Sally Jewell ordered a three-year moratorium on new
coal leases on federal land. Existing coal leases on public land would not be affected by the rule. In her January 17
announcement of the rule, Jewell cited concerns over coal's supposed contribution to climate change as the reason for the moratorium,
saying the Interior Department will conduct a new analysis of how the extraction and burning of coal could make global climate change
more likely.
Oregon
Bill Proposes Ban on Coal-Generated Electricity by 2035. In a vote that could have far-reaching implications
for Oregon's residential and commercial electricity users, the state's legislature will soon consider a bill sponsored by
state Rep. Jeff Barker (D-Aloha) and state Rep. Brian Clem (D-Salem) that would eliminate electricity generated by coal-fired
power plants from the state's power grid by 2035. The Portland Tribune reports Oregon's two investor-owned
utilities, Pacific Power and Portland General Electric (PGE), both of which own out-of-state coal facilities, support the
bill. The utilities agreed to back the legislation in exchange for environmentalists withdrawing a November ballot initiative
that, if approved by voters, would impose an even more rapid phase-out. PGE and Pacific Power agreed to phase out coal by
2035 and pledged, rather than replacing coal with natural-gas-fired electricity, half the electricity they sell in Oregon by
2040 will come from non-hydro renewable sources.
Oregon
Bill Proposes Ban on Coal-Generated Electricity by 2035. In a vote that could have far-reaching implications
for Oregon's residential and commercial electricity users, the state's legislature will soon consider a bill sponsored by
state Rep. Jeff Barker (D-Aloha) and state Rep. Brian Clem (D-Salem) that would eliminate electricity generated by coal-fired
power plants from the state's power grid by 2035. The Portland Tribune reports Oregon's two investor-owned utilities,
Pacific Power and Portland General Electric (PGE), both of which own out-of-state coal facilities, support the bill. The
utilities agreed to back the legislation in exchange for environmentalists withdrawing a November ballot initiative that, if
approved by voters, would impose an even more rapid phase-out.
The Enemy Within.
[Scroll down] One of the best examples of this is the proposed Clean Power Plan (CPP) that's being pushed by the Obama administration. Overseen by the
Environmental Protection Agency, CPP aims to reduce carbon emissions by at least 30 percent by 2030 from 2005 levels. It will grossly impact fixed-income
seniors, potentially gut millions of jobs from black and Hispanic communities, and has coal-producing states scratching their heads, as the new regulations would
devastate their local economies. It's part of another area of Washington overreach — Obama's war on coal — which if successful, would
kill over 125,000 jobs, along with a net loss of $650 billion in GDP over the next decade.
SCOTUS Stops Obama's Clean Power
Plan. Yet another Obama administration initiative was halted by the U.S. Supreme Court this week. The Clean Power Plan
(CPP) was a far-reaching effort by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to control greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants
under the Clean Air Act (CAA). If implemented, the CPP would have closed hundreds of coal-fired plants across the country and increased
the production of wind and solar power, which are significantly more expensive to produce. The CPP was challenged in court by energy
companies, industry groups, and a coalition of 29 states, led by West Virginia.
The EPA's Lawless Land
Grab. Today there is no greater threat to the rule of law and the right to the peaceful enjoyment of property
than the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in the course of prosecuting its ostensible mission to clean the air and the
water. Under the guise of the Clean Air Act, the agency's Clean Power Plan will take control of America's electrical-power
infrastructure. Yet Congress did not envisage that the 1970 legislation would be used to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions.
To get around the inconveniently precise wording Congress provided in the statute, EPA resorted to rewriting the provision of the
Clean Air Act that didn't fit with its regulatory plans — a gambit that has had ups and downs in the Supreme Court,
which will soon address the legality of the Clean Power Plan.
Private
Interests and Public Money. [Scroll down] Or take the coal industry. In June 2015 coal lobbyists made a
last-ditch appeal to the Obama administration to loosen its strict proposed limits on greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired
power plants. Is this a case of a greedy industry using money to distort the wise Obama decision to cut down on
greenhouse gases before global warming spins out of control? Or is a case of a beleaguered industry that provides a
necessary product, fighting for the jobs of its workers, and only trying to defend itself from draconian rules based on iffy
computer models that will destroy it and in the process drive up the costs of energy for those least able to afford it?
In this case a special interest may be in the public interest.
Coal-Killing Job Killers. Since moving into the White
House, Obama has used bureaucratic weapons and administrative agencies to assault America's coal industry. Between 2008 and 2012, the Wall Street Journal
reports, 50,000 coal jobs were lost — that number would certainly be much greater today. West Virginia has been hit particularly hard with
unemployment rates in double digits. Addressing the job losses, the Charleston Gazette-Mail blames the "liberal environmental policies that have
accelerated coal's decline" — which it says have left "hard working men and women" jobless. In addition to the job losses, Obama's
policies — such as the Regional Haze rule, the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) rule, and the Clean Power Plan — have "helped spur
the closing of dozens of coal plants across the country," according to Politico. The November 2015 report states: "More than one in five
coal-related jobs have disappeared during Obama's presidency, and several major U.S. coal mining companies have announced this year that they would or may
soon seek bankruptcy protection."
Environmental
group appeals PRC decision. A Santa-Fe based environmental group that intervened in the two-year power replacement
case over the San Juan Generating Station has appealed a decision by state regulators that will allow the plant to continue to
operate. New Energy Economy appealed to the state Supreme Court Thursday, challenging the 4-1 vote by the state Public
Regulation Commission on Dec. 16 that will keep the coal-fired power plant open. The group cites the failure of the Public
Service Company of New Mexico, which operates the plant, to fully investigate alternative sources of power generation like wind and solar.
Republicans
furious over Obama move on coal leases. Congressional Republicans are slamming the Obama administration's decision to
halt new coal mining leases on federal land. Administration officials said Friday [1/15/2016] they would hold off on new lease
sales while overhauling the coal leasing program to account for climate change costs. Republicans, who have badgered Obama for
energy and environment policies they say constitute a "war on coal," let loose on the decision Friday.
Obama
halts new federal coal mining. The Obama administration is halting major new leases to mine coal on federal
land for about three years as it works to reform the controversial program. Obama officials want to hold off on the new
sales while they figure out how to account for climate change caused when the coal mined on federal land is burned, which
could include higher fees and royalties for the private companies that extract the coal.
In
Climate Move, Obama to Halt New Coal Mining Leases on Public Lands. The Obama administration will announce on Friday [1/15/2016] a
halt to new coal mining leases on public lands as it considers an overhaul of the program that could lead to increased costs for energy companies
and a slowdown in extraction, according to an administration official. The move would represent a significant setback for the coal industry,
effectively freezing new coal production on federal lands and sending a signal to energy markets that could turn investors away from an already
flailing industry.
Chinese
Coal Is Wrecking Obama's Global Warming Plans. "No matter how the Obama administration or the United Nations tries
to spin it, there is nothing historic or monumental about the Paris climate agreement. It is non-binding, underfunded, and
unenforceable," Chris Warren, a spokesperson for the Institute for Energy Research, told The Daily Caller News Foundation.
"Developing nations like China and India will continue to increase their coal use because they recognize that it is the best
generation source to help grow their economies and lift people out of poverty. Wind and solar just don't cut it."
Over 2,400 coal-fired power plants are under construction or being planned around the world, 1,171 of which will be built in
China. India is building 297 and planning another 149 coal plants. Even the close American ally of Japan is building
45 new coal plants.
EPA:
Coal [is] Not Marketable. Coal, oil and natural gas are unpopular at the United Nations Conference on Climate
Change in Paris -- so much so that Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy said she and her associates are
"pumped up about the work we're doing." Answering questions Thursday [12/10/2015] while in Paris, McCarthy said the EPA is
doing as much as it can to limit not just CO2 and mercury pollution from power plants that burn coal, but also methane emissions
associated with the oil and natural gas industries. "The Clean Power Plan is one of the keystones of President Obama's
Climate Action Plan. It has changed everything in the U.S.," McCarthy said. "It is riding the wave of new solutions
and technologies. We are going to show that utilities can do it. We don't need to make a choice between the environment
and the economy. We can build a growing economy, as we have in the U.S., by actually focusing on green, clean solutions."
The
Paris agreement is another false 'turning point' on the climate. History, on the "right side" of which Barack
Obama endeavors to keep us, has a sense of whimsy. Proof of which is something happening this week: Britain's last deep-pit
coal mine is closing, a small event pertinent to an enormous event, the Industrial Revolution, which was ignited by British coal.
The mine closure should not, however, occasion cartwheels by the climate's saviors, fresh from their Paris achievement. The mine
is primarily a casualty of declining coal prices, a result of burgeoning world energy supplies. Thanks largely to the developing
world, demand for coal is expected to increase for at least another quarter-century.
Kerry:
'Our Coal-Fired Power Plants Have to Begin to Phase Out'. Secretary of State John Kerry told a Paris audience that "our coal-fired
power plants have to begin to phase out." At an event hosted by the tech site Mashable along with the U.N. Foundation on Monday [12/7/2015],
Kerry said: "President Obama has put in place one of the most ambitious national climate action plans in the world. We've doubled our
car efficiency and truck — We're requiring our coal-fired power plants have to begin to phase out." Kerry made the statements while discussing
the impact the private sector and the marketplace will have on carbon [dioxide] emissions.
Money
and Power Drive Obama's Climate Agenda. Obama's green energy plan put the coal industry on life-support,
targeted oil and gas as the enemy and sought to impose restrictions on power plants that generate electricity to homes
and businesses. What the president reportedly hides behind the curtain is his alliances with international green
elites, a select group of political and Wall Street cronies, and energy regulatory czars who have orchestrated a CO2
carbon-taxing scheme that would put billions of dollars into their own pockets. [...] The media neglect the real reason
Barack Obama wants your hard-earned dollars to flow into a global green machine. Barack Obama continues to push,
at the expense of America and beyond all logic and recent scientific data, for a long-term and massive financial
commitment to global warming.<>/p>
Washington
Coal Export Project in Jeopardy. Montana congressmen are urging the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to disregard a
request from the Lummi Tribe to abandon an environmental review of the proposed Gateway Pacific coal export terminal at Cherry Point in
Bellingham, Washington. The Lummi fish next to Cherry Point and argue the terminal would violate their treaty fishing rights.
Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) and Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT) led a bipartisan group of federal legislators who urged USACE to complete the environmental
impact statement (EIS). If USACE dismisses the review process before completion, the project will be effectively shut down.
Obama's
war on coal is projected to cost us 125,800 jobs and $650 billion. Obama's war on coal has hit communities hard. We
all know that. In fact, there is "visceral disgust" for Obama's environmental policies in the Appalachian counties that have
long-supported Democrats since the New Deal. [...] West Virginia, another coal-producing state, has also gone solidly Republican after
decades of being a Democratic bastion. Their energy costs are expected to go up 40 percent under Obama's Clean Power Plan
(CPP), which sets to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 32 percent by 2030 from 2005 levels. It's a regulatory nightmare, a
job killer, and a policy that Hillary Clinton plans to continue if she's elected. But have no fear coal counties; she plans to set
aside $30 billion to help these people after she supported polices that have killed off the means in which they make a living.
Four Dirty Secrets about Clean
Energy. For years, the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has demanded that the U.S. and other industrialized
countries cut carbon emissions to 20% of 1990 levels by 2050. While most countries claim to support huge carbon caps, in practice
they have resisted implementing them. The reason is simple: fossil fuels provide nearly 90% of the energy we use —
the cheap, abundant fuel that powers modern farming, manufacturing, construction, transportation, and hospitals. The use of fossil
fuels is directly correlated to quality and quantity of life, particularly through the generation of electricity; in the past two decades,
hundreds of millions of people have risen out of poverty because energy production has tripled in India and quadrupled in China, almost
exclusively from carbon-based fuels. To drastically restrict carbon-based fuels, countries have conceded in practice, would be an
economic disaster.
Electric
cars and the coal that runs them. As the world tries to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and combat climate
change, policymakers have pinned hopes on electric cars, whose range and convenience are quickly improving. Alongside the
boom has come a surging demand for power to charge the vehicles, which can consume as much electricity in a single charge as
the average refrigerator does in a month and a half.
The
Environmentalist Crusade Against Progress and Technology Aims at Making Man's Life a Hell on Earth. Environmentalists are
against burning coal and oil to generate electricity or to power our transportation. They claim it causes too much pollution and
contributes to an alleged global warming. Though there is no scientific consensus that the latter is true, or even that it would
be harmful if it were true, environmentalists are demanding that fossil fuels' use be stopped or severely reduced.
Coal
communities see bleak future as Obama agenda speeds industry decline. Frank Stupak got his start in the coal
business just as it was beginning its steep decline, and while there's little chance the industry will ever return to its
glory days, the 27-year-old safety manager isn't giving up hope. "We know what our industry did for this country.
Hopefully someday we'll get back there," he said while deep inside an Ohio County Coal Company mine along the Ohio-West Virginia
border, coal dust filling the air around him and the sound of machinery nearly drowning out his voice.
Are
Stringent Vehicle Emissions Standards Driving a Surge in Coal? While the rise in coal generated electricity to smelt Aluminium
is dramatic, Aluminium smelting is only one of a range of factors driving the rise in global coal usage. The 400 TwH used in
Aluminium production is only a portion of the rapidly growing multi-terawatt hours of electricity produced every year (40% of which is
generated from coal, according to World Coal). But the rise in Aluminium car components, largely driven by stringent emission
regulations, and pressure to improve fuel efficiency, is making a significant and increasing impact on global CO2 emissions.
Senate
deals a blow to Obama climate rules. The Senate approved two resolutions Tuesday evening [11/17/2015] that
would repeal the Obama administration's climate change rules for power plants. The vote is meant to send a strong message
to President Obama that a majority of Congress disapprove of the regulations. The first resolution approved, 52-46, would
nullify the Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Power Plan, which requires states to reduce emissions a third by 2030.
The second resolution, approved by the same vote count, would repeal separate but related rules effectively banning new coal plants.
China Burns 17% More Coal Than Reported.
China has been burning up to 17% more coal per year than previously reported, according to new data released by the Chinese government.
New York's Times announced this news in a top-left, front-page story on 4th November. According to reporter Chris Buckley, "The
sharp upward revision in official figures means that China has released much more carbon dioxide — almost a billion more tons a
year according to initial calculations — than previously estimated. The increase alone is greater than the whole German
economy emits annually from fossil fuels."
Congress
Must Stop Obama's Global Climate Change Agenda. The U.S. and China agreement is a horrible deal for Americans.
Not only does the agreement allow China to run its fossil fuel carbon dioxide emitting economy for more than a decade while the U.S.
is forced to cut its emissions, China is now balking at verifying adherence to its plans. Most disturbingly, Obama can achieve
his climate change goals including U.N. targets without Congress. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued rules
targeting coal powered power plants including two proposed rules to force power plants to cut carbon dioxide emissions. Obama's
actions targeting coal-fired power plants is forcing hundreds of units to close and as a consequence, reduces carbon dioxide emissions.
There Are Gigawatts of Good Reasons to Still Mine
Coal. According to the World Coal Association, there are more than 2,300 coal fired power plants planned or under construction worldwide.
They will provide electricity access to millions of people, greatly improving their lives. These plants will be built and burn coal no matter what coal
opponents do.
India leads Asia's dash for coal as emissions blow
east. India is opening [one coal] mine a month as it races to double coal output by 2020, putting the world's third-largest polluter at the
forefront of a pan-Asian dash to burn more of the dirty fossil fuel that environmentalists fear will upend international efforts to contain global warming.
Obama's Disastrous Clean Power Plan. Harry Alford is
right. The president of the National Black Chamber of Commerce lately has taken heat from liberals for opposing Obama's Clean Power Plan. The Left
finds it inappropriate that a black man, who represents 2.4 million black-owned businesses, would dare to criticize Obama's latest bid to foil so-called
"global warming." This regulation spans 1,560 confounding pages and gargles 76 different acronyms. "The proposed Clean Power Plan would impose severe
and disproportionate economic burdens on poor families, especially minorities," Alford told the Senate Judiciary Committee's Oversight Subcommittee on Tuesday
[10/27/2015]. "The EPA's regressive energy tax threatens to push minorities and low-income Americans even further into poverty."
States sue over
new EPA air regulations. States and industry groups dependent on fossil fuels began filing court challenges Friday
[10/23/2015] to President Barack Obama's Clean Power Plan, which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Opponents of the
plan were expected to file a flurry of lawsuits at the U.S. Court of Appeals as the Environmental Protection Agency published its
final version of the new regulations. All but two of the 24 states filing challenges are led by Republicans. They
deride the plan as an "unlawful power grab by Washington bureaucrats" that will kill coal mining jobs and drive up electricity costs.
Dem
senator blames Obama's 'War on Coal' for rising drug overdose deaths. A Democratic senator is arguing Appalachia coal workers
who lost their jobs because of Obama administration regulations are overdosing on prescription painkillers. Painkiller abuse has ravaged
Appalachia for years, and has gotten worse under President Barack Obama. The White House is expected to clamp down on prescription drug
practices, but West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin says Obama's own policies are, in part, to blame for overdose deaths spiking.
Smart Coal: Putting People Ahead of
Climate Hysteria. Between 2007 and 2012, Japan provided more than $20 billion in financial support to build new advanced
coal-fired power generation capacity in developing countries. This country's Ultra-Supercritical coal-fired plants can be found in such
places as Chile, Vietnam and India. Japan is currently replacing many of its old coal plants with new advanced-design units and plans
to build more than 40 new such facilities. In short, Japan is placing the interests of its people ahead of climate change
hysteria. Compare this to Obama administration's war on coal whereby regulations are issued to prevent the use of coal and building
new coal plants, even new, highly efficient Ultra-supercritical plants.
Washington
Coal Export Project in Jeopardy. Montana congressmen are urging the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to
disregard a request from the Lummi Tribe to abandon an environmental review of the proposed Gateway Pacific coal export
terminal at Cherry Point in Bellingham, Washington. The Lummi fish next to Cherry Point and argue the terminal would
violate their treaty fishing rights. Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) and Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT) led a bipartisan group of
federal legislators who urged USACE to complete the environmental impact statement (EIS). If USACE dismisses the
review process before completion, the project will be effectively shut down.
Obama's House
of Cards. Remember Obama's campaign promises: to make electricity prices "skyrocket," and to bankrupt
constructors of coal plants? He is keeping these promises, but not ones like "you can keep your doctor" and "lower cost
of healthcare." And note that the "clean" in [Clean Power Plan] refers to less CO2 — and not to ordinary
health-damaging pollution; yet another example of WH spin. And if you thought that CO2 can be captured and sequestered
underground, that was last year's story. Just another few billions wasted on impractical schemes. Console
yourself; there are much worse schemes. EPA's approach to CPP is threefold: (i) Misuse of the Clean Air Act
(CAA) for purposes unintended by Congress. (ii) Requiring emission levels for mercury that cannot be justified
scientifically. And (iii): Unreasonably tightening the ambient ozone standard — yet
again — by inventing new health hazards based on unverified studies.
The president's decarbonization
fantasy. Last month, President Obama and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administered what they hope will be the
coup de grace to America's coal industry. They unveiled a new "Clean Power Plan" (CPP) with much fanfare and red-hot rhetoric, most
of it faithfully echoed by the Washington press corps and the world's news media. National Public Radio, CNN, Al Jazeera, the BBC
and German television believe our grandchildren are likely to perish unless we reduce global temperatures in 2030 by 0.02 percent —
the goal of EPA's misaligned plan to shut down more U.S. fossil fuel-powered plants.
Obama's energy plan — It's all about
power. [I]t is difficult not to notice that most of the negative parts of Obamacare are not slated to go into effect
until after Obama leaves office. This is not an insular event. Just this week, President Obama revealed a plan to reduce
power plant emissions that will largely not go into effect until 2017. Let's hope that all the presidential candidates are familiar
with his policies, because whoever wins will be left to deal with the consequences. Major coal companies saw their stocks plummet
after the announcement, but the timeline of implementation makes it clear that this is all about power and elections.
Billionaire
George Soros warms up to coal as stock prices hit bottom. Billionaire investor George Soros, who has demonized
fossil fuels for years through his think tanks and political contributions, seems to have warmed up to Big Coal now that
stocks are dirt cheap. The left-wing hedge fund legend has raised eyebrows with major purchases of stock in two large coal
companies, firms his critics say he helped bring to their knees. While buying low is the hallmark of any shrewd investor, buying
coal goes against the political and environmental ideology Soros has long espoused.
You shouldn't have voted for Democrats if you didn't want rabid job-killing environmentalism. In
coal-mining Kentucky, shock and dismay over Clean Power Plan's new targets. It is a
tense time in Kentucky. The Environmental Protection Agency has just come out with its final rule on
reducing carbon emissions — the strongest step ever taken to counter climate change in
the United States — and this coal state is reeling. Kentucky's energy secretary was
in talks with EPA officials all afternoon on Tuesday [8/4/2015], trying to figure out what the rule
means — and trying to understand how it was that the agency boosted the target that it had
proposed for Kentucky last year. A target that the state was on track to meet.
Report:
Obama's Climate Plan Will Shrink Coal Industry By 48 Percent. President Barack Obama's plan targeting
coal-burning power plants will cost a quarter of a million jobs and shrink the coal industry by nearly half, according
to a new report by the American Action Forum (AAF). The president released final regulations from the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) on Monday, which require every state to meet strict emission standards for coal-burning power
plants in the next 15 years. The so-called "Clean Power Plan" will cost the industry $8.4 billion,
nearly 10 times more expensive than the most burdensome regulation released this year, according to AAF, a
center-right think tank led by Douglas Holtz-Eakin, former director of the Congressional Budget Office.
Obama
Kills Another Industry: A $600 million coal mine just sold for less than $1. I have
just found a weapon of mass destruction inside the borders of the United States. No, it is not a
dirty bomb owned by the terrorists, a nuke controlled by Iran or an ISIS affiliated murderer. Nope,
it is in Washington, D.C. — and the name is Barack Obama. He has killed hundreds of
thousands of jobs in just one industry — plus been able to significantly raise the cost
of energy for all Americans, costing us tens of billions of dollars MORE to heat our homes.
There are 2,100 new coal plants being planned
worldwide. There's a large amount of coal capacity being planned worldwide, some 2,177 plants in all.
Not all of these coal plants will actually get finished — many are getting sunk by local opposition or economic
headwinds. But if even one-third of these planned plants get built, we run a high risk of busting through the 2°C
global warming threshold.
The Editor offers two remarks:
(1) Global warming stopped almost 20 years ago, even though the CO2 content of the atmosphere has steadily increased in that same period. This proves CO2 does not
cause global warming. (2) Who decided that the current worldwide temperature is ideal, and that an increase of two degrees would be catastrophic?
Making environmentalism
divisive. In May, Murray Energy, which sits along the old National Pike here in eastern Ohio,
told nearly 1,500 workers at five of its West Virginia mines that their jobs were eliminated. In Ohio,
249 Murray jobs were gone; nearly 170 employees were out of work in Illinois. The announcement wasn't
an isolated one. Mines are being boarded up and thousands of coal jobs are vanishing across America,
in part because of competition from abundant natural gas but in larger part because of new federal regulations
limiting carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants. One month later, Murray filed two lawsuits
against the U.S. EPA to halt its rewriting and expanding of the definition of "waters of the United States."
Barack
Obama's green plans could cripple America's economy. Cheap energy isn't just the
result of the shale-gas boom. In much of the US, the power industry continues to rely on coal.
Consumers in Kentucky, where over 90% of electricity is generated from coal, enjoy electricity prices
roughly 50% lower than in the UK — an indication of the huge potential cost of Obama's plans.
Indeed much higher bills are almost inevitable now that the US is adopting EU-style policies. Carbon
emissions from the power sector will be cut by an ambitious 32% by 2030 (compared to 2005 levels). Worse
still, the 'Clean Power Plan' will favour expensive renewable energy over the relatively low-cost option of
cutting emissions by switching from coal to natural gas.
Which
is worse, Obama's plan to shut down coal plants, or McConnell's 'plan' to fight it?
President Obama is about to release a plan to fight imaginary global warming by shutting down many
coal fired power plants. Coal fired power plants produce a lot of carbon dioxide, which is a key
element in the imaginary theory that CO2 causes global warming. I say imaginary because (1) there
hasn't been any global warming in 18 years, (2) man-made CO2 accounts for only about 3% of global
CO2, which is mostly natural, and (3) CO2 is a tiny percentage of the upper atmosphere, and is not
present in enough volume to be substantially trapping heat. But Obama's plan to shut power plants
is very real.
Obama
to Require Steeper Emissions Cuts From Power Plants. President Barack Obama will
impose even steeper cuts on greenhouse gas emissions from U.S. power plants than previously
expected, senior administration officials said Sunday [8/2/2015], in what the president called
the most significant step the U.S. has ever taken to fight global warming.
Electricity
from New Wind is Four Times More Costly than Existing Nuclear. Today [6/30/2015], the Institute
for Energy Research released a first-of-its-kind study calculating the levelized cost of electricity from
existing generation sources. Our study shows that on average, electricity from new wind resources is
nearly four times more expensive than from existing nuclear and nearly three times more expensive than from
existing coal. These are dramatic increases in the cost of generating electricity. This means that
the premature closures of existing plants will unavoidably increase electricity rates for American families.
Global
Coal Use Growing Faster Than Any Other Energy. Over the last decade, global coal use
grew by 968 million tonnes of oil equivalent. That is 4 times faster than renewables,
2.8 times faster than oil and 50 per cent faster than gas.
Japan
Defies Obama — Plans On Building 43 Coal Plants. As Japan promises the
United Nations it will cut carbon dioxide emissions, the country simultaneously plans on building 43
coal-fired power projects to make up for shuttered nuclear power. Japan told the reporters it
would cut carbon dioxide emissions 20 percent below 2013 levels by 2030, reports AFP. It joined
a U.S.-led effort to build support for a global warming treaty to be approved this December in Paris.
Green
groups' deceptive con game. Recently, investigative journalists at the Asheville Citizen-Times
and National Review revealed that the Sierra Club had allegedly added signatories to a petition demanding that
Duke Energy cease the operations of one of its coal-fired power plants in Asheville, North Carolina. Of
the 80 businesses listed on the petition, at least six had never agreed to lend their support to the Sierra
Club at all, several claimed to be victims of bait-and-switch, strong-arming tactics and one didn't even exist.
Foes
poised to declare victory in 'war on coal' as investors, utilities flee energy source.
The war has been waged on several fronts for nearly a decade, and the aggressors are poised to
declare victory over the wounded U.S. coal industry. After powering the Industrial Revolution and
helping to turn the U.S. into the world's top economic power, coal now seems to be drowning in what
environmentalists call a "deadly cocktail" — a rabid, politically potent anti-fossil
fuels movement, the rise of cheap, abundant, relatively clean domestic natural gas and an Obama
administration that freely admits it wants to decrease coal use in America through a host of new
rules. That near-perfect storm is taking its toll.
Inside the war
on coal. The war on coal is not just political rhetoric, or a paranoid fantasy
concocted by rapacious polluters. It's real and it's relentless. Over the past five years, it has
killed a coal-fired power plant every 10 days. It has quietly transformed the U.S. electric grid and
the global climate debate. The industry and its supporters use "war on coal" as shorthand for a
ferocious assault by a hostile White House, but the real war on coal is not primarily an Obama war,
or even a Washington war. It's a guerrilla war. The front lines are not at the Environmental
Protection Agency or the Supreme Court.
Feds:
Coal power plant closures would double under EPA rule. A proposed rule to limit carbon
emissions from power plants would shutter twice as many coal-fired power plants than if the
regulation were never implemented, according to a federal analysis. More than 90 gigawatts of
coal plant retirements would occur between this year and 2040, with most occurring before 2020, under the
Environmental Protection Agency proposal. Without the emissions limits, 40 gigawatts would come
offline, said the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the Energy Department's independent statistics arm.
Kerry
Tells China: 'Because of Climate Change in U.S. We Are Ending Any Funding' of 'Coal-Fired Power'. At a
joint press conference in Beijing yesterday [5/16/2015] with People's Republic of China Foreign Minister Wang Yi, U.S.
Secretary of State John Kerry said that the Obama administration intends to cooperate closely with the PRC leading
into a U.N. climate conference in Paris in December and that the U.S. is "ending any funding" of coal-fired power
projects. President Barack Obama's fiscal 2016 budget proposal calls for increasing taxes on the coal industry
by $4.252 billion from 2016-2025 while providing "refundable" tax credits to "renewable" energy projects such as
solar and wind power facilities.
Sierra
Club Caught in Anti-Coal Fakery. A leading national watchdog group monitoring nonprofits has
put the Sierra Club on its watch list after reports that three western North Carolina businesses accused
the green group of listing them without permission as co-signatories on a "businesses beyond coal" campaign
letter. The Sierra Club listed 80 businesses as co-signatories last October in a letter it widely
publicized, calling for Duke Energy to retire its coal plant in Asheville. But as veteran
investigative reporter Michael Cronin reported in the Asheville Citizen-Times, out of 19 businesses
contacted, three said they had not authorized the Sierra Club to use their name on the letter.
EPA
Plan for 'Clean Power' Could Jeopardize Safety of U.S. Electrical Grid. For those
worried about "climate change," coal is a convenient target. Unfortunately, a plan by the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) to shutter hundreds of domestic, coal-fired power plants has been hastily thrown
together, with no confirmed alternatives for steady, reliable power generation. What's at stake is
"grid reliability," whether supply exists to meet the current, massive U.S. demand for electricity.
For much of the country, the EPA's mandate is troubling because, right now, roughly 40 percent of
electricity in the United States comes from coal-fired generation. Under new EPA regulations,
many of these plants would be effectively forced out of operation. And to date, no one is
saying how that power will be otherwise produced.
Coal
company lays off hundreds, blames Obama policies. A major Appalachian coal mining
company is laying off hundreds of workers in West Virginia and blaming the lost jobs on President
Obama's environmental policies. Murray Energy Corp. will lay off the 214 workers at
three mines in Marion and Marshall counties.
Progressives
Spend $60 Million To Force Half Of U.S. Coal Plants To Close In 2 Years. The
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is President Obama's weapon of choice for his continued War On
Coal. While the EPA is the publicly funded branch of the attack, Progressive groups are not shy from
adding millions of private money to the fray. The Huffington reports that The Sierra Club and
Michael Bloomberg are adding another $60 million in an effort to close half of all U.S. Coal
plants by 2017.
The Unlikely
Defection of Laurence Tribe. Yesterday [4/6/2015], the New York Times published
a profile on Professor Tribe and his unlikely legal alliance with Peabody Energy. Peabody is a coal
company that is working overtime to shoot down a controversial EPA regulation that would place a limit on
CO2 emissions from coal-fired power plants. For environmentalists, the regulation is important because
it forms the backbone of President Obama's climate change agenda; if they lose this regulation, the plan
loses its teeth. Peabody retained Professor Tribe to argue their case against the EPA in federal
court, and the reaction from the legal community has bordered on apoplectic.
Laurence
Tribe Fights Climate Case Against Star Pupil From Harvard, President Obama. [Scroll down] Which
is why so many in the Obama administration and at Harvard are bewildered and angry that Mr. Tribe, who argued on behalf
of Al Gore in the 2000 Bush v. Gore Supreme Court case, has emerged as the leading legal opponent of Mr. Obama's
ambitious efforts to fight global warming. Mr. Tribe, 73, has been retained to represent Peabody Energy, the nation's
largest coal company, in its legal quest to block an Environmental Protection Agency regulation that would cut carbon dioxide
emissions from the nation's coal-fired power plants — the heart of Mr. Obama's climate change agenda. Next week
Mr. Tribe is to deliver oral arguments for Peabody in the first federal court case about Mr. Obama's climate change rules.
Nevada's
Caesar. In the summer of 2007, Nevada Power, the state's utility monopoly, was ramping
up plans to build a $5 billion coal plant in the rural community of Ely. Then-Senate Majority
Leader Harry Reid, coming down with the green fever that would animate him for the rest of his career, was
not pleased. The Ely Energy Center, Reid asserted to me during an August television interview, "will
never be built." A month later, Nevada Power CEO Michael Yackira came on the program and pushed back
against Reid's anti-coal crusade.
McConnell
Urges States to Help Thwart Obama's 'War on Coal'. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky
has begun an aggressive campaign to block President Obama's climate change agenda in statehouses and
courtrooms across the country, arenas far beyond Mr. McConnell's official reach and authority. [...]
Once enacted, the rules could shutter hundreds of coal-fired plants in what Mr. Obama has promoted
as a transformation of the nation's energy economy away from fossil fuels and toward sources like
wind and solar power. Mr. McConnell, whose home state is one of the nation's largest coal
producers, has vowed to fight the rules.
King Barry.
Obama is a lawless leader, choosing to rule by memorandum, regulation and executive order — he
is not a president; he is a king. [...] The EPA is now putting the finishing touches on the plan to save
the world from global warming by tripling Americans' electric bills and throttling business by raising the
cost of energy. Barry does not like coal and the EPA, ever obsequious to Barry's wants, wants to shut
down all coal-powered electrical generation in America. Coal-fired plants produce almost 40% of the
nation's electricity, and Barry... er, I meant the EPA, wants to shut them down. Not to worry, the
plan is to replace all that electricity with... well, nothing. (Fracking? The same crowd has
plans for that too.)
EPA
CO2 Regs 'The Most Fundamental Transformation' Of US Power. The head of a major U.S.
utility said EPA rules to fight global warming will fundamentally transform the way America
generates and delivers electricity to millions of residents. Gerry Anderson, Chairman and CEO of
the utility DTE Energy, told the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that the EPA's Clean Power
Plan "is the most fundamental transformation of our bulk power system that we've ever undertaken."
FERC held a hearing Thursday on the EPA's plan to cut carbon dioxide emissions from power plants
30 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. The plan is the keystone of the Obama administration's
climate agenda as power plants emit one-third of the country's carbon dioxide emissions.
How
High Costs Killed This Clean Coal Power Plant Project. The Department of Energy pulled
the plug on [a] $1.1 billion project in Illinois: a "clean coal" power plant that would capture
carbon dioxide and store it underground. President George W. Bush proposed the carbon-free power
plant in 2003 but shelved the project five years later because of cost overruns. President Obama's
Energy Department revived the plant in 2010. Now, five years and $200 million later, the financing
is being terminated because the project can't be completed by its September deadline.
The Editor says...
If it must be done at all, the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere can be done anywhere in the world.
This operation doesn't have to be performed in the power plant that generated CO2. The idea of a CO2-scrubbing power
plant is foolish from the outset. Every blade of grass and every tree in the world is performing the same function at no cost.
Montana coal-fired
power plant is latest to shut down. The J.E. Corette coal-fired power plant in
Billings will shut down in August, its owner said Tuesday [2/10/2015], making it the latest casualty
in a wave of closures across the country that have left the coal industry reeling.
Obama
pulls the plug on $1.1 billion 'clean coal' project. The Obama administration is
pulling the plug on a stimulus-backed "clean coal" power plant in central Illinois that was supposed
to play a key support role for a proposed regulation to mandate carbon capture technology for coal
plants. The Energy Department announced it was pulling funding for the FutureGen 2.0 power plant
after awarding project developers $1.1 billion as part of the 2009 stimulus package —
most of the awarded funds were never spent.
Debunking Obama's
Methane Deceptions. First, they came for the coal mining and power plant industry; and
most people did not speak out because they didn't rely on coal, accepted Environmental Protection
Agency justifications at face value, or thought the EPA's war on coal would benefit them. [...] Now,
the Obama EPA is coming after the natural gas industry. Hopefully, many will speak out this time, before
more costly rules kill more jobs and damage the health and welfare of more middle class Americans.
The war on coal, after all, is really a war on fossil fuels and affordable energy, and an integral
component of President Obama's determination to "fundamentally transform" the United States.
EPA sets
first national standard for coal waste. The Obama administration on Friday [12/19/2014] set the
first national standards for waste generated from coal burned for electricity, treating it more like
household garbage rather than a hazardous material.
Where
will you be when the lights go out? Discussion of the Obama Administration's proposal
for reducing carbon emissions from power plants has mostly focused on the staggering cost of this
unprecedented regulation. But a pair of reports out this month paint an even more frightening
picture. Not only will your electricity cost more, you might not be able to get it when you
need it. The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) conducted an assessment
of the U.S. grid's current reliability and concluded that parts of the country are already slipping
into the danger zone. Because of rapid shifts to renewable and natural gas generation, combined
with closures of coal-fueled power plants due to Environmental Protection Agency regulations, the Midwest,
New York and Texas are already reaching dangerous levels of "reserve margins" — generating
capacity called upon when electricity demand is high.
The
Rule of Law's Abusers and Enablers. Supporters and opponents both argue that the proposed regulations
will have a major impact. This plan will prevent thousands of premature deaths, will provide a safe and healthy
future for our kids, will create jobs, and will shrink electric bills by 8 per cent. Or, this plan
will raise energy costs by $680 per household, will threaten the reliability of our electric supply, will drive out
energy intensive industries, will kill tens of thousands of jobs, and, will have a negligible impact on the climate.
"All pain, no gain," so wrote Edwin Hill, president of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
This is a big deal and responsible people differ about what it will or won't do.
Coal
Provocateur Sees Profits in Coal's Long, Slow Death. [Robert] Murray, 74, pauses for effect and then lowers
his voice. "We have the absolute destruction of the United States coal industry. It isn't coming back. It's
permanent. Virtually all of it is permanent. And if you think it's coming back, you don't understand the business.
Or you're smoking dope." This is vintage Murray, America's pro-coal provocateur-in-chief, a coal miner's son and a former miner
himself, a man whose anti-regulation record is so unwavering that he once dismissed acid rain as a hoax, never mind climate change.
The Editor says...
Yes, acid rain was a hoax, just like global warming is a hoax. If acid rain was not a hoax, why did it stop? If it
hasn't stopped, why hasn't it been in the news for the last 20 years?
Report:
EPA Regulations To Raise Power Costs 37 Percent By 2020. A report by Energy Ventures
Analysis found that the EPA underestimates how much its power plant regulatory regime will raise
electricity and natural gas prices by imposing new regulations on power plants, most recently being
the agency's rules to cut carbon dioxide emissions from new and existing power plants. These new
rules to tackle global warming, combined with other rules to reduce more traditional air pollutants,
will dramatically increase Americans' utility bills by 2020, according to EVA's report which was
sponsored by the coal company Peabody Energy. "Annual power and gas costs for residential,
commercial and industrial customers in America would be $284 billion higher ($173 billion
in real terms) in 2020 compared to 2012 — a 60% (37%) increase," the EVA report found.
China 'Swindles'
Obama's War on Coal. China's agreement to reduce coal emissions isn't worth the paper
it was printed on, an energy research group says. Noting that Beijing made no binding promises,
the Institute for Energy Research said President Obama "got swindled" during his appearance with
Chinese leaders Wednesday [11/12/2014]. The swindle ultimately hits the American taxpayer.
"The president is making costly promises that will hurt Americans in the long run," said Chris Warren,
communications director for IER in Washington, D.C.
EPA
chief denies McConnell's 'war on coal'. The Obama administration's top environmental
official on Monday [11/17/2014] defended the new climate agreement with China as a significant achievement and
insisted that, contrary to Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell's charges, the coal industry is not being targeted.
But Gina McCarthy, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, defended her agency's work. "I feel very
confident that the American people understand the value of the EPA," she told reporters at a breakfast hosted by
The Christian Science Monitor.
Bias alert:
Senator McConnell is not declaring a war on coal: It is Obama's EPA that is effectively strangling the coal industry.
Dems
may face long exile from coal country. The Republicans' romp this week may have
permanently turned coal country from blue to red. Coal-heavy districts in West Virginia, Kentucky
and Illinois that had been steadily moving away from Democrats in recent elections appear to have
completed that shift Tuesday, when they overwhelmingly backed Republicans who vowed to oppose what
they call President Barack Obama's "war on coal."
NERA Report
on EPA Power Plant Rules. [Scroll down] Figure 18 shows changes in annual average (2017 through
2031) delivered electricity prices (averaged over all sectors) for the State Constrained (BB1-2)
scenario by state.
The Editor says...
Notice that electricity rates will "necessarily skyrocket" a lot more in Texas than in California or New York.
Backlash
After Australian Climate Change Group Compares Coal Mining to Paedophilia. This is not
the first time that environmental lobbyists have stooped to smearing their opponents as degenerates.
In 2010, climate lobby group 10:10 commissioned film maker Richard Curtis to make a short video. The
film manages to be both violent towards climate change 'deniers' and snobbish: it features the
middle class Jemima and her school friends who doing their bit to cut carbon emissions, whilst
fellow working class students Philip and Tracey refuse. Tracey and Philip then get blown up.
Unsurprisingly the video drew sharp criticism, but 10:10's founder Franny Armstrong couldn't see
what the problem was.
Obama-Style
Climate Programs Have Failed Everywhere They've Been Tried. The deputy leader of the
German Green Party in the Bundestag, Oliver Krischer, summed up the dangers of relying on green
power when he said, "A few years ago the renewable sector was the job miracle in Germany; now
nothing is left of all of that." Every European economy that followed the green agenda has
faltered badly. Consequently, Germany is building coal plants to replace both failed wind power
sources and even clean nuclear plants that are a casualty of irrational phobia after the Fukushima
nuclear accident. In 2013 alone, Germany built six more coal plants. China and India build
four new ones every week, rendering Ontario's coal shutdown, as well as those planned for the United States,
completely irrelevant from a climate perspective no matter what one believes about the science.
19
Times the Government Withheld Documents It Didn't Want You to See. [#19] Last week, the Environmental Protection
Agency said it didn't save text messages at issue in a Freedom of Information case seeking records about the agency's plans to
crack down on coal power plants. An EPA spokesman contends that federal law doesn't require the messages to be retained.
Australian
PM: 'Coal is good for humanity'. Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said "coal is
good for humanity" during the opening of a coal mine on Monday [10/134/2014]. Abbott, who recently
worked to repeal a carbon tax on Australia's industrial sources, said coal demand will continue grow
in the coming decades.
Obama
"Clean Power" plan seen to hit seniors, minorities hardest. In June, as you may
recall, the EPA announced their new "Clean Power Plan" which was, for all intents and purposes,
another shot across the bow in the war on coal. In their mission statement, while paying lip service
to the fact that the needs and resources of each of the states are different, they also cite "the
important role of states as full partners with the federal government in cutting pollution." This is
matched with the built in assumption of the need to "address the risks of climate change."
(Apparently nobody bothered to ask the states exactly how much of an "equal partnership" they were
interested in.)
Grimes
Staff Caught on Hidden Camera: She's Lying About Support for Coal Industry. U.S.
Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes is lying about her support for the state's coal industry
according to Kentucky Democrats, including members of her campaign team, who were captured on a
hidden camera video. The video, produced by conservative filmmaker James O'Keefe, shows five
employees of the Grimes campaign and local Democratic Party affiliates speculating that the
Democratic challenger to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) is only professing her
support for the industry out of political expediency.
This is an opposing viewpoint... I think. 4
Pinocchios for a misguided 'big money' coal attack by Alison Grimes. In their nasty
Senate battle, Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell (R) and challenger Alison Lundergan Grimes have
frequently traded charges over who is a bigger supporter of Kentucky's beleaguered coal industry.
This particular ad starts as a response to a McConnell ad, which claimed that Grimes "takes money
from people who want to destroy coal." That ad did not provide any sources but, as a Democrat,
Grimes did attend fundraisers and accept money from some people associated with environmental
causes, according to campaign finance records and news accounts. No surprise there, but
those activists would probably object to the idea that they seek to "destroy" coal.
The
societal cost of coal is wildly exaggerated. [The] reputed annual $4.4 billion cost to
our health and environmental systems due to "climate change" have been held up numerous times by
Liberal politicians as the reason we needed to shut down the coal plants. The dollar value was the
lead-in to the creation of the Green Energy and Green Economy Act and the commitment to plant
industrial wind turbines wherever the developers could find a few open acres and a gullible land
owner, or two, willing to lease their land for a few dollars. As a result, Ontario has the
highest industrial electricity prices for electricity in North America and is vying to have the
highest residential rates.
Obama
Pursuing Environmental Virtue? There are studies showing that the climate is warming,
and others that show it hasn't done so for a couple of decades. There are studies showing that solar
and wind power are now competitive with fossil fuels even in the absence of subsidies, and others
showing that replacing fossil fuels with greater reliance on renewables that are not available when
the wind doesn't blow and the sun doesn't shine can drive up energy costs and reduce a nation's
competitiveness, as has happened in Germany, in the end forcing greater reliance on coal than at
any time since 2007.
DA
drops charges in case of blocked coal shipment. Two environmental activists, who had planned to use the necessity
defense against charges of blocking a shipment of coal to a Massachusetts power plant, walked out of court this morning after
prosecutors abruptly dropped all charges against them. Ken Ward and Jay O'Hara planned to use the unusual defense —
arguing that they were acting to prevent harm from global warming to the planet — in a trial slated to start today that would
have featured high-profile witnesses, including NASA climate scientist Jim Hansen and environmental activist and author Bill McKibben.
Greens are the enemies of energy.
America could literally become energy independent given its vast reserves of energy sources. In the
case of coal, the federal government owns 957 billion short tons of coal in the lower 48 States, of
which about 550 billion short tons — about 57 percent — are available in the
Powder River Basin. It is estimated to be worth $22.5 trillion to the U.S. economy, but as the IER
notes, it "remains unrealized due to government barriers on coal production." It would last 250 years,
greater than Russia and China. When you add in Alaska, the U.S. has enough coal to last 9,000 years at today's
consumption rates! In 2013 the IER estimated the worth of the government's oil and coal technically recoverable
resources to the economy to be $128 trillion, about eight times our national debt at the time. There
isn't a day that goes by that environmental groups such as Friends of the Earth and the Sierra Club, Greenpeace, the
National Resources Defense Council, and the Union of Concerned Scientists, along with dozens of others, do not
speak out against the extracting and use of all forms of energy, calling coal "dirty" and claiming Big Oil is the enemy.
McConnell's
wife sits on board that opposes coal. Sen. Mitch McConnell's wife, former Labor
Secretary Elaine Chao, sits on the board of an organization that has been part of a campaign against
the coal industry and against tobacco use. The anti-coal news, first reported by Yahoo News,
comes as McConnell campaigns for re-election, in part by trying to tie his opponent, Alison
Lundergan Grimes, to President Barack Obama and his so-called "war on coal." The Senate minority
leader is the top recipient of coal industry campaign contributions, which total more than $179,000,
according to Federal Election Commission data compiled by the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics.
Marine Veteran
Slams Obama's War on Coal. Marine veteran Shawn Adkins says he's ready to fight back
against Obama's so-called "war on coal" as it tears through West Virginia. [Video clip]
Obama Promise Kept: Record Price for Electricity.
Remember when Obama promised that he would make the price we pay for electricity skyrocket? That was
before he was elected. Rising electricity prices raise all other prices, in addition to lowering employment
by increasing the price of doing business. As energy prices rice, our standard of living declines. Yet
people voted for Obama anyway, possibly out of ignorance, possibly out of disbelief that he could really be as
hostile to this country as he seemed. They are paying a price for their foolishness — and so
are the rest of us.
Average
Price of Electricity Climbs to All-Time Record. For the first time ever, the average price for a kilowatthour
(KWH) of electricity in the United States has broken through the 14-cent mark, climbing to a record 14.3 cents in
June, according to data released last week by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Before this June, the highest the
average price for a KWH had ever gone was 13.7 cents, the level it hit in June, July, August and September of last
year. The 14.3-cents average price for a KWH recorded this June is about 4.4 percent higher than that previous record.
Alabama
leaders blast Obama administration over Alabama Power's coal closures. Alabama Power's
announcement that it would shutter several coal units in the state is tangible evidence that
President Barack Obama's "war on coal" is having negative consequences, critics said Friday [8/1/2014].
The company announced Friday [8/1/2014] that it would reduce the amount of coal it burns to comply with new Environmental
Protection Agency regulations governing emissions. The changes, which the company said it would phase in
the changes by 2016, will affect seven small power plants.
The Editor says...
There is no such thing as a small coal-fired power plant.
Obama-Style
Climate Programs Have Failed Everywhere They've Been Tried. President Obama's recently
announced energy and environment policies have been tried in many countries, always with the same
result: abject failure. [...] Ontario's economy continues to decline today, largely due to the
government's decision to turn off the province's cheapest form of electricity — coal.
In 2003, coal provided 25 percent of Ontario's power. By mid-April 2014, coal had been completely
phased out. Replacing hydrocarbon fuel energies with alternate energies drove Ontario's costs
through the roof and created a multitude of other problems. This is precisely where the United
States is now headed, only it will be worse since Ontario still benefits from Canada's policy of
financial equalization between provinces, whereas there is no one who will bail out the United States.
Coal poised for rare win over
Obama. The coal industry is poised to score a rare victory over the Obama administration in the fight over
the Export-Import Bank. Both of the working proposals in the House and Senate to renew the bank's charter would
reverse Ex-Im guidelines that prevent financing for overseas power plants that decline to adopt greener technology.
Bank officials adopted the policies, which included exemptions for the world's poorest nations, in December amid the Obama
administration's broader push to address climate change.
Obama
pleas to China, India to forgo use of coal falls on deaf ears. Coal may have played an
integral role in turning the U.S. into the world's top economic superpower, but President Obama is
actively pushing China, India and other emerging economies to ignore the fuel that powered the
Industrial Revolution and instead embrace renewable sources favored by those on the political left.
As part of his passionate push on climate change, the president recently implored developing
countries to "leapfrog" old energy sources, which are the primary drivers of carbon emissions.
So far, however, there's little evidence those countries intend to listen to Mr. Obama, with China's
coal consumption, for example, skyrocketing and projected to keep growing for the foreseeable
future. The country now accounts for nearly 50 percent of all global coal consumption,
according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA).
The Editor says...
Mr. Obama is either deliberately destroying the coal industry in the U.S. or deliberately depriving billions of
people around the world of adequate electric power. Or both. This is either because he is a
sadistic anti-capitalist, or because he's an idiot. Or both.
Murray
Energy CEO Says EPA Rules Will Harm Coal Industry, Consumers. The Obama administration's latest
proposal to curb carbon emissions at existing power plants threatens to drive up energy costs, Murray Energy
chief executive Robert Murray tells FOX Business Network's Neil Cavuto. Murray and the company he
founded have filed four lawsuits against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over regulations that
target the coal industry. Four state attorneys general have joined those efforts. Earlier this
week, Murray Energy sued the EPA over a new set of rules that aim to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions by 30%
from 2005 levels. The proposed regulations raised more questions over the future of the coal industry
and electricity rates. Coal, already under pressure from low natural gas prices, accounts for 40% of
electricity generation in the U.S., down from 45% in 2009.
Lost
Jobs 'Collateral Damage' To Environmentalists. Writing in the Huffington Post,
William Becker of the Climate Action Project praised the new Environmental Protection Agency
regulations to stop climate change, and wrote that "there is nothing explicit in the (Obama) plan
to mitigate or adapt to the economic disruption the clean energy transition will cause for coal and
oil-country families." [...] The Obama administration fantasizes that this knife to the throat of
our domestic energy industry will somehow create "green" jobs. On the contrary. A study by the
U.S. Chamber of Commerce finds that the new EPA regulations will destroy 200,000 mostly blue-collar
energy jobs, reduce the U.S. GDP by about $50 billion a year and cost families thousands of dollars
over the next decade in higher energy costs.
Krugman's Misleading
Post on Coal. A reader reading quickly might think that it's no big deal for Obama to
restrict coal-fired utilities because there are so few jobs at stake in coal mining. But Krugman
has covered himself by pointing out that there is capital invested in coal and owners of capital
have a stake in producing coal. But wait. Isn't there another important player in the coal
market, namely utilities that buy coal and will now need to turn to a more-expensive fuel? Don't
they stand to lose and lose big time?
Obama's
war on electricity. The directive, outlined over 645 pages, empowers the EPA to
enforce extreme and radical regulations in each state in pursuit of reducing carbon-dioxide
emissions from fossil fuel-burning power plants by "approximately 30 percent from CO2 emission
levels in 2005." The administration regulates carbon dioxide as an "air pollutant," but carbon
dioxide is not all bad. One of the largest sources of carbon dioxide is exhaling by humans, and
that's always a good thing. Without carbon dioxide, plants would wither and man (and woman, too)
would suffocate. Like most government schemes, the new EPA rule employs extreme measures that
won't be effective, at great expense to taxpayers and to the economy, with methods based in flawed
science and bad math. It addresses a problem that exists in the fertile imagination of the
foolishly frightened. What is real is that hundreds of coal-fueled power plants will close for
the states to meet the new requirements. Since more than one-third of America's power comes from
coal, and coal is the largest source of electricity for half the states, shuttering coal-fired
plants will create a dramatic shortage of energy.
States Can Stop EPA's
War on Coal. [O]n Monday the administration violated the law by announcing stringent
carbon dioxide emission targets for power plants that will effectively kill the coal industry. The
new regulation calls for a 30 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions from power plants by
2030. Congress failed to pass so-called "cap and trade" legislation that would enable such a move,
so Obama is using the regulatory authority he claims the EPA already has to regulate carbon. But
the president cannot just ignore the will of Congress. To do so assumes that Congress is
irrelevant. Apparently this is what President Obama believes.
EPA
To Unilaterally Push Cap And Trade On Carbon Emissions. Despite being soundly
rejected a few years ago, cap-and-trade will soon get its U.S. encore — but not in
Congress. The Obama administration will likely use its executive power to unilaterally impose
carbon dioxide emissions trading systems. The Environmental Protection Agency will unveil
regulations for existing U.S. power plants early next month. For months, onlookers have been
speculating about what could be included in the EPA's rule for existing power plants. But over
the past few days it has become clear that the Obama administration will use the EPA to push
cap-and-trade systems and other anti-fossil fuel policies on U.S. states. Administration insiders
have told news outlets that cap-and-trade will likely be one of the options the EPA gives states to
cut their carbon dioxide emissions.
Obama
suggests his upcoming rule on coal plants will avert long-term health crisis. President Obama on
Saturday [5/31/2014] tried to bolster public support for new rules his administration will announce next week on
coal-firing [sic] power plants, arguing their carbon emissions are a national health crisis — beyond
hurting the economy and causing global warming. "We don't have to choose between the health of our economy
and the health of our children," Obama said in his weekly address. "As president and as a parent, I refuse to
condemn our children to a planet that's beyond fixing." The cost of carbon pollution "can be measured in lost
lives" and roughly "100,000 asthma attacks and 2,100 heart attacks will be avoided" in just the first year that the
standards go into effect, Obama said in the address [...]
The Editor says...
Name one person who has had a heart attack this year because he or she lives near a coal-fired power plant.
Obama
to claim credit for economy-killing EPA plan. President Obama will personally drive
the next nail into the coffin of America's economy next week, proudly announcing harsh new
Environmental Protection Agency restrictions on energy. It won't just be power plants that feel
the new Clean Air Act restrictions expected Monday. Expect the president to brag about
"flexibility," which is a bureaucratic way of spreading the burdens so they will fall on consumers
all across the country. [...] Why? For the salvation of mankind. On something simpler, like
deciding if there's wrongdoing within the Veterans Administration, Mr. Obama insists on more study.
But on supposed man-made climate destruction of Planet Earth a hundred years from now, he claims
the debate is over: New regulations must dictate that we kill America's economy now, lest our
economy kill the planet in a century or so.
Lawmakers
and interest groups clash as Obama prepares to announce performance standard for power plants.
Lawmakers and Washington interest groups are engaged in a battle over whether looming EPA rules will help or
hurt as President Obama prepares to announce a highly anticipated performance standard for power plants June 2.
The proposed standard will require existing natural gas and coal-fired power plants to release no more than 1,000 pounds
of CO2 per megawatt-hour of electricity — easily done with natural gas but unobtainable by present day coal plants.
Although coal still provides almost 40 percent of U.S. electricity, the White House's new point man on energy, John
Podesta, said Wednesday that climate change necessitates coal's demise. "President Obama believes we have a moral
obligation to act now to curb climate change," he said.
Your electric
bill will skyrocket with new energy regulation. Electricity prices are probably on their way up across much
of the US as coal-fired plants, the dominant source of cheap power, shut down in response to environmental regulations and
economic forces. New and tighter pollution rules and tough competition from cleaner sources such as natural gas,
wind and solar will lead to the closings of dozens of coal-burning plants across 20 states over the next three years.
And many of those that stay open will need expensive retrofits. Because of these and other factors, the Energy
Department predicts retail power prices will rise 4 percent on average this year, the biggest increase since 2008.
By 2020, prices are expected to climb an additional 13 percent, a forecast that does not include the costs of coming
environmental rules.
Harry
Reid speaks with Jon Stewart. "Billionaire Tom Steyer has rapidly become one of America's most
visible environmental advocates, vowing to punish lawmakers who oppose climate change action and pledging to
spend up to $100 million to put the issue center stage in the November 4 elections." (Reuters)
"Fortune built on Asian coal: It turns out that much of Steyer's wealth is the fruit of immensely profitable
investments in development of Indonesian and Australian coal." (Washington Examiner) "Forbes
estimates the former hedge fund manager is worth $1.5 billion. He has used that fortune to
advance his anti-oil, anti-coal, and climate-concerned political agenda." (Washington Free Beacon)
The
coal-state Democrat may be climate casualty. President Obama's aggressive focus on climate change is
intended to fire up Democrats' environmentalist base, but it's burning some of the party's most endangered incumbents.
Nobody has felt the burn more than Rep. Nick J. Rahall II, West Virginia Democrat, who is in one of
the toughest races of his nearly 40-year career and is struggling to distance himself from Obama energy policies
that Republicans have labeled a "war on coal."
Barbarians at the
Power Plant Gate. Although it hasn't attracted much attention outside the business
pages, Energy Future Holdings, the largest utility in Texas, is going through the biggest bankruptcy
proceeding since the collapse of Chrysler five years ago. The story does not bode well for the
future of American utilities. Instead it sheds light President Obama's bizarre notion that the
nation can shut down coal plants and replace them with "energy from sun, wind and soil" without
suffering the kind of brutal economic consequences now being experienced in Japan and German.
Coal
Increasingly Seen As Option For European Energy Security. The crisis in Ukraine has thrust energy security
to the top of the agenda in European capitals. With Russia accounting for almost one-third of Europe's natural gas,
the prospect of the conflict escalating has stoked fears of a supply disruption. [...] Ukraine is at the crossroads for
a significant portion of European energy flows — Europe gets 16 percent of its natural gas from pipelines
that pass through Ukraine.
Washington
Governor Imposes Cap-and-Trade Through Executive Order. Washington Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee is not
waiting for the state legislature to regulate carbon dioxide emissions, but instead has issued an executive order
to implement a cap-and-trade program, eliminate coal power and fund green energy projects.
Wyoming gov
accuses White House of using new EPA regs to wage 'war on coal'. The American coal industry is accusing
the Obama administration of using the Environmental Protection Agency to end the use of coal despite the president's
claim of having an "all of the above" energy policy. Earlier this year, the EPA issued its Mercury Air Toxics
Standards (MATS), which the agency said will eliminate 90 percent of mercury and acid gas released into the air
by coal-fired power plants. "I would say this administration is certainly unfriendly towards coal," Wyo. Governor
Matt Mead said. "And in my view it is a war on coal."
Largest
coal producing state slams administration over EPA rules. The American coal industry is accusing the
Obama administration of using the Environmental Protection Agency to end the use of coal despite the president's
claim of having an "all of the above" energy policy. Earlier this year, the EPA issued its Mercury Air Toxics
Standards (MATS), which the agency said will eliminate 90 percent of mercury and acid gas released into the
air by coal-fired power plants. "I would say this administration is certainly unfriendly towards coal," Wyo.
Governor Matt Mead said. "And in my view it is a war on coal."
America's
power grid at the limit: The road to electrical blackouts. Americans take electricity for granted.
It powers our lights, our computers, our offices, and our industries. But misguided environmental policies are
eroding the reliability of our power system. Last winter, bitterly cold weather placed massive stress on the US
electrical system — and the system almost broke. [...] Eight of the top ten of PJM's all-time
winter peaks occurred in January 2014. Heroic efforts by grid operators saved large parts of the nation's
heartland from blackouts during record-cold temperature days.
The Editor says...
What would alleviate this problem? Increased production of electricity, of course, but that is exactly
what environmentalists oppose when they campaign against coal, because coal is no longer used to
power factories, propel ships and heat large buildings — it is used almost exclusively
in the generation of electricity. When the lights go out on the coldest (or hottest) day of the year,
you can blame left-wing tree-hugging environmentalist hippies (and their socialist Democrat congressmen)
who think they are "saving the earth" by eliminating the use of coal.
U.S.
electricity prices may be going up for good. As temperatures plunged to 16 below zero in Chicago in
early January and set record lows across the eastern U.S., electrical system managers implored the public to turn off
stoves, dryers and even lights or risk blackouts. A fifth of all power-generating capacity in a grid serving
60 million people went suddenly offline, as coal piles froze, sensitive electrical equipment went haywire and
utility operators had trouble finding enough natural gas to keep power plants running. The wholesale price of
electricity skyrocketed to nearly $2 per kilowatt hour, more than 40 times the normal rate.
Judge strikes down Minnesota's anti-coal energy law.
A federal judge Friday struck down a landmark 2007 Minnesota law that bans new power generation from coal, saying it
regulates business activities of out-of-state utilities in violation of the U.S. Constitution's Commerce Clause.
U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson enjoined the state from enforcing key sections of the law, which North Dakota
coal and utility interests said hampered their ability to find buyers for power from existing coal-fired generating
plants or to plan for new ones.
EPA coal
rules leaving US vulnerable to power blackouts? Facing the Obama administration's so-called "war on coal,"
some utility officials are warning that fewer coal-fired power plants could leave the U.S. power system vulnerable to
blackouts in the near future. The officials warn that intense summer heat or extreme winter cold could soon be
too much for the system to handle. "I worry about the potential of brownouts and blackouts if we're ... actually
depending on this generation that's going to be retired," Nick Akins, from American Electric Power, told Fox News
in an interview.
Job Destroyer. Does the president have a clue
about what creates jobs and what kills jobs? Based on the evidence from his five years as president, the answer is no, he
doesn't. [...] His environmental policies are relentless job killers. The crackdown on the coal industry has come at the cost of
tens of thousands of jobs. Approval of the Keystone pipeline would lead to thousands of new jobs, but Obama has balked.
So too would the opening of federal lands to natural gas production, just as it has on private lands.
The Editor says...
The writer of the article immediately above seems to presume that Mr. Obama's destruction of the economy is merely the result
of his hapless incompetence — ignoring the very real possibility that Obama's actions and their results are intentional and
malicious. Mr. Obama probably knows very well "what creates jobs and what kills jobs," and is doing the opposite, because his
goal is to increase and perpetuate dependence on Big Brother.
Obama: the Pen, Phone, and Failure.
[President Obama's] EPA is trying to regulate the coal industry out of business. Coal provides 37% of our electricity. Do not be
alarmed, he is replacing that generating capacity with... well, nothing. You see, skyrocketing the price of electricity was an objective
not a side effect. If you can't afford it, you won't use it. The goal is to push Americans out of single-family homes into
high-density cities, where tiny, cubicle-like apartments, clustered around mass transit will become the norm.
Report: Coal Power Plant Shutdowns to Accelerate.
Federal energy regulators are predicting more coal power plant retirements than have yet been announced due to onerous environmental regulations
and low natural gas prices. Scheduled retirements are currently concentrated among smaller, more inefficient coal plants, noted the Energy
Information Administration on Friday. By 2016, larger plants that provide significantly more power will begin shutting down.
Icy blast heats up coal debate. As another
snowstorm socks the East Coast, the coal industry has a message for the nation's electricity customers: We told you so. Signs of growing
pains have abounded in the past few weeks of frigid weather, which struck a U.S. electrical grid that's in the early stages of a long-term shift away
from coal-fired power to natural gas. Wholesale electricity prices have spiked in regions such as New England, natural gas costs have surged
with demand in Boston and Chicago, and power companies in Texas and Eastern states have had to urge residents to cut back. Some utilities have
even been shifting, yes, back to coal.
EPA 'clean coal' rule would
increase power prices by 70 or 80 percent. An Obama administration official has said that the new clean coal rules could increase
electricity prices by as much as 80 percent. Dr. Julio Friedmann, the deputy assistant secretary for clean coal at the Department of
Energy, told House lawmakers that the first generation of carbon capture and storage technology would increase wholesale electricity prices by "70
or 80 percent." The Obama administration's plan to fight global warming includes limiting carbon dioxide from new power plants.
Coal Country Voters Express Economic Pessimism.
The nation's leading coal-producing states are among its most economically pessimistic according to a new Gallup poll, suggesting widespread concern
over new environmental restrictions on the industry that could impact Senate elections in November. Gallup's economic confidence index ranks
the 50 states and Washington, D.C., in terms of their views of "current U.S. economic conditions and their perceptions of the economy's
direction." Three of the four least economically confident states — West Virginia, Wyoming, and Kentucky — are also the nation's
three largest coal producers. Two of them will see U.S. Senate races this year that are expected to be close.
Nebraska Sues EPA over
Power Plant CO2 Restrictions. The State of Nebraska has filed a suit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for overreaching
restrictions on carbon emissions from coal-power plants. Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning filed the suit January 15 in the U.S.
District Court for the District of Nebraska. Bruning and Nebraska state officials are challenging an EPA proposed rule that would cap carbon
dioxide emissions at new power plants to 1,100 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt-hour of power generation. Coal power plants would
have to cut emissions by approximately 50 percent to meet the standards. No current or expected technologies could enable coal
power plants to meet such a standard and remain economically viable.
Obama's Plan to Bankrupt Coal Continues
Without Congress. Remember back during the 2008 presidential campaign when Barack Obama promised to bankrupt anyone who wanted to build a
coal-fired power plant and essentially shut down the coal industry? For those not paying attention, despite his inability to get cap-and-trade
passed, he is still pursuing this plan. Now, he's doing it via EPA regulations known as New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) —
which amount to a "cap" without the "trade." [...] It could also cost over 200,000 jobs if implemented as currently drafted. And that's all
leaving aside the fact that Obama EPA regulations are already responsible for about 130 coal-fired power plants shuttering since 2009 (over 200 more
are expected to shutter in coming years).
EPA set to
strike key blow against coal? Stymied by the GOP's long resistance to cap and trade legislation, the EPA this week began public
hearings — the next step toward a final rule — to cut carbon dioxide emissions from new coal plants. The rule would
limit emissions to 1100 pounds per Megawatt hour, a level the coal industry says is technologically unattainable.
How Harry Reid
Delivered a 235-Mile-Long Power Line to Nevada. For the better part of the last decade, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has
gone out of his way — and dipped into federal funds — to help get a massive, cross-state transmission line built in his
home state of Nevada. On Thursday [1/23/2014] Reid will attend the opening of the 235-mile line, which at the beginning of this year
started carrying large amounts of electricity produced from renewable sources rather than coal, just as Reid envisioned seven years ago.
Coal train derails in Wisconsin.
A coal train derailed in Caledonia, Wis., Sunday morning [1/19/2014], overturning 19 cars. The Caledonia Fire Department
said the 19 cars on the Union Pacific train jumped the track around 7:30 a.m. Lt. Walter Leininger of the Caledonia
Fire Department told Fox News that no injuries have been reported and the scene is not hazardous at this time.
The Editor says...
All the recent train derailments have involved bulk shipments of fuel. Is that just a coincidence?
'Not
looking good': Coal workers see future dim amid regulation burden. Far below the Appalachian Mountains, in a space barely
big enough to stand up straight, Bobby Combs works a job his father and his grandfather worked. [...] Coal has come under the crosshairs
of the Obama administration in the push to transition to renewable energy sources. Coal mines are burdened with a never-ending
stream of federal regulations. The owner of the mine where Combs works said the cost of getting coal out of the ground has
tripled. For him, that means job insecurity.
Sierra Club Pressed EPA to Create
Impossible Coal Standards. Emails between the Sierra Club and the EPA produced through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
lawsuit show the green group and senior officials at the nation's top environmental enforcer met and corresponded frequently about the
agency's work on new coal regulations. The EPA published its long-awaited New Source Performance Standards for new coal-fired
plants on Wednesday [1/8/2014], four months after the agency announced their creation. The EPA has repeatedly said the
regulations on coal-fired power plants will not be a death blow to the industry. However, the agency was working closely
behind the scenes with the Sierra Club, an environmental organization that was pushing the agency to adopt standards that would be
impossible for power plants to meet.
War on coal, phase
two: EPA finally publishes rules for new power plants. It's already been three months since the Obama administration debuted their
draft proposal detailing what is, for all currently practicable purposes, a ban on the construction of coal-fired power plants (and even that
reveal was the result of still another months-long delay as the administration struggled to formulate the rules in a way that could both survive
the inevitable legal challenges while not restricting greenhouse-gas emissions so stringently as to disqualify even the construction of new natural
gas plants [...]).
Obama Winter: The War on Coal. [T]oday's a good day to
delve into the White House global warming agenda and its War on Coal. Forty-five percent of our electricity comes from coal, which is an abundant
domestic energy resource. Depending on who is doing the counting, anywhere from 207 to 285 coal plants are scheduled to close in the next decade.
Citing climate change and its clean air regulations President Obama's radicalized EPA — not our elected Congress — is behind the shuttering of these plants.
The ripple effects of the War on Coal will be widespread.
Climate to be 2014 battlefield.
Republicans like Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) plan to go on the attack against President Obama's climate action plan, which they
have dubbed a "war on coal." They're backed by conservative groups like the American Energy Alliance, which is already airing campaign
ads attacking Democrats such as Rep. Nick Rahall (W.Va.) for supporting a carbon tax.
The Power-Mad EPA. A federal appeals court
recently heard a case about the EPA's interpretation of the 2012 Mercury and Air Toxics Rule, yet another effort in the "war on coal" that
would shut down more coal-fired plants that provide the bulk of the electricity the nation requires. The EPA is asserting that the rule
would annually prevent 11,000 premature deaths, nearly 5,000 heart attacks, and 130,000 asthma attacks. Moreover it asserts that it
would help avoid more than 540,000 missed work days, and protect babies and children. These statistics are plucked from various studies
published in journals and are typical of the way the EPA operates to justify its rulings.
Coal Must Embrace All-Out Battle with
Eco-Bullies. [Scroll down] This insane scenario is analogous to what is happening to one of America's most
important industries and the source of 40% of the nation's electricity: coal. Accused of causing dangerous climate change
due to its carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, coal-fired electric power is in the crosshairs of a president anxious to be seen as
taking action to stop global warming and extreme weather. That global warming stopped 17 years ago, and extreme weather has
not increased despite an 8% rise in CO2? This is never referenced by President Barack Obama or his Environmental Protection Agency.
Barack
Obama's Presidency Is A Complete Failure By His Own, Self-Imposed Standards. [Scroll down] Meanwhile, electricity prices are
skyrocketing to all-time highs, according to the government's own official statistics. The Electricity Price Index of the
Bureau of Labor Statistics hit an all-time record in November, 20% higher than 6 years ago. That is another loss for
the middle class, further reducing real incomes. That is due to Obama's runaway overregulation, pursuing the President's War
on Coal, and other manipulative, fairy tale delusions. New EPA regulations will take out 10% of all electricity produced by
plentiful, low cost American coal, according to the Institute for Energy Research.
Report confirms government
effort to alter coal job loss estimates. The Obama administration tried to edit a report on new coal regulations to lower analysts'
estimates of serious job losses, an official investigation has found, backing up reports that the Interior Department pressured a private
contractor to change information in order to make the data more acceptable. The Associated Press and Fox News reported in 2011 that
a company claimed the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement asked it to change variables in a calculation that showed new
environmental regulations would lead to large job losses.
More Than 400 Prominent
Democrats Sign Letter Supporting Coal. More than 400 Democratic public officials and party leaders signed a letter sent to the White House
asking President Barack Obama to accelerate rather than stifle coal production and utilization. The Democratic leaders sent the letter under the
auspices of the CoalBlue Project. CoalBlue is comprised of Democratic Party public officials seeking a "broad, bipartisan, and unwavering commitment
to coal as a sustainable fuel" while and advocating "accelerated development and deployment" of coal technologies.
Bringing Abuses By EPA to a
Halt. Among President Barack Obama's first assaults in his war against the coal industry and reasonably priced electricity was an
Environmental Protection Agency action that was truly outrageous by almost any measure. During Obama's first term, the EPA overruled the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers' approval of a water discharge permit for a surface mine in West Virginia. The veto was retroactive, occurring
nearly four years after the Corps approved the permit.
Obama's War on America's Energy Needs. The
Obama administration's relentless war on the nation's coal industry and on the electrical power generation plants that depend upon it is one aspect of his war
on America that doesn't receive the attention it deserves. There is literally no basis, no justification for it, and yet the mainstream media tends to take
little notice or supports it. It is far more than a "war on coal". It is a war on the nation's capacity to meet its ever expanding energy needs.
You can't build a power generation plant overnight. You can't get the enormous amount of electrical energy the nation needs from wind and solar power.
Obama
Is Laying the Groundwork to Move Without, Around, and Outside Congress. "Climate change" suggests that Obama intends to
ramp up his war on coal in the remaining years of his presidency, via the EPA and perhaps executive actions similar to those he has
used with regard to Obamacare and immigration. Obama came into office threatening to bankrupt the coal industry, wanting to impose
a cap and trade regime, but could not get one passed by Congress even when Democrats controlled both houses. Obama is aware that
his actions will force energy prices skyward. His actions come at a time when evidence for global warming has disappeared.
That has not changed his intention to impose cap and trade.
Steag
Starts Coal-Fired Power Plant in Germany. Generating electricity by burning coal currently makes a profit of 9.16 euros
a megawatt hour, compared with a loss of 19.31 euros a megawatt hour from gas, according to data compiled by Bloomberg based on
next-year German power prices. This is the widest gap between the two fuels for at least four years, according to data compiled
by Bloomberg.
More than 21,000 attend Berkeley Electric Cooperative annual
meeting in Ladson. More than 5,000 Berkeley Electric Cooperative members took part in a grassroots card-signing campaign to fight for
affordable power Saturday during the 73rd Annual Meeting of Members at the Exchange Park in Ladson, the organization reported. The campaign
is part of nationwide effort among electric cooperatives to garner 1 million signatures opposing Environmental Protection Agency regulations
that will eliminate coal as a generation fuel and potentially cause a steep increase in electricity rates across the country, the cooperative said.
TVA closing 8 coal units at
plants in Alabama and Kentucky. The nation's largest public utility is shuttering eight coal-fired boilers at plants in Alabama and
Kentucky, and more reductions could be in store over the next few years. The Tennessee Valley Authority relied on coal to generate a majority
of its electricity for decades, but at a Thursday board meeting in Oxford, Miss., CEO Bill Johnson said he hopes to reduce coal to just 20 percent
of the utility's portfolio over the next decade. It currently stands at 38 percent. Johnson said the change is needed because
power demand is down and environmental regulations are becoming stricter.
The Unbearable Lightness of the Climate Change
Industrial Complex. [Scroll down] [A]ttendant upon the policy preferences of the Obama administration are wealth transfers across
the current generation of Americans that clearly are the motivating effects of the proposals. Policies making some energy sources more expensive
inexorably will create such redistribution because states and regions differ in the proportions of their energy use derived from alternative
technologies. In particular, the president's proposals will penalize areas and industries disproportionately dependent on coal-fired power.
New EPA Rules Will Kill Clean Coal.
In an astounding paradox of modern politics, the Obama administration continues to promote green-energy technologies while also working hard to kill at
least one of them. The proof lies in the administration's carbon regulations on coal power plants announced on Sept. 20. The rules would
wipe out the development of ecologically important carbon capture and storage technologies. In announcing the EPA's new carbon regulations,
Administrator Gina McCarthy said that new power plants "can minimize their carbon emissions by taking advantage of modern technologies." The
fact is that the coal-based industry cannot realistically follow these rules without putting itself out of business.
SCOTUS Revisits EPA Regulation of CO2.
In 2009, EPA published the required Endangerment Finding, which was subsequently attacked on scientific grounds by a collection of plaintiffs.
However, in June 2012, the Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit ruled against plaintiffs, giving deference on the science to EPA. EPA had proceeded
to institute emission limits for motor vehicles, essentially by setting mileage standards. EPA is now arguing that, having successfully set CO2 limits
for motor vehicles in May 2010, the CAA requires that emission limits be set on all other emitters of CO2. Using their statutory authority to set New
Source Performance Standards (NSPS), EPA has proposed stringent limits on new power plants that will make new coal plants virtually impossible to construct.
The EPA also wants to limit emissions from existing coal plants, arguing that EPA can set guidelines which the states would have to follow in regulating
emissions from existing plants.
Coal Miner's Slaughter: Thousands Protest
War On Coal. They were protesting the government shutdown that hasn't ended — that of the coal industry in pursuit of
environmental goals that ignore global temperatures that haven't budged in 17 years and greenhouse-gas emission declines that have occurred
as a result of energy industry technology and free market decisions. Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., passionately told the crowd that Obama's coal
policies are "immoral" and "outrageous." When coal plants shut down, he said, communities "have no customers, county governments have no
tax revenues to invest in schools or infrastructure. The unemployment in some counties is in double digits ..."
The EPA's Carbon-Capture Delusion. On
Friday [9/20/2013], the EPA finally unveiled its long-awaited rules for new coal-fired power plants. The agency's administrator, Gina McCarthy, has
claimed that the new rules "will provide certainty for the future of new coal." That's true. The rules mean that no new coal plants will be built
in the U.S., because they won't be able to meet the limit of 1,100 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt-hour of electricity produced.
EPA, IPCC Push Ahead Even as Global Warming
Theories Crumble. Ten days ago the Environmental Protection Agency issued its proposed rule for the implementation of regulations of carbon dioxide on
utilities' coal-fired power plants. Last week revealed news that there is no reason for costly government-imposed limits on such emissions, as the global warming
they were supposed to cause has been absent for 15 years. That didn't stop the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change from issuing yet another alarm
on Friday, ahead of its official report yesterday [9/30/2013], that said increased carbon dioxide caused by people is negatively affecting the earth's climate.
McAuliffe says for first time that he supports EPA rules on coal-fired plants. Terry McAuliffe said
Tuesday that he supports new Environmental Protection Agency rules on carbon emissions, taking a clear stance for the first time on an issue that has become
a key flashpoint in the Virginia governor's race. The EPA unveiled guidelines two weeks ago that would limit the amount of carbon that future coal- and
gas-fired plants can emit into the atmosphere, likely making it difficult for any new coal-powered plants to be built.
Bias alert!
The new EPA rules don't make it difficult to build a new coal-fired power plant, they make it economically infeasible.
Or, to put it more simply, impossible. No doubt this is one of Barack H. Obama's proudest achievements, as it advances
his ultimate goal of collapsing the American economy.
Does McAuliffe
Even Understand the EPA's New Rules for Coal Plants? Lachlan Markay put together this map of where the country's major coal mines are, and
where the EPA's "listening sessions" about the rules new were held. As you'll notice, the sites of the mines and the "listening sessions" weren't
near each other. If you wanted to ensure that no one who actually works in mining weighed in at these "listening sessions," this is pretty much how
you would do it.
The Obama administration's unscientific war on
carbon. The environmental community, fearing the planet will be harmed from climate change, has pressured the Obama Administration to issue
new standards for greenhouse gas emissions from new and existing power plants. Propaganda from radical environmental groups have altered the perception
of many policymakers and American voters. The constant drumbeat from these groups has been seized on by the media and is designed to generate incessant
media coverage, donations, and grassroots activism despite scientific conclusions that differ from their ideology.
Banning Demon Coal. The rule does not yet apply to
existing coal plants that still provide about 40% of U.S. electricity, though that day will come soon. The meaning of Friday's rule is that the EPA is
banning coal — the second largest source of carbon emissions after petroleum — from the future energy mix. The EPA admits as much
in the 463-page document, noting that "few, if any" plants will be built "in the foreseeable future."
Report from the 'War on Coal'. A major project has been
quietly underway, within the executive branch of the U.S. government, trying to calculate a "social cost of carbon" (SCC) — a so-called "non-market
externality". [...] The SCC report was published in May 2013, with little fanfare; public comments had to be submitted by Sept. 16. But this whole
misconceived exercise has no valid scientific basis and can destroy the supply of low-cost, reliable electric power. It is certain to face legal
challenges from industry and informed consumer groups; it should be abandoned.
A War on Coal. In Washington, there's a very porous line between
denying and lying. The U.S. Energy Information Administration predicts that 175 coal plants, representing 8.5 percent of all of the electricity
produced by coal, will close by 2016. According to the industry group the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, more than 280 coal plants
are slated to close, and EPA regulations are largely to blame. Since coal power plants generate over 40 percent of the nation's electricity, these
closures are bound to result in significantly higher electricity bills. They also raise troubling questions about our ability to reliably supply power
in much of the country.
Coal Miners and Mountaintop Strip Mining. The Daily Caller wrote recently that
the James River Coal company is closing several mines in eastern Kentucky and laying off 525 employees. The GOP blames the EPA regulations.
Rep. Hal Rogers (Kentucky-R) told the Daily Caller, "Deliberate anti-coal energy policies are sending thousands of families in my region to the unemployment
line." Lower priced natural gas is the second culprit as it is fast replacing coal in generating electricity. Rogers blamed President Obama's "War
on Coal" for 6,200 unemployed eastern Kentucky miners and thousands more laboring in mining support businesses. The Kentucky Energy and Environment
Cabinet (KEEC) reported that a total of 12,342 people are working in Kentucky coal mines, the lowest number on record since statistics were kept in 1927.
Regulations are out of control. New school lunch
regulations have taken away the flexibility of local school districts to provide meals that parents want and students will eat. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service wants to list the lesser prairie chicken as endangered, even though Kansas has enough birds to still allow them to be hunted. Sunflower Electric
Power Corp. has been unable to bring much-needed new power-generating capacity online in Holcomb because of federal rules. Now Obama's Environmental
Protection Agency is proposing a rule that even the EPA admits would prevent coal-fired plants from being built for nearly two decades.
EPA's Anti-Coal Policies are adverse to human
health and welfare. The myopic EPA approach ignores three fundamental realities: (1) over 40% of our electricity
depends on coal, (2) the U.S. will add 120 million people in the next 35 years, and (3) new supercritical coal plants
significantly reduce emissions while providing affordable power. With the GDP projected to more than double in the next several
decades, coal is the only fuel able to meet that scale of demand — natural gas is insufficient, wind is intermittent and
nuclear is too expensive.
Mississippi Coal Plant
Overruns Show Risks of Carbon Rule. Coal's future is being built in rural Mississippi, and so far this is what it looks like:
a $1 billion cost overrun, a stew of legal battles, a revolt by ratepayers and a credit downgrade for the local utility. With all
those challenges, Southern Co.'s $4.7 billion project in Kemper County may still be coal's best hope to survive President Barack Obama's
limits on greenhouse-gas emissions.
IBEW Criticizes EPA's New Coal Emission Standards.
The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) blasted the Obama administration's new standards for coal plant emissions on Monday [9/23/2013],
saying they will hamper job growth and U.S. energy independence and raise electricity prices. The union's antipathy to the plan underscores
a long-running tension between big labor and environmentalists, two key segments of the Democratic Party's political base.
The Editor states the obvious...
The unions brought all this grief upon themselves by funneling millions of dollars into the Democratic Party.
EPA
effectively bans coal plants with stifling carbon dioxide limits. The battle lines have been
drawn as 17 states, the coal industry and pro-coal Democrats and Republicans prepare to take on the
Environmental Protection Agency's new carbon dioxide emissions limits. These sweeping new rules
effectively ban the construction of new coal-fired power plants. The EPA's new emissions limits
cap carbon emissions for coal plants at 1,100 pounds per megawatt hour, which is an unmeetable standard
unless operators install carbon capture and storage technology. This technology has yet to prove
commercially viable.
Obama
Begins Carpet Bombing the Coal Industry. On the eve of this past election, we made a plea to
toss-up states that are widely described as residing in coal country to understand that if President Obama
were to emerge victorious, the EPA would soon unleash a slew of anti-coal regulations that would absolutely
crush the coal industry, and eliminate hundreds of thousands of jobs in those states. Today
[9/20/2013] is the day that this all comes to fruition. Today is the first strike in the
war on coal, the first carpet bombing of the industry, and the beginning of the President's long-sought
dream to bankrupt the industry and take out numerous employment and economic casualties with it.
New Rules On Power Plants Will Kill Coal
Industry. The administration finally has released its rules for curbing CO2 emissions from U.S. power plants. Far from being a plan to
clean up the environment, it is in fact a road map to de-industrialization and poverty.
Obama Takes on Coal
With First-Ever Carbon Limits. Linking global warming to public health, disease and extreme weather, the Obama administration pressed ahead Friday
[9/20/2013] with tough requirements to limit carbon pollution from new power plants, despite protests from industry and Republicans that it would dim coal's future.
The Editor says...
A rational person acting on facts alone would have a hard time establishing a link between global warming and any kind of disease, public health problem or
extreme weather, since global warming stopped in 1998. But President Obama's actions are not based on anything but politics. The policies of the
Obama administration have two main goals: the constant expansion of the federal government, and the systematic destruction of capitalism.
EPA
moves to limit emissions of future coal- and gas-fired power plants. The Environmental Protection Agency will move Friday [9/20/2013] to
strictly limit the amount of carbon that future coal- and gas-fired power plants can pour into the atmosphere, the first such restrictions on greenhouse
gases imposed by the agency. The limits in the proposed rule will be difficult for any new coal plant to meet without incurring the substantial
costs of additional technology to limit carbon dioxide output or developing new methods of cleansing emissions.
Bias alert!
When a power plant is powered by the combustion of coal, oil, natural gas, garbage, switch grass, sludge or anything else, the resulting exhaust
gas — usually a harmless mixture of water vapor and CO2 — is sent up a smokestack and discharged into the air. It's the same process that has
been employed since the invention of the smokestack. The article immediately above says the power plants pour carbon into the atmosphere.
The deceptions here are (1) carbon dioxide is not carbon, (2) the primary "greenhouse gas" is water vapor, which cannot be regulated, and (3) what
else are they supposed to do with the exhaust from a power plant? If your car did not have a tailpipe, and you were expected to drive to work
and back before disposing of the exhaust gas in some place other than the atmosphere, would you be able to afford to travel by automobile?
Of course not. The avoidance of carbon dioxide emissions is utter futility. CO2 is not a pollutant, and it is not something to
be avoided, suppressed, or stashed away in caves.
Remember when Obama promised to bankrupt coal?
That's tomorrow. Tomorrow [9/20/2013], Dear Leader is set to unveil a regulation that forms the centerpiece of his "anti-climate change" policy
announced awhile back to much green fawning. This new regulation will reportedly ban all future coal-fired power plant construction. Yes, you read
that right. Obama is set to ban all future coal-fired power plant construction tomorrow by regulatory fiat.
Obama White House Rolls Out Tough New
Climate-Change Rules. In his January State of the Union address, President Obama urged Congress to take action to stop global warming.
But he warned, "If Congress won't act soon to protect future generations, I will." He's following through on that pledge. Friday morning, the
Environmental Protection Agency will release a draft regulation to limit carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants, the nation's chief source of global
warming emissions. The draft regulation is the first of four major regulatory steps the EPA will take to create a significant body of action on climate
change before Obama leaves office.
The Editor says...
The article immediately above, as you can plainly see, calls coal-fired power plants "the nation's chief source of global warming emissions."
Really? The emissions from all the coal-fired power plants in the world (to which China is adding monthly) haven't resulted in any global
warming since 1998. The emissions from coal-fired power plants are not as influential as other factors, like the variable output power of the sun.
President Obama is pretending to take bold action to "stop global warming," which stopped, all by itself, in 1998. The Democrats hope
(and the news media assume) you don't know any of this.
Greens Anti-Coal War Turns Heat on World's Poor.
If ever proof were needed that capitalism works for the interest of the poorest and most vulnerable (and for all of us) while leftist social engineering
works against those interests, consider the escalating green war on coal. It's a war being conducted from the very top. President Obama, the
European Union, even the United Nations are among those doing their level best to prevent the exploitation of one of the most ubiquitous, and thus cheap, energy
resource available to us.
Basic Power Gen Cost Information. Natural gas (NGCC)
power plants require the smallest investment, and while natural gas prices are below $4 per million BTU, will generate the least expensive electricity;
above $4 per million BTU, coal is likely to generate electricity at lowest cost.
The Editor says...
Natural gas and coal are two energy sources of which we have plenty. Why then must we waste money
on windmills
and solar panels?
Manchin: Obama is beating the [daylights] out
of coal country. West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin exploded over the Obama administration's anti-coal policies Tuesday. [...] Manchin
voiced his frustrations with rules put forward by Obama's Environmental Protection Agency which have made it more costly and difficult for coal plants and
coal mines to operate. "They just beat the living daylights out of little West Virginia, but they sure like what we produce," Manchin added.
"We could do it a lot better if we had a government working with us as a partner."
The Obama EPA's War on America. Our coal resources in the lower 48 states are
estimated to be worth $22.5 trillion. On September 10, The Wall Street Journal reported that "The Obama administration plans to block the
construction of new coal-fired power plants unless they are built with novel and expensive technology to capture greenhouse-gas emissions, according to people
familiar with a draft proposal." The U.S. has more than 27% of the world's known coal reserves.
Obama's War on Energy.
The EPA is about to release a new draft rule effectively prohibiting new coal-fired power plants. The rule will undoubtedly face
a stiff legal challenge, but that takes time, and in the meantime coal mines and utilities facing the regulatory uncertainty
will get squeezed in the marketplace.
Coal Industry Cries Foul Over Obama Emission
Rules. Representatives of coal-intensive utilities and coal-producing regions said that President Barack Obama would effectively outlaw construction of
new power plants using the fuel with pending environmental rules. The Environmental Protection Agency is revising proposed rules from last year in response to
opposition by utilities and mining companies. The new version, under review by White House officials and scheduled for release next week, will be structured
differently though it offers little solace to the industry, according to people who have been briefed on the measure and asked not to be identified before its release.
As Coal Plants Shut Down, United Kingdom Faces a Power Crunch.
In June, Ofgem released a capacity assessment warning that "risks to electricity security of supply over the next six winters have increased since our last report in
October 2012." The report warned that Britain's ability to provide spare electric power capacity could plunge to between 2 to 5 percent, about half
what it is now. The main reason for the possible crunch: Britain is closing a number of aging coal-fired plants — as well as some oil and
nuclear ones — to meet European Union environmental laws.
The Editor says...
So? Drop out of the European Union and start burning coal again. Two problems solved.
China will soon have 40% more coal than the combined
weight of the human population. Years of excessive investment are catching up with China, and the latest example is coal. Its reserves now contain
220 million tons (200 million tonnes) of coal, as the Hao Hao Report notes. That puts China on track to have as much as 440 million tons by the
end of 2013, according to the China National Coal Association (CNCA) — around 40% more than the combined weight of the entire human population.
Environmentalism: The Road To A
Primitive Existence. [Scroll down] National Geographic says "the main reason for the possible crunch" is "closing a number of aging coal-fired
plants — as well as some oil and nuclear ones — to meet European Union environmental laws." What Britain will be left with after its
surrender to the "European Union environmental laws" is a reserve electric power capacity of between 2% and 5% — roughly half of what it is now.
It will lose 20% of its power plants over the next decade, and will have no coal-powered facilities, which provided 39% of the country's electricity just last year.
From there, National Geographic's story gets even uglier.
'War on coal': 207 coal plants will close in the next
decade. Whether due to environmental regulations or cheap natural gas (which the Environmental Protection Agency is also eyeing suspiciously via potential fracking
regulations), these coal plants will close their doors, resulting in a loss of over 40,000 megawatts of electricity. That's less than 1 percent of all the electricity
used by the country in a year, but because multiple plants are closing in the same location, energy prices for people living within their reach will increase. Not to
mention the job losses from closing those plants.
Old King Coal lives
on. While gas — and particularly shale gas — may be making headlines around the world, a combination of low coal prices and government
support for renewables has seen gas being driven out of the electricity market in Europe and Australia. Only in the US, where gas production has boomed, has it replaced
coal — but this too may be about to change.
Coal at Risk as Global Lenders
Drop Financing on Climate. The world's richest nations, moving to combat global warming, are cutting government support for new
coal-burning power plants in developing countries, dealing a blow to the world's dominant source of electricity. First it was President
Barack Obama pledging in June that the government would no longer finance overseas coal plants through the U.S. Export-Import Bank. Next
it was the World Bank, then the European Investment Bank, dropping support for coal projects. Those banks have pumped more than $10 billion
into such initiatives in the past five years.
Taking the EPA to Court.
West Virginia is in a battle for its life. For several years, the ability of the Mountain State and other Appalachian states to mine and use coal
has been steadily eroded by the Obama administration and its Environmental Protection Agency. This is a critical moment for all West Virginians.
Time and again, the executive branch has stepped well beyond its bounds. We all learned in school that Congress passes bills, which are then signed
into law by the president. But this president and his EPA are bypassing Congress with rules that attempt to change or simply ignore the laws.
That is why our office has focused like a laser beam on everything EPA-related coming out of Washington, D.C.
India Likely to be the Largest
Coal Importer in 3-5 Years. With coal supply issues plaguing the domestic economy, the country is likely to surpass China as the largest
importer of coal in the next 3-5 years, an official of Platts McGraw Hill Financial said today [9/2/2013].
King Coal Gets Fatter, While The US Goes on a Diet.
Today's post delves into the global coal picture. The highlights are:
• Global coal consumption reached an all-time high in 2012
• China continues to dominate the global supply and demand picture in coal
• Outside of China, coal consumption has been on the decline
• The US has recently had the largest declines in coal consumption of any country in the world
• Many European countries have experienced strong percentage gains in their coal consumption
Energy Secretary
Moniz: 'There's no war on coal'. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz sought Thursday [8/1/2013] to reaffirm his department's commitment to coal as
part of America's future energy mix, countering accusations that the Obama administration is waging a "war" against the fossil fuel out of environmental
concerns. "There's no war on coal," Secretary Moniz said at a Monitor-hosted breakfast in Washington.
No wonder McCarthy wants to
ignore job-killing EPA regulations. Four and five percent growth rates of the Reagan and Clinton recoveries in the 1980s and 1990s aren't likely these days
because the EPA regulatory onslaught under Obama is a major cause of stagnant economic activity since 2009. At least 205 coal-fired generators will soon close due to
EPA regulations, with the loss of 17,000 jobs, according to an October 2012 report from the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity. Then there are the jobs lost
from stimulus-backed green energy failures like Solyndra, Abound Solar and Evergreen Energy.
The war on coal. We've had the war on inflation. The war on waste.
The war on terror. There's even a war on women somewhere, though nobody has actually seen it. Now the World Bank is enlisting in the war on coal, following the
White House in opposing the digging of affordable energy out of the earth. This is bad news for developing nations desperate for the cheap energy they need to climb
out of poverty.
Each ton of carbon we use creates thousands of dollars of wealth. The Cost of Carbon Denial. For the past several years, those
seeking to strangle the world economy by denying it access to carbon have tried to gain support for their initiatives by inventing a concept called "the social cost of
carbon." According to this notion, the use of carbon imposes a cost on society through global warming, and therefore regulations to restrict the use of carbon
create benefits that can be measured in dollar terms. Pursuant to this strategy, the Environmental Protection Agency in 2010 hired a crowd of consultants to
generate estimates that would be useful for the cause.
The Age of Hyperbole: How Normal Weather Became 'Extreme'.
Because of President Barack Obama's dangerously misguided "war on coal," America's least expensive and most important source of electric
power, electricity costs are rising — making the poor less able to afford air conditioning. This is especially true of
those living in poverty in inner city areas where temperatures are already higher because of the urban heat island effect. This
situation will only worsen as Obama implements his plan to eliminate coal stations and power costs consequently soar.
Coal industry threatened by
stringent new EPA standards. The Obama administration has rejected accusations it has launched a "war on coal." But it
presses ahead with yet more carbon regulation. In a speech at Georgetown University on June 25, President Obama said, "I am directing
the Environmental Protection Agency to put an end to the limitless dumping of carbon pollution from our power plants and complete new pollution
standards for both new and existing power plants." Those new "Source Performance Standards" to further limit greenhouse gases threaten
the industry.
China Wants To End Blackouts With
Western Help — And American Coal. China relies largely on coal to power its economy. But domestic and global environmental
pressures are forcing it to look at other options that include nuclear energy and hydro-power. To get there, it needs [...] a lot more foreign
participation.
The President's Broken Window
Fallacy: Carbon Policies and Jobs. That there are no free lunches is an eternal truth, notwithstanding the assertions of experts and
public officials. The Obama version of this ancient snake oil is simple: we can have a stronger economy and more employment if we discard
part of the power-generating capital stock. [...] For the economy as a whole, the broken window — or the electric generating capital forced
into retirement — is a net loss. We cannot become richer over time by making ourselves poorer in the here and now.
Global Warming: There's Nothing To Fight
Against. On Tuesday, President Obama will lay out his plan for fighting climate change at a speech at Georgetown University.
He's expected to announce a regime for regulating greenhouse-gas emissions from existing power plants. This from the same politician who
in 2008 as presidential candidate promised that his administration would bankrupt anyone who wanted "to build a coal-powered plant." So no
new coal plants plus new regulatory authority that puts the government boot on existing power plants' necks. From where does this president
think electricity will come?
Obama
Launches New Global Warming Video as Phony "Consensus" Crumbles. The president seems to be unaware that even top climate alarmists
have admitted that there has been no evidence of global warming for at least the past 15 years. [...] The president's energy program, outlined
in [a] White House Fact Sheet and detailed in "The President's Climate Action Plan," both released today [6/25/2013], would place onerous new
restrictions on coal fired power plants and other fossil fuels and would direct billions more dollars into funding "renewable energy" sources,
such as solar and wind.
Obama's
Climate Plan Has No New Ideas, But Would Make Economy Worse. Except for resolve to curb carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from existing
power plants, this manifesto either doubles down on the subsidized green energy programs of his first term or creates mushy-to-the-point-of-meaningless
new programs to weather (extreme) weather. The president's thinly veiled plans to eliminate coal from our nation's energy supply would undermine
the reliability, affordability and adequacy of electricity. Although natural gas has rapidly gained ground in the power mix, coal still provides
40% of this country's electric power. Ethanol, wind and any source labeled green already increase the costs of food, fuel and electricity.
NHS hospitals asked to generate their
own power amid blackouts fears. According to one energy company, four hospitals have already signed up to a deal under which
they will reduce demand at peak times by using diesel-fired generators. KiWi Power, which is a commercial partner of National Grid,
says it has started to approach every NHS trust in the country about undertaking similar plans after winning a government contract to
encourage power saving.
The Editor says...
There is no longer enough centralized generating capacity in England to serve all customers during periods of peak demand. This is
because England's energy policy is dictated by environmentalists who are opposed to the use of coal. So the hospitals — and
presumably any other large consumers of electric power — are being asked to switch to diesel-powered backup systems during peak
demand hours. How big is the "carbon footprint" of a megawatt diesel-powered generator -- or a dozen of them? What if the
generator runs out of diesel fuel, and the (centralized) utility power fails, due to transformer overload, falling trees, lightning,
or something else? What will this increased demand do to the price of diesel fuel? Any guesses?
Is Climate Change Our
No. 1 Crisis, Mr. President? At the heart of Obama's program are EPA regulations that will make it impossible to open any new coal plant
and will systematically shut down existing plants. "Politically, the White House is hesitant to say they're having a war on coal," explained one
of Obama's climate advisers. "On the other hand, a war on coal is exactly what's needed." Net effect: tens of thousands of jobs killed,
entire states impoverished. This at a time of chronically and crushingly high unemployment, slow growth, jittery markets and deep economic uncertainty.
No 'War on Coal' says Energy
Secretary. Oh, really? That will come as good news to the thousands of coal miners and others who work in the
coal industry slated to lose their jobs because of EPA regs and Obama executive orders. [...] Of course there's a war on coal.
The war has been going on for at least 3 years as more than 142 coal fired plants have been shuttered, according to the
Sierra Club. But apparently, that's not considered a war on coal by the administration.
The Grand Prize in Obama's War on
Coal™. It's a bad week for poor people around the planet. First, and with great fanfare, our President
unleashed his patented climate plan, affectionately known as Obama's War on Coal™. He hasn't said yet how much Obama's
War on Coal™ will cost, but we can be sure that it will not be cheap. And as in any war, it is guaranteed that the poor
will suffer the most. Sadly, this was followed by even worse news. The World Bank has decided it wants to keep the
developing world from having inexpensive electricity. They will not make any more loans for coal-fired power plants.
Coal-state
Dems chisel away at Obama climate plan. Coal-state Democrats have been as scathing as any Republican in reaction to
the president's plan, unveiled Tuesday in a speech at Georgetown University. The pushback was almost immediate, and a glaring
signal of the trouble Obama may encounter as he charges ahead with new restrictions on coal-fired power plants.
In Obama's War On American Coal, China's the
Victor. President Obama's expansion of his war on coal to include existing coal plants may very well put the industry on the path to
extinction, costing jobs and economic growth while raising energy prices, a huge tax on the American consumer. But countries like China and
India are increasing their coal consumption, more than outpacing any U.S. reductions in coal use and carbon emissions. His actions come as
news outlets ponder why global temperatures have flat lined for the last 16 years or so — and despite the fact that the U.S. has
led the world in carbon reductions for the last two decades. The increased use of natural gas thanks to a boom in fracking has helped fuel
these reductions. That proves once again that technology fuels both growth and clean air.
Pity the Coal
Miners: A Greener Environment's Biggest Losers. The president ran for reelection on an "all of the above" energy strategy.
"We need an energy strategy ... for the 21st century that develops every source of American-made energy," the president declared on March 15,
2012. That's when his political team was worried about every vote in states like Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, as well as trying to
raise as much money as possible from business interests dependent on reliable, cheap energy. Those states and those businesses have a
vested interest in the energy source right in the bull's eye of the Obama climate-change plan: coal.
Obama Renews His War On Coal. Don't say he
didn't warn us: "Go ahead and build a coal-powered plant — but it will bankrupt you." Today [6/25/2013] President Obama put those words
into action. With poverty and unemployment at record levels and his foreign policy in tatters, Obama decided to address a more important problem:
Americans aren't paying enough for electricity! So he mounted a new attack on coal, America's principal source of power. His speech was the
usual combination of the uninformed and the disingenuous.
Obama Adviser: 'A War On Coal Is Exactly What
We Need'. Obama has been waging war on coal from day one of his administration. He has paid no penalty for it. Mitt Romney even
tried pinning that war on him, in coal states, last year. He campaigned with people whose jobs are directly threatened by Obama's policies.
It made no difference at all. Too few Americans either work in the coal industry or understand that many of their TVs and smart phones are
coal-powered devices to understand that the war on coal — which is coming in earnest, thanks to Obama unilateral seizure of even more
power in the name of "climate change" today — is really a war on them, their wallets, their earnings, and ultimately their futures. It's
all an abstraction until those bills in the mail start to look scary, and then — they'll blame it on the energy companies for "gouging."
Obama declares a War on Coal. World
leaders don't seem to be paying much heed to President Obama. And not just when it comes to domestic spy leaker Edward Snowden's
ultimate destination. Obama today [6/25/2013] will announce what promises to be a hammer blow to cheap, coal-fired electricity as
part of his legacy project of curbing global warming. But as Obama prepares to deliver what U.S. environmentalists hope will be a
knockout punch to coal power here, the rest of the world is gobbling up every coal BTU it can get.
WH Climate Adviser: 'A War on
Coal Is Exactly What's Needed'. Daniel P. Schrag, a White House climate adviser and director of the Harvard University
Center for the Environment, tells the New York Times "a war on coal is exactly what's needed." Later today, President Obama
will give a major "climate change" address at Georgetown University. "Everybody is waiting for action," Schrag tells the paper.
"The one thing the president really needs to do now is to begin the process of shutting down the conventional coal plants.
Politically, the White House is hesitant to say they're having a war on coal. On the other hand, a war on coal is exactly
what's needed."
[Emphasis in original.]
Clean Coal Needs Another Look. The primary reason for
building IGCC plants is to capture the CO2 so it can be sequestered underground. [...] Three IGCC plants have been, or are being, built in the United States.
The Southern Company recently announced that the IGCC plant being built in Kemper, Mississippi, is over budget by around $1 billion.
This brings its cost to $5,876 per KW, nearly the same as the cost of a new nuclear power plant.
California's anti-coal agenda is adverse to
human health and welfare. Coal based energy is a key factor in global socio-economic development, transforming agrarian
societies to modern industrial ones. This societal transformation, driven by the accumulation of income and wealth, eliminates many
contagious diseases, reduces child mortality, and lengthens adult life expectancy. Throughout the world, rapid emergence from poverty
has proceeded as countries develop electricity networks based on coal.
Lighting Big Green's match
to burn King Coal. Ideological environmentalism has killed many of our most important natural-resources companies.
Millions of jobs and billions of dollars have been lost. Now that coal, America's leading energy source, is in the cross hairs of
climate-change campaigners, the situation will only get worse — much worse.
There is no "renewable" alternative to coal. Can Coal be Dumped? While eliminating coal is
theoretically possible, the question remains: Why deprive the United States from using coal, a valuable resource, especially since new
ultra-supercritical coal-fired power plants are nearly as clean as natural gas power plants, and can meet all EPA emission requirements
except for CO2? Once again, CO2 needlessly affects energy usage.
Federal Kudzu Is Strangling This Great Nation.
A report by the well-respected economic consulting firm National Economic Research Associates found that "seven new EPA regulations are set to
cost the electrical sector $16.7 billion per year, cause 887,000 job losses per year and contribute to the shutting down of 69,000 megawatts
of coal-fired power." And it's not just hundreds of coal-fired power plants that are in the agency's crosshairs, for as West Virginia
Democrat Rep. Nick Rahall warned, the EPA's permitting power grabs threaten to disrupt coal mining in West Virginia and "upend the traditional
balance that has existed between the states and the federal government in the permitting process." The mostly "red state" coal industry
is not the only current victim of regulatory excess.
Texas
Commission Approves Coal Mine for Mexican Power Plants. The Railroad Commission of Texas, which regulates oil, gas, and
coal in the state, approved a permit giving a Mexican company the right to start coal mining operations near Eagle Pass, a Texas
border town. Coal from the Eagle Pass mine will be transported to Mexico to fire coal power plants 20 miles from the U.S.
border, near Piedras Negras, Mexico. Mexican company Dos Republicas Coal Partnership will oversee the transportation of coal
into Mexico.
Alaska Borough
Approves Coal Mine Near Denali. The Matanuska-Susitna Borough Assembly rejected the arguments of environmental activist
groups and approved a proposal for a mine south of Denali National Park in Alaska. The borough passed a resolution recommending
approval of the mine proposal after the Alaska Energy Corporation requested the Alaska Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to open
13,175 acres of land in the Canyon Creek area, south of the Skwentna River, for coal mining operations.
EPA
urged to rewrite or ditch CO2 standards for new coal plants. The state Public Service Commission is urging the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency to back off on proposed greenhouse-gas rules for new coal-fired power plants — almost one year after the comment period on the rule
closed. In a letter to the EPA signed last week by its five Republican commissioners, the PSC said the proposed emission rules would make it
"impracticable" to build new coal-fired power plants in America.
Will Obama Put Coal out of Business?
In 2008, candidate Barack Obama infamously said that as president he would set policy that would bankrupt the coal industry: "So if somebody wants to
build a coal-powered plant, they can; it's just that it will bankrupt them because they're going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that's
being emitted." Now, according to a new Duke University study, pending regulations by President Obama's Environmental Protection Agency may just
accomplish that goal.
A War on Coal? Some observers have criticized the Obama administration for
using the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to install onerous environmental regulations on the coal industry. For instance, the new rules aimed at
cutting emissions will force dozens of coal-fired plants to shut down or convert to natural gas. However, the rules are not the result of Obama's efforts
but of Congress' long-time legislative requirements, says Richard Gordon, professor emeritus of mineral economics at Pennsylvania State University.
An EPA War on Coal? The Environmental Protection
Agency, under the direction of administrator Lisa Jackson, has launched a number of regulatory initiatives that affect the energy industry. Given President
Obama's belief in the need to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and in the ability of renewable energies to help secure those emission reductions, critics argue that
the administration is using the EPA to conduct a "war" on coal (along with, to a lesser degree, oil and natural gas). The objective is to achieve through
administrative action what the president could not achieve via cap-and-trade legislation by Congress. The truth, however, is that the agency is implementing
long-delayed legislative mandates dictated by various environmental statutes that well predate the current administration.
Acting EPA
boss: We might go after existing coal plants in 2014. Having practically banned the construction of new coal-fired power
plants, Environmental Protection Agency regulators may try to cap emissions at existing coal plants, according to the acting head of
the agency. "[T]hat's certainly something that will be on the table in this next fiscal year," acting EPA Administrator Bob
Perciasepe told reporters last week, per Midwest Energy News, after saying that the EPA intends to start "working with states on
existing sources, but we're not there yet."
'War on coal' may burn EPA nominee.
With the Environmental Protection Agency set to play the central role in President Obama's second-term climate change agenda, would-be agency chief
Gina McCarthy on Thursday 4/11/2013] tried to calm Republican fears that she would continue the perceived "war on coal" and other harsh regulations
under her predecessor.
Eco madness and how our future is going up in smoke. There could be no better
symbol of the madness of Britain's energy policy than what is happening at the giant Drax power station in Yorkshire, easily the largest in
Britain. Indeed, it is one of the biggest and most efficiently run coal-fired power stations in the world. [...] Every day, Drax
burns 36,000 tons of coal, brought to its vast site by 140 coal trains every week — and it supplies seven per cent
of all the electricity used in Britain. That's enough to light up a good many of our major cities.
Court:
EPA can stop changes at DTE's Monroe coal plant. Government regulators can try to halt construction projects at power
plants if they think the companies didn't properly calculate whether the changes would increase air pollution, a federal appeals
court has ruled, marking the latest twist in a decades-long fight over the Clean Air Act.
Obama's
anti-stimulus energy policies take money out of economy. The Institute for Energy Research predicts that new EPA rules on
mercury and cross-state pollution targeting old power plants will shut down 34 gigawatts of coal-fired production capacity, or
10 percent of the U.S. total. Those burdened most by the energy price increases resulting from these rules — as
with the price hikes that result from Obama's more ambitious plans for carbon reduction — will be the poor, who already
spend a greater percentage of their income on energy than those who are more affluent.
An obsession with CO2 has left us dangerously short of power as coal-powered
stations are forced to close. It's
payback time for our insane energy policy. The grotesque mishandling of Britain's energy policy by the politicians
of all parties, as they chase their childish chimeras of CO2-induced global warming and windmills, has been arguably the greatest
act of political irresponsibility in our history. Three more events last week brought home again just what a mad bubble of
make-believe these people are living in. Under the EU's Large Combustion Plants Directive, we lost two more major coal-fired
power stations, Didcot A and Cockenzie, capable of contributing no less than a tenth to our average electricity demands.
The EPA Opens a New Front in the War on
Coal. The rapid pace and severity of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations on the energy sector during the past
four years illustrates an ongoing problem — the government's impediment to an economic recovery. The EPA's mandates have
unfairly discriminated against certain sectors of the energy industry, most notably coal, pointlessly killing desperately needed jobs.
On top of the regulations that have questionable benefits at best, the EPA has withheld permits for coal mining that were already approved
by other agencies, gratuitously delayed permits, and even rescinded previously issued permits.
Environmental Zealots vs.
the Constitution. The supreme Court granted authority to the EPA to regulate carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping
gasses. The EPA is in the midst of writing regulations to govern such emissions from new power plants. Those rules would
essentially bar construction of any new coal-fired power plants unless they include the ability to capture carbon gases — a
technology that is not available on a commercial scale.
Ashley Judd's War
With Kentucky's Coal Industry Could Doom Candidacy. Comments Ashley Judd made in 2010 comparing the mining practices of
Kentucky's coal industry to rape could sink her much buzzed-about Senate candidacy before it even begins. In a 2010 speech to
the National Press Club in Washington, Judd called mountain top removal — the controversial but principal type of surface
mining in Appalachia that involves the removal of mountaintops to extract coal — "the state-sanctioned, federal
government-supported, coal industry-operated rape of Appalachia."
One day,
turning off the lights won't be up to you. Readers of this column might have been astonished by the media response
last week to that warning by Alistair Buchanan, retiring head of the energy regulator Ofgem, that next month we will see the
closure of five major coal-fired power stations that between them contribute nearly a sixth of the UK's average electricity needs.
Over the next few years, Mr Buchanan feared, we will be dangerously close to not having enough power in the grid to keep Britain's
lights on.
EPA's Coal Purge Claims Latest Victim.
A planned 1200 megawatt, $3 billion coal-fired power plant in Corpus Christi, Texas, is one of the latest casualties in the war on
affordable, reliable energy. Chase Power, the company behind the Las Brisas power plant, announced last month that it is cancelling
the project due to red tape and litigation spawned by the Environmental Protection Agency's regulations on coal plants.
Coal Industry Regulations Were A
Laughing Matter to the EPA. Lisa Jackson recently left her job as EPA administrator amid an investigation into her use
of alias email accounts. She apparently used those secret accounts to shield official agency business from Freedom of Information
Act requests.
China burns half of coal consumption
worldwide, figures show. China now burns nearly as much coal as the rest of the world combined. The country's appetite
for the carbon-intensive fuel rose by 9% in 2011, to 3.8 bn tonnes, meaning it now accounts for 47% of worldwide coal consumption.
The growth, revealed by US government figures on Tuesday [1/29/2013], was driven by China's booming economy, which has grown at an average rate of
around 10% over the past decade.
Arizona Fights Anti-Coal Regional Haze
Rules. [Scroll down] In Arizona, it would cost the Apache, Cholla and Coronado coal plants over $1 billion to adhere to EPA's regional
haze rules. That would mean higher electricity costs and possibly higher water costs if the rule is extended to the Navajo Generating Station which powers
water delivery in the state. And since other states like Montana, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Wyoming are also covered by these
consent decrees, expect EPA to institute rules on those states that target coal-fired power plants.
The Real Barack Obama. The country may be
catching on: Barack Obama is our first knee-jerk liberal president. And now that he will never face the voters again, he doesn't mind
showing it. [...] Obama will soon fill key vacant posts at the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy. Reuters reports
that the front runner in the race to become the new head of the EPA is Gina McCarthy, who is now the assistant administrator for the Office of Air
and Radiation, which makes her the point person for the administration's "war on coal" campaign.
Coal's share of global energy mix to continue rising. In fact, the world
will burn around 1.2 billion more tonnes of coal per year by 2017 compared to today — equivalent to the current coal consumption
of Russia and the United States combined. Coal's share of the global energy mix continues to grow each year, and if no changes are made to
current policies, coal will catch oil within a decade."
Obama EPA kills power
plant, 3,900 jobs in Texas. "Chase Power ... has opted to suspend efforts to further permit the facility and is seeking
alternative investors as part of a plan of dissolution for the parent company," Chase CEO Dave Freysinger told the Corpus Christi
Caller-Times. Freysinger made it very clear who was responsible for the projects death. "The (Las Brisas Energy Center) is a
victim of EPA's concerted effort to stifle solid-fuel energy facilities in the U.S., including EPA's carbon-permitting requirements and
EPA's New Source Performance Standards for new power plants," he said.
EPA-proposed
air pollution clean-up to cost Navajo nation coal plant $500 million. The Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to
cut Grand Canyon air pollution by requiring a coal power plant in Arizona to install pollution control equipment that could cost more than
$1 billion, reports the Arizona Republic. Federal regulators want the plant to install a catalytic converter for approximately
$500 million. However, particles from the catalytic converter could create further pollution problems and necessitate more
pollution controls, which the Salt River Project, the coal plant's operator, said could drive the total cost into the billions.
Obama coal regulations
crippling communities. The war on jobs and affordable energy is real and continues to pick up steam with a swarm of new
regulations coming out of President Obama's Environmental Protection Agency contributing to more mine closures and plant shutdowns
across the country. Last week, we witnessed the latest round of victims in the war on coal, with Georgia Power Co. announcing
its plans to shutter 15 fossil-fuel-fired electric units, impacting nearly 500 jobs in the state.
Under the Green Hammer.
President Obama's reelection has the climate cult chomping at the bit to get a long wish list of policies put in place, from energy
taxes to cap-and-trade to a possible blockade on coal and natural-gas exports. And most of these activists are in no mood to
let that messy little obstacle called the democratic process slow the juggernaut. Some, like the Natural Resources Defense
Council, are encouraging the president to bypass Congress and shutter more coal-fired power plants through executive action.
Having killed the coal industry, Obama's next target is steel. Carmakers
Steering Away From Steel in Order to Meet Fuel Economy Standards. Faced with increasingly stringent benchmarks —
the government's new Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards require a passenger vehicle fleet that averages 54.5 miles per
gallon by 2025 — carmakers are taking another approach to achieving better fuel mileage: shaving weight off vehicles by
experimenting with lighter materials. Automobiles have long been made from steel — a very strong, but heavy material.
Now manufacturers are experimenting with new materials — ranging from aluminum to carbon fiber composites to metal
alloys — to help companies reach the ambitious fuel efficiency standards.
The
Regulatory Landscape in America — A Morass Of Red Tape. Former climate czar Carol Browner was very
clear about what's in store when she told several green groups not to worry, because "President Obama has a big
green 'to-do' list for 2013 so they'll get what they want. "On the other hand, if you want to build a coal
plant, you've got a big problem. EPA's proposed coal ash rule could cost $79 to $110 billion
over 20 years, destroying 183,900 to 316,000 jobs. This will have disastrous impacts in states like
Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio and Missouri.
Georgia Power to close 15 coal, oil units.
Georgia Power said Monday [1/7/2013] it will shut down 15 coal and oil-fired units, cutting nearly one-sixth of its power grid capacity to comply
with federal rules aimed at reducing air pollution.
Obama EPA regulations
kill 15 power plants, 480 jobs in Georgia. Georgia Power asked state regulators for permission to shut down 15 power plants
yesterday [1/7/2013], claiming new regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) make the plants too expensive to run. The
15 coal-, oil- and natural gas-fired power plants currently produce 2,061 megawatts (MW) for Georgia energy consumers.
Harsher energy
regulations seen in Obama's second term. Energy producers braced for tighter regulation in President Barack Obama's second
term, with coal companies expecting more emissions restrictions and drillers anticipating less access to federal land even as his platform
promotes energy independence.
EPA offers hints on fracking's future.
Fracking is safe until the Obama administration finishes burying the coal industry. Obama allows fracking to flourish because low gas
prices are killing coal. But when that mission is accomplished, watch out frackers.
Coal to be King Again. Coal is set to nearly eclipse oil as the world's
major energy source by 2017, the International Energy Agency reports. Global coal use is likely to reach 4.32 billion tonnes of oil equivalent by 2017,
compared with 4.4 billion tonnes for oil but growth should be slower than in the past decade, the study said.
New air pollution standards restrict soot particles.
The Obama administration announced a new air pollution standard Friday [12/14/2012] that would bring about a 20% reduction in microscopic particles of soot
emitted by coal-fired power plants and diesel vehicles that contribute to haze and respiratory ailments. The new limit, fought by industry and welcomed
by environmentalists, marks the first time the Environmental Protection Agency tightened the soot standard since it was established 15 years ago.
Oil and Gas Jobs Hit 25-year High; Coal Slumps.
The number of oil and gas jobs in the U.S. climbed to 196,300 in November, according to Friday's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) monthly
jobs report. This is their highest level since February 1988. According to the BLS report, oil and gas jobs rose from 183,200
in November 2011, and grew slightly over October's numbers, continuing a trend of resilient job growth in the oil and gas sector.
Meanwhile, coal job numbers continued to slump down from 81,100 in September to 80,500 in November. Those numbers are both down
from the 87,00 coal jobs reported in November 2011.
Why You
Should Care That Courts Overturn EPA's Carbon Pollution Standard. In August, the U.S. Court of Appeals struck down the EPA's Cross
State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR), a regulation chiefly targeting coal-fired power plants. The Court found that the CSAPR exceeded the
agency's statutory authority. Similarly, in March, the Court ruled that the EPA exceeded its authority when it revoked a Clean Water Act
permit for Arch Coal's Spruce Mine No. 1 in Logan Country, West Virginia.
Kentucky Coal Plant's $940M Update to
Create 700 jobs. The upgrades at LG&E's Mill Creek Generating Station in southwestern Jefferson County are expected to add
about 700 construction jobs. They will also allow the 1,400-megawatt plant to continue to burn coal by meeting stricter federal air
regulations that go in force in 2016.
Caterpillar downgraded on Obama's
energy policy. Caterpillar Inc.'s stock was downgraded to "Neutral" from "Overweight" by JPMorgan Chase & Co. analyst Ann
Duignan Monday [11/12/2012]. Duignan, who had rated Peoria-based Caterpillar "overweight" since April 2009, cited pressures on the sector to
reduce costs and the potential negative impact on the U.S. coal and energy sectors following the re-election of President Barack Obama in downgrading
the stock.
Coal company exec lays off
more than 160 workers after Obama re-election. A major coal company announced more than 160 layoffs across three subsidiaries this
week, becoming perhaps the first company to follow through on threats to make cutbacks in the event of a second President Obama term.
What to expect in Obama's second term:
[#12] [Obama will] Wipe out the coal industry and with it cause major decrease in electric power availability and reliability. A
direct effect will be a decline in jobs throughout industry and computer-dependent white-collar jobs, and further no-growth as our industry
moves from first class to third-world class with only intermittent low-grade electric power.
Coal Shoulder. While the coal issue drove higher Republican voter
turnout and percentages in Virginia coal country, it wasn't nearly enough to change Tuesday's election outcome in the state.
Obama's EPA Set to Crush Coal Country.
Lurking quietly in the shadows, behind a wall of political rhetoric and campaign season hype, is a post-election surprise that could ring the death
knell for the coal industry, killing massive amounts of jobs in states such as Ohio, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. Reports are beginning to
surface that the Obama Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is set to implement a slew of anti-coal regulations after the election, which will
result in the elimination of nearly 900,000 jobs annually. All of this of course has been carefully calculated for political reasons.
Waging War on Coal. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has expanded its
control of state regulations known as Regional Haze Rule in order to impose more stringent regulations on coal-fired power plants and avoid the
judicial injunction against air quality regulations that it tried to impose in 2011. The EPA imposed haze plans on North Dakota, New Mexico,
Oklahoma, and Nebraska in 2011 and 2012 that will increase energy compliance costs by almost $375 million.
November
surprise: EPA planning major post-election anti-coal regulation. President Obama's Environmental Protection Agency has devoted
an unprecedented number of bureaucrats to finalizing new anti-coal regulations that are set to be released at the end of November, according
to a source inside the EPA. More than 50 EPA staff are now crashing to finish greenhouse gas emission standards that would essentially
ban all construction of new coal-fired power plants. Never before have so many EPA resources been devoted to a single regulation.
The independent and non-partisan Manhattan Institute estimates that the EPA's greenhouse gas coal regulation will cost the U.S. economy
$700 billion.
Anger runs high in Ohio coal country.
The men are dressed in an unofficial uniform of jeans, T-shirt and hard hat, and they speak in unison, too, when asked about the presidential
election, now less than a week away. "Obama's done more damage in the last three years than anyone in the last 50," said Brad Knight.
"He and his advisers are a bunch of tree-huggers, east coast and west coast". "The way Obama's handling the coal business," said
Lanny Stephen, "it looks like he's trying to fade it out."
MACT — The End of Affordable Coal.
Let's say you saw the number one goal of the current US President is domestic energy independence or an all of the above energy policy.
Would that include a major environmental regulation that threatened to take nearly 30KMW of electrical power generation offline in the
immediate future? Would it involve specifically preventing mining and development of a major source of available domestic energy?
Why handicap our greatest energy resource?.
The dark days of gas curtailment in 1977 may not be as far away as many gas optimists believe. Further, those days may haunt us for years if we allow
our powerful coal fleet to be steadily diminished by EPA's short sighted "War on Coal".
Obama's EPA Plans for 2013.
[Scroll down] EPA's proposed coal ash rule could cost $79 to $110 billion over 20 years, destroying 183,900 to
316,000 jobs; this will have disastrous impacts in states like Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio and Missouri.
War on coal shifts Virginia back into GOP column.
Obama won Virginia four years ago, the first Democrat to carry the state since 1964, but the latest polls indicate the Old Dominion is shifting
back toward the GOP.
Obama's war on coal will help him lose Virginia.
With the "War on Coal" rhetoric that's been on a lot of Republicans' lips this election season, a lineup of political speakers that included Matt
Romney, son of Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, came to talk about the resource that powers both the electricity and the economy here.
"Right now our country is in dire straits," Matt Romney said, promising that his father, if elected, would make the nation energy independent by
2020. "We can't ignore the vast natural resources we have in this country: coal, natural gas, oil."
Stop Obama's War on Coal.
The American people rejected cap-and-trade (President Obama's plan to make electricity prices "necessarily skyrocket" and "bankrupt coal") in one
of the biggest landslide elections in history in 2010. The day after that election, Obama said: "Cap and trade was just one way of
skinning the cat; it was not the only way. It was a means, not an end." Since then, Obama has worked overtime to act as if the
cap-and-trade bill passed and to twist decades-old laws in order to bankrupt coal and drive up the price of electricity. Obama's staggering
array of anti-coal regulations will effectively shut down all coal-fired power plants in America, a genuine economic catastrophe that will make
prices "necessarily skyrocket" and undermine the reliability of our electric grid.
Obama Is Right. Disingenuously, he portrays himself as
the "Energy President," while his policy has always been none of the above, unless it is wind or solar, which he calls the energy of the future
when it is truly the energy of the past. With Barack, it is always yesterday's answers to today's problems. That's why he likes
high-speed rail so much. He is singlehandedly destroying the coal industry in America, while restricting drilling for oil in the Gulf and off
our shores as well as on all public lands. The EPA is now in the process of formulating rules to regulate "fracking" nationwide.
It's a safe bet that any new regulations won't increase production.
More US coal plants to retire due to
green rules: study. More U.S. coal-fired power plants could retire due to environmental regulations and weaker-than-expected electric demand,
costing the industry up to $144 billion, economists at consultancy Brattle Group said. In a new study, Brattle's economists forecast 59,000 to
77,000 megawatts (MW) of coal plant capacity would likely retire over the next five years.
Ohio Coal Miners Condemn Obama's 'Absolute lies'.
The coal miners of Ohio, unlike some workers who are intimidated by their unions, are unafraid of standing tall and confronting the Obama Administration
head-on. Last Wednesday, more than 500 coal miners who work at the Beallsville, Ohio Century Mine, operated by Murray Energy, held a rally to
condemn the Obama Administration's despicable ad claiming the miners were coerced into attending a rally for Mitt Romney on August 14. They
also charged Obama with waging a war on coal.
Coal Will Continue to Build America. The
United States has more coal than OPEC has oil and more coal than Iran and Russia have natural gas. Coal can reliably provide affordable
electric power to Americans for the next 250 years or more. In short, coal has been, is and will continue to be the cornerstone of
not only our electric power system but also of our economic prosperity and a cleaner environment.
Opening Statement of the Honorable Joe Barton. [Scroll down] No, this
administration's EPA has waged a political war on coal with conveniently manipulated models to bankrupt an industry and subsequently a nation with its
over-burdensome regulations. Other examples of this include Utility MACT, utilizing 'co-benefits' only to overregulate, and Cross State Air Pollution
Rule, using modeled data when no proof from monitored data was good enough to make their claims.
Coal miners ask Obama
to stop 'absolute lies'. Coal miners at the American Energy Corp. Century Mine said they want President Barack Obama to stop what they term
the war on coal — and to stop spreading mistruths about them. Miners gathered Friday afternoon [10/12/2012] to express their opposition
to Obamas energy and environmental policies, which they believe threaten their jobs. Miner Mitch Miracle read aloud a letter the miners mailed to
Obama that outlines some of their concerns.
Dems in coal states diverge on Obama policies.
Friends of coal [...] fault President Barack Obama and his Environmental Protection Agency for new clean air rules they deride as a devastating blow to a
multibillion-dollar industry, the lifeblood of Appalachia for generations.
Counting on Coal Country. Nearly four thousand people turned
out Friday [10/5/2012] in Abingdon, Virginia, to hear Mitt Romney declare his support for the coal industry, which has been besieged for more than three
years by President Obama's Environmental Protection Agency. A giant sign behind the Republican candidate proclaimed "Coal Country Stands With
Mitt," and many in the audience wore caps or T-shirts calling for an end to "Obama's War on Coal," a war that has escaped the notice of most Americans
outside coal-producing regions like southwest Virginia.
What's the alternative to coal? Biggest English Polluter
Spends $1 Billion to Burn Wood. More than two centuries after coal power helped forge the world's first industrial economy, Britain
is going back to burning wood. Drax Group Plc (DRX) will spend $1 billion to turn the U.K.'s biggest coal-fired plant into western Europe's
largest clean-energy producer. The utility plans to convert one of the site's six units to burn wood pellets by June, said Chief Executive Officer
Dorothy Thompson. It intends to switch two more units to wood at a later date, investments that if completed will see it harvest a forest four
times the size of Rhode Island each year.
Winter Power Cuts Feared As
Britain Runs Out Of Energy. Energy regulator Ofgem also said consumers face massive rises in electricity bills as generators
are forced to rely on expensive gas to fuel power stations. The battle to keep the lights on is also being compromised by EU
anti-pollution laws which are forcing the early shutdown of coal-fired power stations. At the same time Britain's nuclear plants
are also closing.
One winner from the debate... coal miners.
It seems that one unexpected group of people may have gotten a decided lift from Mitt Romney's success at the first presidential debate.
According to Business Insider, coal miners — lately in tremendous fear for their livelihoods — may have reason to hope
for saving their jobs if Mitt pulls out a win next month.
U.S. coal stocks jump on Romney comments:
analysts. Mitt Romney's support of the coal industry during his debate with President Obama sent coal company stocks
higher on Thursday [10/4/2012], analysts said. "It's amazing what 15 words about coal in a presidential debate can do for the stocks," said
Michael Dudas of Sterne Agee.
Obama to Coal Miners: "McDonalds is Hiring!" Obama, the first President
in history to declare war on the coal industry and who vowed to put the industry out of business, was curiously confident that every union coal miner
would vote for him in the upcoming Presidential election — despite the fact that in doing so, they were putting themselves out of a job.
George Osborne's CO2 tax will
double UK electricity bills. Fast approaching, if largely unnoticed, is yet another massive shock the Government has in store for us with
its weirdly distorted energy policy. It is surprising to see what an abnormally high proportion of the electricity needed to keep our lights on
has lately been coming from coal-fired power stations. Last Wednesday evening [9/26/2012], for instance, this was over 50 percent,
with only 1.3 percent coming from wind power. Yet by next March, we learn, five of our largest coal-fired plants, capable of supplying
a fifth of our average power needs, are to be shut down, much earlier than expected, under an EU anti-pollution directive.
Coal supporters
harassed, barred at Obama-Biden events. Advocates of "clean coal," hopeful of pushing their cause at Obama-Biden
campaign events, say that organizers have confiscated T-shirts, hats and signs and harassed supporters. At a Chesterfield,
Virginia rally Tuesday for Vice President Biden, clean coal supporters said that their T-shirts, hats and signs were taken as they
passed through security. Others said that they were barred from entering after an official who had earlier confiscated clean
coal T-shirts called it a "private event."
A "Mean Green", Obama Wages War
Against Cheap Energy. Obama's preferred strategy has been to implement whatever policies increase the price of energy to American consumers. [...]
Obama's animus against fossil fuels explains why he chose Dr. Steven Chu to be his Secretary of Energy. Chu's most famous policy goal is encapsulated
in his statement, "Somehow we have to figure out a way to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe."
Coal States Crucial in Battle for
Control of Congress. For Republicans in the U.S. House, the math is simple: Keep the coal seats, stay in power. The very
last piece of legislation the House voted on yesterday before leaving for the campaign trail is called the Stop the War on Coal Act of
2012. It's a combination of five bills, four of which the House has passed in one form or another. All four have have gone nowhere in
the Senate.
'End the War on Coal Act' Comes To House Floor For Vote.
Four previously passed House bills aimed at limiting excessive regulation affecting the coal industry have remained stalled in the Senate. This prompted the
House to include them in legislation crafted by the 112th Congress scheduled for a vote on Friday [9/21/2012].
Rand
Paul says coal industry "may not survive" four more years of Obama. Kentucky's junior senator says the coal industry
may not survive four more years of President Obama in office. During a recent taping of WYMT's "Issues and Answers: The
Mountain Edition" program, Sen. Rand Paul (R - Ky.) accused the president of trying to "bankrupt the coal industry." "Already
(coal) competes with natural gas and is having trouble because natural gas is lower," Paul said. "The reason natural gas is
cheaper than coal is because all the regulatory burdens placed on coal and that regulatory burden continues to increase."
Angry at coal? Then turn off your
lights. The willingness of Americans to be persuaded to do things against their own interests seems to have no limits, which must give
great encouragement to our enemies. The latest evidence of that came a little south of Kalispell in the People's Republic of Missoula (hat tip
to Ayn Rand) where the local Revolutionary Council; (oops, I mean City Council!) last week passed a resolution to investigate the "environmental
impact" of coal trains passing through the city.
Coal, China and tilting at windmills.
One thing is certain: Those well-meaning environmentalists who think you can solve global warming by reducing coal emissions haven't been to China
recently. I just got back from a two-week visit to the Autonomous Region of Inner Mongolia, and it's no mystery why China has fought to remain
exempt from international feel-good treaties such as the Kyoto Protocol that would establish goals for lowering the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere.
Those quixotic goals just plain wouldn't work — certainly not in China, and that means not in one-sixth of the populated world.
Coal plants still pressured
despite Romney plan, EPA court loss. Coal-fired power plants will face pressure and in some cases closure despite
a Republican energy plan favorable to the industry and a court victory against new environmental rules. As many as
one-sixth of U.S. coal-fired power plants would close within eight years and be replaced by natural gas, according to an
Energy Department estimate.
Crushing Coal Under the
Regulatory Steamroller. The Environmental Protection Agency received another well-warranted slap on the hand last week.
In a 2-1 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that the EPA had overstepped its authority in its latest attempt to regulate emissions
that cross state lines. As one of the judges succinctly put it, "[W]e conclude that the EPA has transgressed statutory boundaries."
This is by no means the first time the courts have told the EPA that its penchant for heavy-handed regulation is out of order.
Earlier this year, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia rejected the EPA's attempt to retroactively veto a Clean Water Act
permit issued by the Army Corps of Engineers — in 2007. The court labeled the EPA's interpretation of the rule
as "unreasonable."
Obama's war on coal can be
stopped, not reversed, says CEO of coal company. The founder and CEO of the nation's 12th largest coal producer told Human Events in an
exclusive interview that President Barack Obama's war on coal has done permanent damage to America's competitiveness. "It can be stopped, but it
cannot be reversed," said Robert E. Murray, the CEO of Murray Energy, a privately-held coal producer based in Pepper Pike, Ohio. Obama is
planning to close 175 power plants by 2020, roughly equivalent to 83,000 megawatts, he said. Most of the plants will go off the grid
by 2014. The physical reality is that idle coal mines or coal-fired electric generating plants atrophy, he said.
Obama uses green pork to push the swing states: Nuclear's Dilemma: Few Jobs, Just Energy.
Last week, Environmental Entrepreneurs, a trade group, announced that wind and solar projects around the country had created 34,409 new jobs
around the country in the second quarter of 2012, with high concentrations in California, Michigan, Ohio, Florida, and Colorado. GOP
presidential candidate Mitt Romney immediately countered this by visiting Ohio's coal country, promising to protect the industry from the
Obama Administration' "War on Coal."
Court slaps down EPA on coal plant rule.
A federal appeals court dealt a major blow to environmentalists and a significant setback to the Obama administration's clear-air agenda Tuesday [8/21/2012]
by striking down a key Environmental Protection Agency rule limiting power-plant emissions. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled 2-1 that
the agency's Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, meant to curb harmful pollutants from drifting downwind and harming the air quality in neighboring states,
went too far and exceeded the EPA's "statutory authority."
Republican
Candidates Campaign Against Obama's "War on Coal". Combatting the Environmental Protection Agency's flurry of new regulations
on coal and other energy resources has become a campaign platform for Republicans in key battleground states. GOP contenders in states
such as Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia are directing their focus to the Obama administration's anti-coal policies, while blaming their
Democratic rivals for bolstering the EPA's intrusive regulatory efforts.
Coal Comfort. About one train per hour. That's the target loading rate for the
massive silos, conveyors, and hoppers at the North Antelope Rochelle Mine in Wyoming, the most productive coal mine in the world. [...] The scale and
productivity of the mine are difficult to imagine. It produces about three tons of coal per second. But despite its staggering output, the
North Antelope Rochelle Mine — along with the other 1,300 coal mines operating in the U.S. — is being threatened by the Obama
administration.
What is the EPA hiding? Numerous media reports have focused upon the
revolving door between the EPA and various environmentalist groups with hundreds officials reportedly moving back and forth between environmental agencies
and those that lobby them. The latest is Alfredo Armendariz, who resigned after a two year old video emerged of him explaining to environmental
groups that the EPA's enforcement policies compared favorably with those of the Roman Empire where they would crucify someone in a newly conquered town
to create the necessary fear in the citizenry. Now Armendariz is working with the Sierra Club on their anti-coal campaign, in just one more example
of the cozy relationship between the advocacy groups and the government that they lobby. And it is these very relationships that are at the heart of
the sue and settle controversy enveloping the Obama Administration.
Coal Miners' Union Sits Out
Presidential Race. After giving then-Sen. Barack Obama a full-throttled endorsement in the 2008 presidential election,
the United Mine Workers of America has decided not to endorse either Obama or the presumptive Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, in 2012.
The Editor says...
This is truly amazing. Barack H. Obama is choking the life out of the coal industry, and the coal miners' union can't bring itself to actively
oppose him (that is, to vote against him) because the unions are totally committed to the Democrat party, no matter what the Democrats do to them.
Here is my message to the coal miners: Sitting out this election is cowardice. If you do not actively vote against the party that is
intentionally destroying your way of life, you deserve everything that happens to you.
In swing states,
coal industry and workers buck Obama camp. Obama is waging "war on coal seeking to destroy the coal industry and the
jobs of our own employees and the livelihoods of their families," according to a Pennsylvania mine manager whose company laid off
225 workers in July. The chief executive of that company explained that "the escalating costs and uncertainty generated by
recently advanced EPA regulations and interpretations have created a challenging business climate for the entire coal industry."
Obama's War on coal totally unjustified. The coal industry is a
significant source of jobs. The typical coal miner earns $73,000 a year, says the National Mining Association, which represents the mining industry in
Washington. An estimated 60,000 Americans work in coal-fired power plants. These are high-productivity jobs because the employees work with large
amounts of capital. Electricity generated by coal takes just 0.18 employees per megawatt of plant capacity. Coal-fired power plant jobs pay
high wages because their employees are skilled. New EPA regulations are estimated to cut total coal employment by 1.4 million job-years between 2011
and 2020. Besides destroying jobs, the new regulations imposed by the administration will lead to the closing of 40 gigawatts of electric generation
capacity.
Ousted EPA
administrator vows to "stop the construction of any new coal plants in Texas". Al Armendariz's big mouth cost him his job as a regional
administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. Now that he's working for the Sierra Club, Armendariz appears even more opinionated about
the industry he once regulated. In his first comments since resigning from EPA in April, Armendariz unloaded on the coal industry, called President
Obama the most environmental president ever, and attacked the state of Texas for fighting the EPA in court.
Obama regulations
kill Ohio coal mine, hundreds of jobs wiped out. "At its peak, OhioAmerican employed 239 local people in high-paying,
well-benefited jobs," said Mr. Stanley T. Piasecki, General Manager and Superintendent. "University studies show that our
Mines can create up to eleven secondary jobs in our communities, for store clerks, teachers, etc., to serve our direct employees.
Thus, if one uses the eleven to one multiplier, the Obama Administration has destroyed 2,868 jobs in eastern Ohio with this forced
Mine closure," stated Mr. Piasecki.
[Inexplicable capitalization in original.]
Mine Succumbs To Obama's War On
Coal, Ohio. As he flies into an Ohio air base that budget cuts will close, the president won't also be visiting
an Ohio coal-mining operation shut down by his policies.
Temperatures up, lights out
across America. The Obama administration's war against fossil fuels and infatuation with renewable energy have exacerbated
the shortage of generating capacity. For example, the Environmental Protection Agency unveiled new standards in December that sharply
limit emissions of mercury and other pollutants from the nation's coal- and oil-burning power plants. If the Utility Maximum Achievable
Control Technology Rule is implemented as proposed, more than 60 coal-fired power plants, currently generating enough electricity to
supply 22 million households, likely will be shut down because retrofitting would not be economical. Forthcoming rules
limiting greenhouse gas emissions from coal plants will likely shutter additional units.
Record number of coal-fired
generators to be shut down in 2012. Facing declining demand for electricity and stiff federal environmental regulations, coal
plant operators are planning to retire 175 coal-fired generators, or 8.5 percent of the total coal-fired capacity in the United
States, according to an analysis by the Energy Information Administration (EIA). A record-high 57 generators will shut down in
2012, representing 9 gigawatts of electrical capacity, according to EIA. In 2015, nearly 10 gigawatts of capacity from
61 coal-fired generators will be retired. While many of those coal plants are old and relatively inefficient, the scope of
this new planned shutdown is unprecedented.
Dirty but essential —
that's coal. The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed a rule that, if enacted, would in effect outlaw the construction of new
coal-fired power plants in the United States. The EPA's motives are clear: It wants to shut down coal plants, which emit lots of carbon
dioxide. But the EPA and the Obama administration know their attack on coal is little more than a token gesture. The rest of the world will
continue to burn coal, and lots of it. Reducing the use of coal in the U.S. may force Americans to pay higher prices for electricity, but it
will have nearly no effect on climate change.
Mayor Bloomberg gives $50 million to fight coal-fired power plants.
New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg will donate $50 million to the Sierra Club to support its nationwide
campaign to eliminate coal-fired power plants. Sierra Club executive director Michael Brune described the
gift from Bloomberg Philanthropies, which will be spread out over four years, as "a game-changer, from our
perspective."
Obama Energy Policies Are Working: Patriot Coal Goes Bankrupt.
Patriot Coal Company filed for bankruptcy on July 9, 2012 as coal prices have plummeted from reduced demand resulting from low
natural gas prices and new regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). There are several problems with President
Obama's desire to eliminate coal from our energy system. First, there will be no carbon dioxide savings because the developing
world needs to burn coal to grow their economies. And, second, U.S. electricity prices will rise as natural gas price increases
along with its demand and as utility companies pass along the cost of meeting EPA regulations.
King Coal - No More? The power of coal is undisputed.
Coal powered much of the technological advances during the 1600s, 1700s, 1800s, and up to the mid 1900s. From railway steam engines, to
all kinds of other energy-consuming activities — coal was king. From the mid 20th century on, coal lost some of its "steam."
It simply got replaced by oil. For many applications oil was just more convenient to use than coal. Then, a decade ago or so,
environmental activists came up with the slogan "dirty coal". Many politicians fell for that slogan like flies for sugar.
The war over coal is personal. Amanda Sedgmer, mother
of five and daughter of coal country, believes that in this presidential election, her way of life is at stake. "If you ask anybody in the coal
industry what would happen if Obama is re-elected, they'd say the coal industry is done," said Sedgmer, whose husband, Ryan, is a coal miner and whose
family has depended on the industry for at least four generations.
U.S. — The Saudi Arabia of Oil?
I recall how in the late 1970s, back during the dark ages of the government-caused "energy crisis," President Jimmy Carter liked to say that the
United States is "the Saudi Arabia of coal." Yes — there was a time when liberal Democrats were in favor of expanded coal use
(unlike today), and Carter's pro-coal policies led to a significant expansion of coal-fired electricity in the 1980s.
Sherrod Brown's Coal Assault. U.S. Senator Sherrod
Brown (D., Ohio) voted for a job-killing federal environmental regulation that will cause coal-fired power plants to shut down in
the state of Ohio, despite previously acknowledging the negative economic consequences the regulation would have on his home state.
Brown voted June 20 against legislation that would repeal the Utility MACT rule, an Environmental Protection Agency regulation
stemming from the federal Clean Air Act that will lead to shutdowns of coal-fired power plants across the country. The
rule was upheld 53-46.
Down the Mine: George Orwell describes coal mining in the 1940's.
When I am digging trenches in my garden, if I shift two tons of earth during the afternoon, I feel that I have earned my tea. But earth is
tractable stuff compared with coal, and I don't have to work kneeling down, a thousand feet underground, in suffocating heat and swallowing coal
dust with every breath I take; nor do I have to walk a mile bent double before I begin. The miner's job would be as much beyond my power
as it would be to perform on a flying trapeze or to win the Grand National.
ALEC Weighs in on EPA's Proposed
Carbon Dioxide Standard. On March 27, 2012, the EPA proposed the first ever limit on carbon dioxide emissions from new power plants,
setting a cap of 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt-hour. By EPA's own admission, the rule is designed to force a major transformation
in electricity generation away from coal toward other fuel sources, such as natural gas. EPA claims that coal-fired plants can meet the requirement
through carbon capture and sequestration, yet the technology is not yet commercially viable, and EPA knows that utilities likely will opt for another
fuel source instead. The standard thus amounts to a de facto ban on future coal plants.
Coal Matters — Even in Manhattan. Coal today may
seem of little relevance to many residents of New York City or other American urban centers. It long ago ceased to fuel the furnaces of their
homes and apartment buildings in winter. But long after it disappeared from the uses most visible to city dwellers, coal is still the critical
fuel behind the everyday functions of their lives. Across the U.S. for more than a century, coal has remained quietly at work — providing
in recent years nearly half the electricity that lights urban buildings and streets, keeps air conditioners humming on hot days and energizes
computers and TVs to inform and entertain. Electricity generated with coal powers the factories that produce all manner of food, clothing,
cars and other goods for Americans everywhere.
RINO Alert! Senate kills effort
to block EPA regulations on coal-powered plants. Legislation to defeat an EPA emissions rule that critics say would kill
thousands of jobs and raise electricity rates for consumers was killed in the Senate Wednesday [6/20/2012]. A handful of
Republicans sided with Democrats to block the measure on a procedural vote of 46 yeas to 53 nays, including Sens. Lamar
Alexander of Tennessee, Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, Scott Brown of Massachusetts, and Susan Collins and Olympia Snow of Maine.
Coal Runnings. Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill (D., Mo.) voted yesterday
[6/20/2012] for massive new regulations on the coal industry despite claims on her website that she is not afraid to buck the party line to
protect her state's coal-fired power plants. McCaskill was one of 53 senators to vote down an amendment introduced by Sen. Jim Inhofe
that would have scuttled the Environmental Protection Agency's new regulations to cut mercury and other toxic emissions at coal-fired power
plants. The EPA estimates the regulations will cost nearly $10 billion a year, and Republicans and energy industry officials predict
the rules will lead to the closure of plants around the country.
Bid to kill EPA coal plant
regulations thwarted in Senate. Senate lawmakers on Wednesday [6/20/2012] blocked a GOP-led effort to scuttle Environmental Protection Agency
regulations that mandate cuts in mercury pollution and other toxic emissions from coal-fired power plants. The 46-53 vote against Sen. James
Inhofe's (R-Okla.) resolution staves off what would have been a stinging election-year rebuke of the White House green agenda.
Fear and trembling in West Virginia. In
a year when the Obama administration's "war on coal" could signify a Republican victory of landslide proportions in West Virginia, three
of the state's top Democrats recently announced they would not attend their party's national convention that will renominate the president
on Labor Day weekend.
Germany and Increasing Worldwide Coal
Consumption. Germany, one of the countries that constantly preaches the global warming doctrine
and insists the rest of the world do as it says, is increasing its reliance on coal and gas plants.
This is because it has put the closure of all its nuclear reactors on the fast track since the Fukushima
accident. The German government will use climate fund cash to build coal and natural gas plants.
Networks
Ignore Obama's War on Coal, But Papers Find Him Unpopular In 'Coal Country'. During the past year ABC, CBS, and NBC have sporadically
mentioned coal industry in their newscasts, but have outright ignored Obama's war on coal. Much like in the past, the majority of the reports
focused either on the danger of coal mining or climate change. Out of 13 news reports mentioning the coal industry this past year, only
one sentence on CBS "Morning News" even connected Obama's regulation to the industry.
Lisa Jackson: EPA isn't to blame for coal industry's
problems. Is this some sort of inept, tasteless joke? Try to read around the relentless environmental bias and feel-good blather of this glowing
profile of EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson from the Guardian, and you'll recognize the same sort of economic-language usage employed by the wider Obama administration
to try and disguise their many endeavors at central planning.
'Cap and Trade' For CO2 Needs a Stake through the
Heart. With its relentless, ideological war against coal by the activist EPA, the percentage of coal-fired power plants has decreased substantially,
from 51% to 42%, and is still trending downward, as power plants fired by lower-cost natural gas are taking over. Natural gas also emits roughly half as much
CO2 as coal per kilowatt-hour. The new stringent mercury rule proposed by EPA is already causing old coal-fired power plants to close. And proposed
CO2-emission limits would even prevent the construction of new plants in the U.S. Elsewhere the opposite is happening. For example, since Germany has
decreed that nuclear plants must close, coal-fired power-plants are being built at rapid pace. And of course, China has been building such plants at the
rate of one per week for some time now, paying little attention to the control of genuine toxic pollutants. As a result, global atmospheric CO2 levels are
increasing but will increase more rapidly as the world economy recovers — no matter what the EPA decrees.
'Significant' rise in electric bills seen.
Higher electric bills. Emphasis on solar power. A surge in electric cars. Those are some of the things about 500 utility
executives see in the future of their industry, according to a poll conducted by consulting and construction firm Black & Veatch.
Over 90% of the executives surveyed believe that rules requiring the use of more renewable energy and a cut in pollution from coal-fired
power plants will lead to higher monthly utility bills for consumers.
Coal industry video
slams 'frustrating' EPA, backs up Romney energy speech. The coal industry is hitting back against attacks on
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who highlighted the Obama administration's energy policies during a campaign
stop in Colorado. Those policies, he said, are hostile toward coal. A video released Friday [6/1/2012] by America's
Power, a coal industry-funded advocacy group, focused on the towns of Nucla and Naturita, Colo., where proposed regulations
from the Environmental Protection Agency threaten to close a coal mine and a coal plant. The regulations cover mercury
emissions and other pollutant standards.
Obama's EPA urges more red tape.
Right now, in the Pacific Northwest, the private sector is ready to put shovels in the ground and more than double the nation's
coal exports. Coal output in the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Montana is increasing, and companies are trying to
build export terminals to link increased domestic supply with burgeoning demand for electricity generation in China. This
is the way the global energy market is supposed to work, and American workers and the economy will benefit when abundant American
coal is sold to overseas buyers. That is, only if the federal government will let it happen.
Angry at coal? Then turn off your
lights. The willingness of Americans to be persuaded to do things against their own interests seems to have no limits, which must give
great encouragement to our enemies. The latest evidence of that came a little south of Kalispell in the People's Republic of Missoula (hat
tip to Ayn Rand) where the local Revolutionary Council; (oops, I mean City Council!) last week passed a resolution to investigate the "environmental
impact" of coal trains passing through the city.
Fights brewing over massive coal-export plans for
the Northwest. With the Northwest poised to become the country's leading coal-export region, fights are emerging on several fronts.
On the table are proposals to capitalize on Asia's thirst for cheap energy by building a half-dozen terminals in Washington and Oregon that would
export coal from the Rockies.
Will The War On Coal Unplug
Obama In November? As coal use drops, job losses rise and electricity prices skyrocket, an electoral map of the 16 top
coal-mining states does not bode well for an administration whose energy policy consists of algae and exploding electric cars.
EPA
holds 12-hour hearings with environmentalists to slow coal production. The Environmental Protection Agency held
12 hours of stacked hearings in Washington, D.C. and Chicago on Thursday [5/24/2012] in favor of a regulation that analysts
have concluded would kill the building of new conventional coal plants in the U.S. Among the participants scheduled to
testify in consecutive five minute blocks throughout the day were multiple representatives from the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People and environmental activists from the Sierra Club, the Environmental Defense Fund, the
Natural Resources Defense Council and Greenpeace.
Obama's war on coal hits your electric bill.
Obama's War on Coal has already taken a remarkable toll on coal-fired power plants in America. Last week the U.S. Energy Information Administration
reported a shocking drop in power sector coal consumption in the first quarter of 2012. Coal-fired power plants are now generating just 36 percent
of U.S. electricity, versus 44.6 percent just one year ago. It's the result of an unprecedented regulatory assault on coal that will leave us all
much poorer.
Coal Miners Protest Biden In Ohio. Coal miners upset
with the Obama administration's policies on energy protested Vice President Joe Biden's campaign rally here. More than 100 coal miners and tea
party activists stood on a hill overlooking Biden's speech holding signs like "Biden said 'no more coal in America'" and "Stop the war on coal, fire
Obama."
Biden in 2007: Coal
more likely to kill an American than terrorism. Video from a 2007 forum shows Vice President Joe Biden saying
that he believes coal and corn syrup are more dangerous than a terrorist attack. The video resurfaced after the Obama
campaign replaced "fuel efficiency" with "clean coal" on a list of energy priorities Friday [5/11/2012]. [...] In September 2008,
Biden told supporters on the campaign trail, "we're not supporting clean coal. … No coal plants here in America."
Real Hope for Ending Federal Debt. [Scroll
down] Of course, tapping the United States' natural resources is the opposite of what Obama is doing. Oil and gas production on federal
lands has dropped by 40% under the dreary marriage of environmentalism, puerile elitism, and Marxism which is Obamanomics. What is true of oil
is also true of coal. The price of coal is about $40 per ton, and actively promoting coal production could generate $300 billion in
potential royalties to the federal government from coal mined on federal lands.
Taking A Fresh Look At Coal. With the current very low price for natural
gas, it's reasonable to conclude that we can afford to shut down old coal-fired power plants and replace them with natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) plants and not
worry about ultra-supercritical coal-fired power plants. An earlier article established that 167 old coal-fired power plants could be shut down without
endangering our supply of electricity — providing they weren't closed too quickly. During the next few years the price of natural gas will rise, to
the point where coal would again be competitive. It would then be wise to consider building ultra-supercritical coal-fired power plants, and allow market
forces to make the determination.
The Week That Was. A strident opponent of coal-generated electricity,
the Sierra Club campaigned that natural gas was the clean alternative. The Club has bragged that it prevented the construction of some 150 coal
fired power plants. Now that the EPA has proposed rules to prevent the construction new coal-fired power plants, the Sierra Club has begun a
campaign calling natural gas a dirty fuel. Of course, the objective is to cripple the economy by shutting down all forms of energy use and
electric power generation.
War On Coal: EPA Rule Could
Shut Down One-Fourth of America's Coal Plants. President Obama came into office promising to bankrupt the coal industry. Through the
EPA he has followed up on that promise, and coal producers are warning that the agency's latest rule may kill off a huge swath of their industry.
Top 10 misguided energy policies. [#6] War on coal: The Obama
Environmental Protection Agency is waging a war on coal, slowing the permitting process to a crawl and issuing crippling regulations.
Candidate Obama signaled as much in 2008, when he said: "When I was asked earlier about the issue of coal, under my plan of a cap-and-trade
system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket."
The Human Consequences of EPA's War on Coal.
Nebraska is a coal-intensive state. According to the video [in this article], 71% of the state's power comes from coal. And while the state
has the 11th lowest electricity costs in the nation, Tworek says "prices seem to continually go up." If the EPA has its way, those price hikes
will only intensify. For the first time ever, the agency has classified carbon dioxide, the chemical compound that sustains vegetative life, as a
"pollutant." Using the resulting authority over carbon emission regulations, the EPA now plans restrictions on coal power plants that are so
stringent, they will likely herald the demise of coal's role in electricity production.
Germany
Building 17 New Coal, 29 New Gas-Fired Power Stations. German utilities and private investors have plans to construct
or modernise some 84 power stations, energy and water industry association BDEW said on Monday [4/23/2012]. Of the total number
counted 29 units were gas-fired and 17 coal-fired generation plants, it said.
The figures show the world to be on the cusp of another fossil fuel boom. The Return Of King Coal.
King Coal is refusing to die and, without a significant breakthrough in technology, the biggest energy future winner looks
certain to be gas. The reality is in stark contrast to the big objectives of Australian Greens leader Christine Milne,
who last night used her first speech on energy policy since taking the leadership from Bob Brown to repeat her call for
100 percent renewable energy and for deep cuts in emissions as fast as possible.
The Next Decade of Coal is Here.
From 2011-2020, coal will generate over 100,000 terawatt hours — more electric power than gas produced in the past 50 years
and more than nuclear has produced in its existence.
In Australia: Anti-coal
funding sparks outrage. Three green groups named in last week's leaked proposal to undermine the multi-billion-dollar coal
industry have received a total of close to $750,000 in funding from the Department of Climate Change, an industry analysis obtained by
The Australian shows. The Nature Conservation Council (NSW), Environment Victoria and the Conservation Council of Western
Australia have received grants of $211,000, $213,215 and $319,420 respectively for public climate change activities since last December.
Coal Ash Regulation: Another Front on the 'War Against
Coal'. A natural byproduct of the combustion process for coal-fired power plants, coal ash is typically stored
onsite at power plants or sold on the open market for use in the production of concrete and other materials. In 2010, EPA
proposed a pair of regulatory approaches for dealing with coal ash, but has to yet to decide how to regulate the material.
Settlement Forces
Cancellation of Georgia Supercritical Coal Plant. Under a settlement agreement reached between environmental
groups on Tuesday [4/10/2012] and Power4Georgians, the consortium of four electric membership cooperatives (EMCs) in Georgia will
continue development of its $2.1 billion coal-fired Plant Washington but will shelve plans for its proposed 850-MW
supercritical Ben Hill plant. The agreement was reached after environmental groups challenged a Plant Washington
permit issued by the Georgia Department of Environmental Protection.
Sky-high Electric Bills Courtesy of Obama
EPA's War on Coal. If Congress doesn't act to rein in the EPA's all-out war on coal, we will all be paying much higher electrical rates — and
higher prices for just about everything else, since virtually everything we eat, drink, wear, and use requires energy for production and transportation. Thousands of
coal-mining jobs are on the chopping block, of course, but hundreds of thousands of other jobs spread across all sectors of our economy are on the same chopping block.
For businesses that are struggling to remain viable in this ongoing recession, energy costs are critical and even a slight uptick in rates can be the straw that breaks the
camel's back.
Somehow they left the word "coal" out of this report, but that's what it's all about. Federal
Inmate Keith Judd [Fares Well] in West Virginia Democratic Primary. Barack Obama was not the only Democrat on the ballot on Tuesday [5/8/2012]
in West Virginia's Democratic Presidential Primary. Keith Judd — also known as Inmate No. 11593-051 at the Federal Correctional
Institution in Texarkana, Texas — was running against him. Judd, who is serving out a 17.5 year sentence for extortion, currently
has received 40 percent of the vote, with 83 percent of precincts reporting, according to The Associated Press. Obama currently has
received 60 percent of the vote.
Surprise! Our energy future isn't so bad.
The EIA report suggests three important conclusions. First, despite big gains in energy efficiency and
increases in "renewables" (wind, solar, biofuels), fossil fuels will remain the mainstay of America's energy
system for years. In 2010, fossil fuel represented 83 percent of U.S. energy consumption, with oil
at 37 percent, natural gas at 25 percent and coal at 21 percent.
Coal, gas exports meet tough environmental
resistance. Last week, the Sierra Club announced that it would use a unique 1970s environmental agreement to halt
the construction of a natural gas liquefaction and export plant at Cove Point in Maryland. Energy giant Dominion, which
hopes to build the first such plant on the East Coast, plans to move forward and could end up fighting environmentalists in court.
The coal industry also has proposed massive export facilities in the Pacific Northwest, where millions of tons of American coal
would be prepped for shipment to burgeoning markets in Asia. But those projects have generated an intense backlash from
environmentalists and their political allies...
The
Hype Surrounding Renewable Energy. [Scroll down] America is blessed with vast amounts of
coal (providing nearly half of our electricity), and natural gas (about 23% of power). We also have huge
land and offshore oil reserves vital for transportation fuel, including enormous amounts contained along with
gas in oil shale deposits amounting to hundreds of years of supply.
New
EPA rule threatens coal industry, electricity consumers. On March 27, the Environmental Protection Agency issued a rule on
new power plants in the U.S., limiting CO2 emissions per megawatt-hour of electricity produced to 1,000 pounds. This is about what a
state-of-the-art, combined-cycle, gas-fired power plant emits, and far below what the best coal-fired plant can accomplish without extremely
expensive (and currently commercially unavailable) carbon capture technology. While the new rule has certain exceptions and allows for
phasing in the new technology over many years, it adds to the woes of the largest single source of electric power generation in the country.
Enviros
Whack 100 Coal-Fired Plants. While we are all looking at gas prices, there is another dramatic energy
price increase going on that is totally optional; one that is within the President's power to completely reverse.
Coal-fueled electricity generation is the lowest cost. Yet, due to cost-increasing regulations, coal-fueled power
plants are being shut down at an alarming rate — killing jobs, raising rates, and putting the
reliability of the electrical grid at risk.
EPA cracks the whip on coal-fired
power plants. In a move praised by activists as a way to save lives but criticized by industry
as potentially driving up electricity costs, the Obama administration has agreed to adopt rules reducing toxic
emissions of mercury, soot and other chemicals from all coal-fired power plants in the U.S.
Energy Suicide: Unplugging America.
The U.S. is home to huge reserves of coal. It is often called the Saudi Arabia of coal. The
same applies to oil. For all the talk of "energy independence", the U.S. through its energy policies
has been embarked since around the 1970s on something I call energy suicide. If there is one thing the
Greens truly hate it is the fuels we use to maintain our economy and our lifestyle.
Crony
Capitalism and Obama's Anti-Coal Crusade. Barack Obama has long sought to bankrupt the coal
industry. But, Cook County politician that he is and always will be, the relevant question is: who
benefits from his plans wreck a major portion of our economy while also boosting electricity prices across
America? A clue: he and his pals from Chicago have incestuous ties to the one company whose
prospects will be boosted by Obama's policies.
Fakegate: The War on Science.
The rise of the environmental movement began in the 1970s, but really took off in the 1980s with the greatest hoax
of the modern era, the claim based entirely on corrupt computer models and astonishingly stupid "science", that the
Earth was within a decade, then twenty, then fifty years, of being destroyed by the rise of carbon dioxide (CO2) in
the atmosphere. So many billions were lavished on this claim, initiated by the United Nations Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), that it became a gravy train of government and foundation funding that included
international treaties like the 1997 Kyoto Accords which nations agreed to reduce CO2 emissions, even if that
meant — as is the present case of a new Environmental Protection Agency rule — that would
shut down coal-fired plants that produce more than half of the nation's electricity.
EPA Toughens Mining
Permits. The Environmental Protection Agency tightened water-quality standards that could severely
limit future surface coal-mining operations throughout Appalachia, while mining-industry officials said the
change was unfair and endangers jobs in the region. The action is a significant step in the EPA's push
under the Obama administration to limit the practice of mountaintop coal mining and its environmental effects.
For the first time, the agency is setting limits on the electrical conductivity, or salinity, of streams,
which can be impacted by such mining.
The Editor says...
Fretting about the conductivity of rivers is nothing more than quixotic busywork for the EPA. Distilled
water is the only pure, non-conductive water. All the water in all the rivers in the world is
electrically conductive because it has various minerals and contaminants dissolved and suspended in it.
And who decides what is a "stream"? Can a puddle be a "stream"?
Texas
AG Sues EPA over Obama's War on Energy. In an attempt to push back the government overreach that
has been killing jobs in the country since Obama's red-tape machine arrived in DC, Texas has decided to sue the
EPA over rules that threaten to shut down coal fired plants. Texas, under Governor Rick Perry and Attorney
General Greg Abbott, has been at the forefront of the 10th Amendment movement seeking to reign in the federal
government's repeated attempts to micromanage, manhandle and mismanage almost every aspect of the citizens'
personal and professional lives.
Electric
rates will soar now that Obama's EPA has crushed coal-fired power plants. That Obama's EPA would release
a rule to destroy coal-fired electricity while the president gives stump speeches about an "all of the above" energy
policy is an insult to the American people. This rule will effectively block any new coal-fired power plants from
being built in America, and a second round of related rules — expected after the election, of course — will
shut down existing coal-fired power plants. The result will be steeply higher electricity prices, lost jobs, and
lower standards of living.
Global
warmists abandoned fact for fancy. Given that China is building a new coal-fired power station every week, with
India not far behind, it's a fair bet that CO2 emissions will increase for decades regardless of what we in the West do.
Spanking EPA. Arch Coal received clearance from the Army
Corps of Engineers in 2007 to begin construction of the largest coal mine in West Virginia. This represented a quarter-billion-dollar
investment that would create 250 jobs directly and create or save thousands more by providing cheap energy to homes, industry and
other businesses. The Obama administration came in and revoked the permit — the first time the EPA in its 40-year
history ever revoked such a permit for a coal mine after it was issued.
Climate talks, then
climate tax. Beneath our feet lies a treasure trove of affordable energy resources that warmist
adherents, who include President Obama, have placed off-limits. The United States possesses 1.4 trillion
barrels of recoverable oil, more than the oil the entire world has consumed during the past 150 years,
according to an Institute for Energy Research report released last week. Add in an estimated 2.7 quadrillion
cubic feet of recoverable natural gas and 486.1 billion short tons of recoverable coal, and our energy reserves
exceed those of any other nation on Earth. [Emphasis added.]
The U.S. has an abundance
of fossil fuels. Of the three major fossil fuels, the United States is in the top ten of two of the fossil fuels' proven reserves
globally. The U.S. has the largest proven reserves of coal and the fifth-largest proven reserves of natural gas.
Green
Energy Skepticism. At today's consumption levels, we have enough coal to meet our needs for the next 500 years.
Al Gore, the United Nations, and the Cult of Gaia (1999):
[President Clinton] designated 1.7 million acres of land in southwest Utah as a national monument, placing it off limits to
development. This area reportedly contains billions of barrels of oil, minerals and tens of billions of tons of low sulfur
clean-burning coal. It could have produced thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in revenue for the state and federal governments.
EPA
to impose first greenhouse gas limits on power plants. Industry officials and environmentalists said in interviews
that the rule, which comes on the heels of tough new requirements that the Obama administration imposed on mercury emissions and
cross-state pollution from utilities within the past year, dooms any proposal to build a coal-fired plant that does not have costly
carbon controls. "This standard effectively bans new coal plants," said Joseph Stanko, who heads government relations at the
law firm Hunton and Williams and represents several utility companies. "So I don't see how that is an 'all of the above' energy
policy."
The Editor says...
The photograph above accompanied the article next to it, and is an example of journalistic bias on the part of the Washington
Post. The photographer took a picture of the water vapor being released from some factory or power plant on a cold and
cloudy day, and the picture was then used to falsely depict carbon dioxide coming from a smokestack. Carbon dioxide
is a colorless gas. The emissions in this picture appear to be gray and black because of the angle and the
lighting. Under other lighting conditions, these plumes would be as white as clouds, because they are made from
the same material -- water vapor. And on a hot summer day, you probably would not notice these vapors at all.
There could very well be carbon dioxide mixed in with the plumes in this picture; but if you'll notice, the emissions
are invisible as they leave the stacks, and then they become clouds as they encounter the cold and evidently saturated
outside air. Water vapor is the predominant "greenhouse gas", so this is a picture of a "greenhouse gas emission",
strictly speaking, but not in the way the Washington Post writer likely intended.
Showdown at the EPA corral.
Over the past three years, the Obama EPA has conducted a scorched earth campaign against fossil fuel producers and users,
especially the coal-fired power industry, with multibillion-dollar rules that provide no meaningful environmental or
public-health benefits, like the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule and the Mercury Air Toxics Standard (MATS). The
EPA will soon propose its greenhouse gas emission standards for power plants — rules that will attempt to
make it financially impossible to construct new coal-fired power plants in the United States.
Did the EPA Just Kill Big Coal?
Today, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed a set of landmark greenhouse gas regulations that will surely have every coal
country politician, from the hills to Appalachia to the Powder River Basin of Wyoming, sputtering mad. The rule will require
new power plants to emit about 43 percent less carbon dioxide than today's coal-fired generators. Natural gas plants
already meet this requirement. But if a utility wants to burn coal for electricity, it will need to install carbon capture
technology — and that's really expensive.
The Editor says...
China is building two coal-fired power plants a week,*
presumably without filters or scrubbers of any kind. And the exhaust from those plants goes into the same atmosphere that
the U.S. is struggling to protect from CO2.
Obama's Mine Shaft: Barack
Obama's plan to bankrupt anyone building a new coal plant prioritizes global warming myths over U.S. energy independence.
It also wields government power punitively and will hurt the economy.
Less Power To Him. Barack
Obama's apparent choice for Energy secretary is physicist Steven Chu. ... He has criticized "free market forces" for
not cutting carbon dioxide emissions and supports "a combination of fiscal policies and downright regulations" for
controlling CO2. He claims coal — which today fuels hundreds of power plants — is an "obstacle
to progress," and has said "coal is my worst nightmare."
Obama's Energy Policy: Al Gore's Pipe
Dream. Obama also pledges to put a million "plug-in hybrid cars" on the road by 2015 — by
offering a $7,000 tax credit to anyone who buys one. Of course, Obama's energy proposals haven't won
him friends in the coal industry, which he has essentially vowed to shut down.
President-elect
Barack Obama proposes economic suicide for US. [Obama] talks blithely of allowing only "clean"
coal-fired power plants, using "carbon capture" — burying the CO2 in holes in the ground —
which would double the price of electricity, but the technology for which hasn't even yet been developed.
He then babbles on about "generating five million new green jobs".
Time for Inaction on Global
Warming. So what would we have to do get back to 1977 emission levels and meet the Boxer-Kerry
requirement? First, car and truck miles travelled would have to be reduced by one-third... Next, the
amount of coal burned to generate electricity would have to be cut in half. So we would close more than
200 of our coal-fired power plants, and as [Steven] Hayward says that would reduce our electricity supply by
some 800 million megawatts. ... It would take 97 years to make up for the shutdown of
200 coal-fired plants.
Abrupt climate-change reversal.
The EPA's website features an Extreme Events page, which reads: "Human-induced climate change has the potential to alter the
prevalence and severity of extremes such as heat waves, cold waves, storms, floods and droughts." On the basis of that premise,
EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson last week announced plans to place crushing restrictions on the nation's coal-burning power
plants, on which Americans depend to produce 45 percent of the nation's electricity.
EPA loses battle against W.Va. coal mines.
U.S. District Judge Reggie Barnett Walton, a Bush 43 appointee to the D.C. bench, handed the Obama
administration its hat today by ruling that the Environmental Protection Agency overstepped its authority in
pulling Corps of Engineers permits for coal mines in Appalachia, including West Virginia. The National
Mining Association had sued the EPA. The judge said: "Congress established a permitting scheme in
which the Corps is to be the principal player, and the EPA is to play a lesser, clearly defined supporting role."
You
are Invited to Occupy the Job-Killing, Wealth-Robbing EPA Mafia. Regular readers have been able to follow
along as I chronicle the 17,384-employee wrecking crew that is the EPA. This week the racket put the coal industry
out of business, helped raise electricity prices for everyone, and did it all for the low, low price of $9,000,000,000 per year.
If the Lights Go Out.
Say what you will about Obama Administration regulators, their problem has rarely been a failure to regulate.
Which makes the abdication of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission especially notable — and dangerous
for the U.S. power supply. Last week FERC convened a conference on the wave of new Environmental Protection
Agency rules that are designed to force dozens of coal-fired power plants to shut down. The meeting barely
fulfilled the commission's legal obligations, but despite warnings from expert after expert, including some of
its own, the FERC Commissioners refuse to do anything about this looming threat to electric reliability.
The Green Jobs Boondoggle. One thing at which the
"green" portion of the public sector has become particularly adept is burning through taxpayer money. The Environmental
Protection Agency now spends about $11 billion per year, up from an already ridiculous $8 billion three years ago.
The EPA has nearly completed what it will consider the signature accomplishment of its 41-year existence if successful — the
implementation of "a proposed rule for greenhouse gas emissions from new power plants ... (which) experts believe 'effectively bans
new coal plants' in the United States." In 2008, candidate Obama said he wanted to bankrupt companies if they tried to build
new coal-burning plants. Since Congress wouldn't create that situation by passing ruinous cap and trade legislation, Mr. "We
Can't Wait" is having the EPA do it for him.
EPA
Regulations Cost Jobs and Cause Blackouts. Reports indicate that the predominant costs of implementing
the Environmental Protection Agency's new "green" economy regulations are job loss (as coal plants are forced to
close) and mass blackouts.
EPA CO2
Regulation Effectively Bans New Coal Facilities. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released
a new rule to regulate CO2 emissions from power plants, which would effectively ban new coal power plants, as its
emissions standards are too low to be met by conventional coal-fired facilities.
Obama
Moves in to Kill Coal Industry With Onerous New EPA Regs. Barack Obama continues his war on cheap
American energy. In January 2008 Barack Obama told the San Francisco Chronicle: "Under my plan of
a cap and trade system electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket. Businesses would have to retrofit their
operations. That will cost money. They will pass that cost onto consumers." He promised
that his plan would cause electricity rates to skyrocket.
EPA emission standards may
rule out new coal power plants. Taking aim at the gases that the vast majority of scientists say are the main contributor to
climate change, the Obama administration proposed rules limiting carbon dioxide emissions from new power plants, a move that could
essentially bar new coal-fired electric generation facilities.
Bias alert:
The excerpt above is only the first sentence of the heavily slanted article, but it includes several clear indications of the
writer's bias. "Taking aim at the gases"? There is only one gas mentioned in the remainder of the article, and that
gas is carbon dioxide. "[T]he vast majority of scientists say..." is an attempt to substitute consensus for scientific
proof. "[T]he main contributor to climate change" is the sun, not industrial activity. The rest of the article is
similarly one-sided.
Climate activists in
Copenhagen protest coal use. Hundreds of climate activists protested Saturday against the use of
fossil fuels, but were blocked from entering a coal-firing plant they had hoped to shut down by chaining themselves
to conveyor belts.
Greenpeace
intruders arrested. Three Greenpeace activists were arrested Thursday and charged with mischief
after they boarded an ore carrier hauling coal across Lake Erie to a power plant in Ontario. Five
activists initially boarded the Algomarine in a bid to delay the delivery of nearly 30,000 tonnes of coal to
the Nanticoke power plant and draw attention to the issue of global warming, said Greenpeace spokeswoman
Joslyn Higginson.
Clean-energy hostages.
After failing to crush the coal industry with the ill-fated Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill, Mr. Obama has since
loosed his regulatory agencies, especially the thuggish Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA is on the
verge of proposing its greenhouse gas emission rules for power plants — the "cap" part of cap-and-trade —
despite ongoing litigation over their legality. One concern is that the rules as implemented will block
the construction of new coal-fired power plants — the very same sort of power that safely provides
about 45 percent of U.S. electricity.
Electric Cars: Low Volts,
Falling Leafs. [Scroll down] One also has to ask what sources will generate the additional
electricity necessary to power a fleet of EVs? At present, those sources are coal (45%), natural gas (25%),
nuclear (20%), hydro (7%), and other sources (3%). To a large degree, EV's simply shift the usage of fossil
fuels from the tank to the power plant. It's nice to pretend that one is driving around carbon free ("taking
emissions out of the driving experience," as Nissan puts it), but almost nowhere in America will that be the
case.
Labor unions double-crossed by the White House: Obama gives coal workers the shaft.
The leader of the United Mine Workers of Americas, the continent's largest coal workers union, December 21
denounced the President and the EPA on the day the agency issued its new Mercury and Air Toxics Standards rule.
Kentucky's Leading Democrat Takes
on Obama's EPA. Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear has sent a letter to President Barack Obama expressing
frustration with the adverse impact of Environmental Protection Agency regulations on Kentucky miners' ability
to produce coal. "Kentucky has experienced tremendous frustration over the uncertainty and overreaching
policies of the EPA surrounding the Clean Water Act," Beshear wrote, noting an eight-month period of negotiations
that saw dozens of coal mining permit applications placed on federal hold ended on a sour note.
EPA to Raise
Electricity Prices, Risk Blackouts. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), seemingly undeterred
by the slow economic recovery, is marching ahead with air pollution regulations that would increase electricity
prices, raise costs for businesses and consumers, and risk power outages. The EPA's Cross-State Air Pollution
Rule (CSAPR) and the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) are scheduled to go into effect in January of 2012
and 2015, respectively. Other pending related regulations include the Boiler MACT and Utility MACT rules,
coal ash regulations, and new standards for cooling water intake structures. All of these are expensive
and put jobs at risk.
Obama's War on U.S. Energy.
It is coal-fired plants that currently provide fifty percent of all the electricity generated in America!
The EPA is feverishly trying to force a quarter of that capacity offline. Why? Because the EPA claims
that these plants are "polluting" the air. The air in America has never been cleaner. The EPA demand
for cleaner air is a bludgeon being used to deprive America of its ability to function. America has more
than 497 billion short tons of recoverable coal (not counting Alaska) or nearly three times as much as
Russia, which has the world's second largest reserve.
A Real
Choice on Climate Change: Do Nothing. There is ample evidence that the benefits of economic growth unhindered
by costly emissions controls surpass the deleterious effects of global warming. According to World Bank estimates,
nearly 2 billion people in developing countries rely on dung, wood and charcoal to heat their homes and cook their
food. For the impoverished, a coal-fired power plant giving them access to affordable energy would be a blessing.
We can afford to let the climate be.
Global
warmists abandoned fact for fancy. Many scientists think CO2 emissions have a trivial effect on
climate, but even those who support the theory of anthropogenic global warming (AGW) generally agree that the
efforts we are making will result in changes so small that they cannot even be measured. Given that
China is building a new coal-fired power station every week, with India not far behind, it's a fair bet that
CO2 emissions will increase for decades regardless of what we in the West do.
Appalachian
Coal Miners Say EPA Rules Are Killing Their Jobs. Since last year, The Environmental Protection Agency
has stepped up regulation on mountaintop coal mining across six Appalachian states because the explosives that are
used to remove mountain surfaces send debris into rivers and streams, endangering the environment. But
with the stricter rules in place, the industry, which is considered the lifeblood of Appalachian towns, argues
it's under attack. Workers and advocacy groups that represent them say the rules unfairly target their
region and require mining firms to meet unrealistic standards.
EPA's
Looming Blackouts. It won't matter which light bulbs we use as the administration's implementation
of cross-state pollution rules shuts down coal plants across the country. Where will the jobs be when
the lights go out?
EPA About to Fulfill Obama Promise to
'Bankrupt' Coal? Over the next 18 months, the Environmental Protection Agency will
finalize a flurry of new rules to curb pollution from coal-fired power plants. Mercury, smog, ozone,
greenhouse gases, water intake, coal ash — it's all getting regulated. And, not surprisingly,
some lawmakers are grumbling.
The
EPA's giant green jobs-killer. Even as the "green jobs" promise proves to be a lie, the Obama
administration is getting set to force the shutdown of countless power plants across half the nation.
The Environmental Protection Agency's new Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, announced last month, will affect
coal-fired electric plants in at least 27 midwestern and eastern states. Set to take effect next year,
the rule could shutter up to a fifth of the nation's generating capacity.
America is Under Attack.
The EPA, wielding these laws like battle axes aimed at our heads, has been unleashed by the
Obama-Soetoro administration with orders to attack our last source of affordable power.
That the Marxist fraud who would be King is doing this should surprise no one. On
November 2, 2008, he told the nation that he intended to bankrupt the coal industry and
the coal-fired producers of electricity.
EPA
To Shut Down 20% of Coal Plants in 2012. Susan Kraemer at CleanTechnica can barely contain her
excitement at the prospect of environmental regulations. In an article titled "Obama's EPA Cues
130 Billion Race to Cut Pollution By 2015", she reports that the EPA will shut down 20 percent of
coal plants through the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule. She acknowledges the cost of these regulations
($130 billion), but insists that this is actually good for the economy. How, pray tell, does
$130 billion in regulatory expenses transform into a $130 billion boon?
The Global Warming Hoax is Now Killing People.
By Friday, February 10th, an estimated 500 Europeans had died from the freezing weather gripping the continent.
This is the price they and British citizens are paying for embracing the global warming hoax, spending billions for wind
power when they should have been building coal-fired and other sources of energy to heat their homes and businesses.
Obama's Real Energy Policy.
[Scroll down] Ezra Klein in the Washington Post reports that the EPA is moving forward with its plans to
shutter 20% of the nation's coal-fired power plants. While many are grandfathered in, the power will
still go offline starting in the next 18 months. The president has clearly stated on the record
that he wants to put the coal industry out of business.
Georgia Power says it will close
3 power-plant units. The decision to shutter the coal-fired units is based on the pending
Environmental Protection Agency rules that would require the utility to install equipment to meet stricter
environmental controls, the company has said. It would be too costly to upgrade the Plant Branch
units, which started operating in 1965 and 1967.
Now
even unions see Obama, EPA moving to kill coal, quarter-million jobs. President Obama's cap-and-trade
bill died in the Democrat-run 111th Congress, but that hasn't stopped the chief executive and Lisa Jackson,
his U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrator, from finding regulatory paths to achieve the same
goals. Topping those goals is the abolition of coal as an electrical power-generating fuel. More
than half of the electrical power used every day by Americans is generated by power plants fueled by coal.
And 90 percent of all the coal consumed in the U.S. goes to electrical power generation. But that
doesn't matter to Obama and Big Green, they are determined to kill the coal industry because of its alleged
contribution to global warming.
Small Business Admin report: New coal regulations will kill jobs, economy.
President Barack Obama is ignoring heated concerns from within his own administration that new Environmental
Protection Agency coal industry regulations will be economically devastating. The EPA is plowing
forward with new Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) mandates. The regulations would
force coal energy plants to install giant scrubber-like materials inside smokestacks in order to
capture and cleanse carbon particles before their release into the atmosphere.
Targeting
Drifting Pollution with New EPA Regulations. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa
Jackson is expected to announce tough new regulations Thursday [7/14/2011] that seek to significantly reduce
emissions from many coal-fired power plants. The new measures will cover plants in as many as 28 states
whose pollution blows into other states.
Obama's coal tax.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Wednesday [7/6/2011] finalized "cross-state air pollution" regulations
designed to drive coal-plant operators out of business. This noxious rule will choke job creation and
ensure that consumers are stricken with higher utility bills every time they switch on the mercury-filled
curlicue light bulbs they also will be forced to buy.
Can a State
Bypass the EPA? In 2010, the EPA granted exactly two new coal mining permits in West Virginia.
There are fifty outstanding permits, because according to the EPA, bugs are more important than jobs.
Mayfly populations are disrupted when coal companies dig beneath the surface of the earth, which the EPA says
affects the amount of food and thus the populations of indigenous fish. Other research has indicated that
as soon as those bugs leave, other ones take their place, and fish populations are unaffected. As the
result of this standoff, coal cannot expand in Appalachia, and some of the highest paying jobs in the state
remain unfilled.
The EPA is gradually and systematically choking off all sources of domestic energy. Chairman
Issa Slams EPA Decision To Close Mine. In a preview of the type of confrontations likely this year
as the new Republican-led House gets down to business, the chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform committee,
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said an action by the Environmental Protection Agency to effectively close down a West
Virginia coal mine was part of the "climate of uncertainty" facing businesses that was holding back the economic
recovery.
EPA Blasted as It
Revokes Mine's Permit. The Environmental Protection Agency, in an unusual move, revoked a key
permit for one of the largest proposed mountaintop-removal coal-mining projects in Appalachia, drawing cheers from
environmentalists and protests from business groups worried their projects could be next. The decision to
revoke the permit for Arch Coal Inc.'s Spruce Mine No. 1 in West Virginia's rural Logan County marks the first
time the EPA has withdrawn a water permit for a mining project that had previously been issued.
EPA Grants Itself More Powers,
Revokes Permit. Not ones to rest on their laurels, the federal appointees at the Environmental
Protection Agency have jumped into 2011 reaffirming their status as the most dangerous regulators in Washington.
In a bewildering reversal on Thursday [1/13/2011], the EPA revoked a permit it issued more than three years ago
for the Spruce No. 1 Mine, set for operation in Logan County, West Virginia. Mingo Logan, a
subsidiary of Arch Coal, originally obtained a mining permit from the EPA in 2007 in accordance with the
Clean Water Act (CWA). The Section 404 permit was issued after a decade of review and costly
analyses, whereby the project was deemed unobjectionable. Until now, that is.
Obama
Coal Crackdown Sends Message to Industry. A move by the Environmental Protection Agency to
revoke the long-standing permits for a mammoth coal mine in West Virginia sends a strong signal that
President Obama plans to implement key parts of his agenda even though newly empowered Republicans can block
his plans in Congress. In the aftermath of the November elections, many political pundits predicted
that the once-unchecked Obama legislative machine would turn it's [sic] energies to federal rulemaking as a
way to circumvent Republicans on Capitol Hill. And the EPA's decision last week suggests that those
forecasts were spot-on.
New EPA rules to
devastate coal industry. The coal industry is crying foul over new Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) regulations which they say will be among the most be costly rules ever imposed by the agency
on coal-fueled power plants. The result, industry insiders say: substantially higher electricity
rates and massive job loss.
It's Always "Earth Hour" in North Korea.
[Electricity] is the difference between the Dark Age and the present age... but not for everyone. Much of
Africa is in darkness. too. People who hate civilization and the humans who created it are welcome to
live out in the wilderness or in some primitive backward country where they burn dung to cook their meals.
If America doesn't start building more coal-fired plants, nuclear plants, and other generators of electricity,
we too shall live in darkness when the sun goes down. Be warned, the present administration is doing
everything possible to make that future happen.
The EPA's War on
Energy Producer Range Resources. Even before America slit its wrists by electing him, Barack Hussein
Obama gave us a preview of his energy policy by promising to use deliberately excessive regulation to bankrupt coal plants.
Sierra
Club already using EPA Clean Air regs to shut down manufacturing jobs. Since 2005, anytime a
new coal-fired power plant was proposed anywhere in the United States, a lawyer from the Sierra Club or an
allied environmental group was assigned to stop it, by any bureaucratic or legal means necessary. And
they succeeded. According to The Los Angeles Times, by 2008, the coalition claimed to have stopped
construction of 65 power plants nationwide.
Stop EPA from killing coal.
The Environmental Protection Agency's crusade against coal-fired power plants is on a fast track to raise
electricity bills in Michigan by as much as 20 percent and restrict the state's economic growth.
The latest attack on America's economy by the EPA is tough new requirements on mercury and other emissions
at coal plants that the agency hopes to have in place by the end of the year. Utility companies would
have just three years to comply with the new standards or shut down the offending plants.
The
Greatest Scam in History. Victims of the global warming scam have done nothing to make
themselves victims, particularly those who are unemployed through no actions they have taken. Those
who could have been employed constructing clean coal powered electric plants are unemployed because the
perpetrators of the global warming scam have stopped construction of those plants.
New EPA Regulations Blamed as Power
Plants Close. American Electric Power has announced new EPA regulations will force it to close
five coal-fired power plants, pay for expensive retrofits for at least a dozen more, eliminate 600 jobs,
and substantially increase the price it charges for electricity.
Environmental
Protection (Or Propaganda?) Agency. EPA's immediate target is older electrical generating units
(EGUs), most of which have substantially reduced emissions to safe levels but still release more pollutants
than modern plants. However, its broader agenda is to use air pollution and carbon dioxide restrictions
to impose President Obama's goals of requiring "zero" emissions, "bankrupting" coal companies, causing electricity
rates to "skyrocket" and effecting a "fundamental transformation" of the U.S. energy system and
economy — regardless of what Congress may do or the American economy may require. This
raises vital questions that thus far have received scant attention.
Democratic Senator:
Environmental Protection Agency Out of Control. Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, the former governor
of coal-producing West Virginia, is blasting the Obama administration for using the Environmental Protection
Agency to regulate coal-fueled power plants out of business.
Fearing EPA's Carbon Tax. The EPA
is moving to impose tough limits on carbon emissions from the big power plants across the country —
and then plans to screw the new carbon limits down tighter and tighter. Farmers' fuel and electricity costs
would go through the roof, along with everybody else's. The goal, after all, is to make the coal, oil, and
natural gas that power most of our power plants too expensive to use.
EPA bullies its way to first CO2 emissions limit.
The EPA is finally getting around to setting limits on greenhouse gas emissions from stationary sources, like
power plants — coal industry watch out. ... if the Lake Side limit becomes a precedent or standard
for power plant emissions, coal-fired electricity production could be significantly constrained.
Death By A Thousand Rules: EPA's Drive To Kill
Coal. Coal is a vital domestic natural resource that powers the U.S. economy. More than
50% of the U.S. electric supply comes from coal-fired power plants. This obviously translates into a
lot of jobs: In 2009 there were 1,400 mines in the U.S. employing over 87,000 miners. There
were also 31,000 jobs related to the transportation of coal and 60,000 jobs in coal-fired power plants. ... But
I don't think the folks at the Environmental Protection Agency care very much about all that. I
believe that, through numerous rules and regulations, EPA is trying to kill this industry; mostly, it seems,
to appease far-left environmentalists.
The War on Coal. The United
States Environmental Protection Agency is soon expected to make a decision that could have an enormous impact
on coal-fired power plants across the nation and, by extension, on the cost of energy and building materials.
No, we're not talking about greenhouse gas regulations here. The question that USEPA Administrator Lisa
Jackson must answer is this: Should the ash generated from the burning of coal be classified as a hazardous
waste or not? It's a decision that has the potential to pile more costs onto the price of energy at a
time we can least afford it.
The
Great Global Warming Swindle. A very large section of the world's population still does not
enjoy the benefits of electricity. [...] Getting electricity is a matter of life and death for about a third of the world's
population. Africa has coal and oil, but the greens say these must be left untouched. This is barbaric.
Obama's pointless war on coal: It's Not 'All of the Above' After All.
So now we know that when President Obama says he wants an "all of the above" strategy for energy, "the above" doesn't include the energy source in which
America has the biggest advantage over the rest of the world: coal. Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency announced a new regulation
that, if enacted, will effectively outlaw the building of new coal-fired electricity-generation plants.
EPA May Block Navajo Coal Site. The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency has decided to review permits that would allow the Navajo Nation to build a clean-burning
coal power plant on tribal lands in northwestern New Mexico. The Navajo consider the proposed Desert
Rock Energy Station a promising means of escaping generations of abject poverty, but environmental activist
groups argue EPA should ban the construction of all coal power plants.
EPA must do more than just say no. The
decision by the federal Environmental Protection Agency to unilaterally pull the mining permits for 79 mountaintop
coal mines is a baffling action that leaves in the lurch investors, miners and half the electric customers in the United
States. Some clarification is needed — and quickly.
You
Have to Watch Both of Obama's Hands. [Scroll down slowly] Utilities have to hold back
on investments in coal-fired plants until the situation is clarified. Which might just suit Vice
President Joe Biden, who announced during the campaign that no coal plants would be built during an Obama
administration.
Obama Expands War on
Energy to Coal. Enviro-Whack jobs are celebrating the demise of America's most abundant energy resource, coal.
Because coal has just been given the death sentence by Obama and the EPA just as Obama planned. [...] The EPA has issued new
proposed rules on carbon emissions that will help Obama keep one campaign promise: Builders of new coal fired power plants
won't be prevented from building coal-fired power plants, they'll just go bankrupt if they try.
Northwest Indiana power
plant to shut on March 31. After electrifying Northwest Indiana for more than 80 years, one
of Indiana's oldest coal-burning power plants will be switched off by March 31, and 109 workers will
lose their jobs. The State Line Energy Station in Hammond, a hulking red landmark between Chicago and
Indiana, is closing due to economics, lawsuits and new federal clean-air regulations.
The Editor says...
Free advice for the owners of that plant: Put it in moth balls. Surround the building with
fences and guards, and keep the place ready to restart when common sense prevails in this country once again.
The Volt Administration.
The XL pipeline would have delivered an estimated 500,000 to 700,000 barrels of Canadian oil to the U.S.
daily. But bowing to pressure from environmentalists, the president delayed the permit at least until
2013. The administration has proposed $60 billion in tax increases on the energy sector and knee-capped
the nuclear industry by blocking uranium mining and pulling all funding for the Yucca Mountain waste disposal
site. The Environmental Protection Agency has imposed regulations on coal plants that the agency
acknowledges will raise electricity prices.
Obama kills coal — as
promised. Carbon capture and storage technology allows carbon-dioxide emissions to be stored in the ground
instead of being released into the atmosphere. But the technology is, for many coal-energy producers, prohibitively
pricey. Even assuming new coal plants are actually built under this regulatory regime, to whom do you think those
new expenses will be passed on to? That's right — energy consumers. Rich people will be able to
pay those extra costs, though they may gripe about it. But middle-class households will see a rise in their energy
bills that will put them in even greater financial distress than they already are under in this abysmal "recovery."
President Stupid. You have to be
stupid to openly declare that you want to drive the coal industry out of business when it provides half of all
the electricity the nation uses every day, but that is precisely what President Stupid's administration is doing.
Obama
Administration Plans Second Front in War on Appalachian Coal. [Scroll down] The AP story
pertained to a controversial rule derivative of the 1977 Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA),
known as the "100 feet buffer rule.["] As its name would suggest, it basically prohibits mining
waste from being deposited within 100 feet of intermittent or perennial streams. According to the AP
article, the Obama Administration's preferred interpretation of this rule would cost 7,000 mining jobs,
almost exclusively in Appalachia. And that's the Department of the Interior's own estimate, which is
likely a lowball.
EPA is too much even for an Obama-appointed judge.
Amy Berman Jackson, 57, is a 1979 Harvard Law graduate who made her mark prosecuting and later defending crime. ... Judge Jackson
on Friday [3/23/2012] gave a fair and impartial swift kick in the rear to President Obama and EPA administrator Lisa Jackson (no
relation) for overstepping their authority. She smacked the administration down hard for its capricious abuse of environmental
laws to punish West Virginia and its coal-mining industry. The company had followed the law and obtained the necessary
permits only to have them "reviewed" when the new administration came into power. Judge Jackson said no.
Obama's Regulatory
Excess and Abuse. Shortly after Obama took office, his Interior Secretary Ken Salazar "canceled
land leases for energy development on 77 parcels of land in Utah. Then he canceled a pending oil-shale
lease sale based on his expert judgment that it 'didn't meet the smell test.'" Kerpen adds, "Overall there
has been a steep drop-off in leasing on federal lands.... 2010 saw a 79 percent drop in leasing in
Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming from 2005. Total onshore royalties dropped
33 percent in just two years." Even more virulent is the Obama Administration's attack on coal,
which the President seems to have targeted for quick phaseout, even though we have the world's most expansive
coal reserves, offering 200 years of inexpensive energy.
Now Why
Would Coal Mines Be Laying People Off? Coal miners getting pink slips? What's that about?
Wouldn't have anything to do with a president that promised to bankrupt the coal industry, would it?
Sierra
Club took $26M from gas industry to fight coal-fired plants. The Sierra Club disclosed Thursday
that it received over $26 million from natural-gas giant Chesapeake Energy Corp. between 2007 and 2010 to
help the group's campaign against coal-fired power plants. Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune
said Thursday [2/2/2012] that he learned of the funding shortly after beginning the job in 2010 and moved to
end the arrangement.
President
Obama and the EPA's War on Jobs. For some time now, I and others have been documenting the
relentless assault on economic growth by the EPA under President Barack Obama. I feel like a broken
record at times trying to beat this drum and get people to realize that while Obama doesn't keep all of his
campaign promises, destroying the coal industry is one that he has done everything he can to stay true to.
For anyone that paid attention during the 2008 presidential cycle, Obama made it clear that it was his intention
to bankrupt the coal industry through regulation and legislation.
No Coal, No Power, No
Gas. During the early February cold spell in the southern plains, when wind chills in
Dallas dipped to minus twenty degrees, Texans were going without power to heat their homes and businesses
even as the state was sitting on massive surpluses of natural gas. Even hospitals were having to
switch to emergency generating systems. And this in the state with the largest energy production
capacity in the continental US. How was it that Texas suffered an extended period of rolling
blackouts at a time when there's a glut of coal and natural gas waiting to be used?
White House Lies On Blackouts
Exposed. [Scroll down] Maxed-out energy grids are a direct consequence of a shortage
of new power plants to meet demand. Indeed, contrary to another of [When Obama Communications Director
Dan] Pfeiffer's falsehoods when he claimed that Texas was not subject to EPA restrictions, one of the delayed
power plants that could have alleviated the energy shortage, the Las Brisas Energy Center, has been the
subject of an EPA battle with Texas state authorities for the past three years. A federal court ruling
last month gave the EPA permission to proceed with greenhouse gas regulation in Texas, temporarily superseding
Texas' non-compliance with the new regulations which came into force on January 2. The White
House's claim that EPA regulations are not currently affecting Texas is a complete fabrication.
Renewing
War Against Coal. President Barack Obama talked a lot about "renewable" energy during his State
of the Union speech Tuesday night. But he made it crystal clear he plans to renew his administration's
war against coal while forcing expensive, unrealistic non-alternatives down the throats of Americans. During
his entire speech, the president never used the word "coal." Yet he criticized Congress for rejecting his
"climate change" proposals — at the same time failing, on purpose, to mention he has instructed the
Environmental Protection Agency to ruin the coal industry with or without lawmakers' approval.
Obama's War on U.S. Energy.
America has more than 497 billion short tons of recoverable coal (not counting Alaska) or nearly three
times as much as Russia, which has the world's second largest reserve. According to the Institute for
Energy Research, "America's recoverable coal resources are bigger than the five largest non-North American
countries' reserves combined," i.e., Russia, China, Australia, India and the Ukraine.
Environmentalists
battle the coal industry with regulations. According to the EIA, U.S. coal production in 2010 was
1,084 million short tons. Coal production in 2011 is expected to be slightly higher with coal production
for the first 11 months of 2011, 0.3 percent higher than for the same period in 2010. Most of the
coal (93 percent) consumed in 2010 was used to generate electricity, producing more electricity than any other
generating source. Almost 45 percent of the electricity generated in 2010 was produced by coal-fired
plants. The industrial sector, second to the generating sector in coal consumption, consumed almost 7 percent
of total coal consumption in 2010. The remainder was used by the residential and commercial sectors.
The United States also exports coal. In 2010, about 82 million short tons of U.S. coal were exported,
38 percent more than in 2010, and almost 8 percent of total coal production.
Obama
Tightens Screw on America's Coal Supply. On October 26, 2011, Secretary Salazar signed Secretarial
Order 3315 that will consolidate the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) within the Bureau
of Land Management (BLM). The Order states that "fee collections" and "regulation, inspection and enforcement,
and state program oversight" will now be integrated — the very tasks split out within the MMS reorganization.
Because this new order seems in direct contradiction to the 2010 SO 3299, it raises suspicion as to the true
purpose of the agency reorganization — especially since the impacted industry is the administration's
favorite villain — coal.
GE's Really Big, Bad Ideas.
China is building a new coal-fired plant almost weekly in order to ramp up its ability to compete internationally.
It is no accident that the nations that use the most energy are also the most successful. It has been
U.S. energy policy to slow the building of coal-fired plants even though the U.S. is estimated to have several
hundred years of coal with which to supply their needs and ours.
Against All Energy Anywhere.
Before we go further, let's examine the basic facts of U.S. power, give or take a percentage point or two,
coal provides over 50% of electrical power. Nuclear provides around 20%, natural gas is just over 20%,
hydroelectric is close to 7%, and so-called "renewables" like wind and solar are credited with about 3%.
Petroleum generated electricity is 1% and "other sources", whatever they may be, come in at around 0.3%.
These are figures from 2009 and, suffice to say, are subject to change, but not much.
Environmentalists
Prevent Cleaner Power Plant Construction. In 2007, Sunflower Electric Power Corporation proposed
a state-of-the-art coal-fired power plant in Holcomb, Kansas. This plant represented a $3.5 billion
investment in one of the most rural areas of the country, $78 million in annual payroll during the construction
phase, and more than 300 permanent jobs and $15 million in payroll once it was completed. The plant,
with two 700-megawatt generators, would have used technology to limit emissions. It would have been a huge
economic boon to an area which largely relies on the meatpacking industry, tourism, and agriculture for jobs.
Then a bureaucrat on the other end of the state killed it.
Citizens Alliance for Responsible Energy. In
the years ahead we'll need to greatly increase our electricity supply. While it is important to
continue to develop renewable energy sources, they are not likely to be nearly enough to meet the growing
demand. Coal is still a great resource and clean coal technology is rapidly becoming a reality.
Enviros
play dirty on coal, natural gas. [Scroll down slowly] Environmentalists talk about how
they plan to replace coal with an array of "green" alternative energy sources, including biomass, solar, wind
and ethanol. What they don't want to talk about is the fact that there's no way those sources are going
to replace coal-fired power production by 2030.
Obama's
War On Coal. Keeping a campaign vow to bankrupt the industry, the administration revokes the permit
for an approved, working coal mine in West Virginia. Guess those electric cars will have to get their
energy elsewhere.
Environmentalists
sue Texas over coal plant permit. Environmental groups have challenged in court a decision by
a Texas state agency to grant an air permit to a proposed coal-fired power plant in South Texas.
The assassination of King Coal.
When Democrat Joe Biden said on the campaign trail in 2008: "Guess what? We're not supporting
Clean Coal... No coal plants here in America," liberal reporters rushed in to protect Barack Obama.
They passed it off as a gaffe.
Ohio
Coal Association Says Obama Ticket Not Supportive of Coal. Mike Carey, president of the Ohio
Coal Association (OCA), today [11/3/2008] issued the following statement in response to just-released remarks
from Senator Barack Obama about the nation's coal industry. "Regardless of the timing or method of the
release of these remarks, the message from the Democratic candidate for President could not be clearer:
the Obama-Biden ticket spells disaster for America's coal industry and the tens of thousands of Americans who
work in it.
Alternative Energy and
the King Canute Strategy. For two centuries the American economy has been driven by ever cheaper
energy, from the steam engine to modern coal and nuclear electric power, and of course petroleum-based
transportation. As costs of production and transport declined, incomes rose. Now environmentalists
seek to reverse the process. They propose to raise the cost of our cheapest and most important energy
source, coal.
A Lovely Lump Of Coal:
According to tradition, if one has been a bad little boy or girl, Santa will leave a lump of coal in your stocking.
The Greens targeted coal along with virtually every other source of energy as "dirty" and, frankly, the truth
about coal needs to be told lest we forget what a bounty we have in this nation and how well it serves us all.
Let's Use Our Coal. [During] the
original energy crisis of the 1970s, when we were told that it was urgent for us to develop alternative "renewable" sources
of energy because we were running out of fossil fuels any moment now. Today we are told just the opposite - we
must develop renewable sources of energy because we aren't running out of fossil fuels fast enough.
Texans and coal
plants: The most scandalous aspect of the coal-plant controversy is the refusal — yea,
the inability — of coal-plant foes to describe just how they'd go about providing for Texas' large and
growing energy needs at a time of shrinking natural gas supplies and deep opposition to nuclear power.
We hear about "conservation." We hear about wind power, solar power; we sometimes even hear about coal
gasification. We never hear coal-plant foes explain how that's going to happen, and what it would
mean and cost.
Edwards calls for end to
coal-fired power plants. America should ban the construction of new coal-fired power plants and
charge industry for creating greenhouse gases to generate money for investing in clean technology, Democratic
presidential candidate John Edwards said Saturday. Edwards said charging polluters could generate up to
$40 billion to invest in clean technology to "get us off our addiction to oil."
[This means higher taxes and/or higher utility bills, to develop pie-in-the-sky technology that
has not yet been invented, in order to solve a problem that doesn't even exist.]
In Kansas, No
to Coal Plants, Yes to 'More Promising' Energy Sources. In an open letter to the people of
Kansas on Thursday [10/25/2007], Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius supported her state's decision to deny air
permits for two coal-fired power plants slated for construction in southwestern Kansas. Critics,
including the coal industry, call the decision wrong-headed and short-sighted.
[That's great, but coal technology is already up and running, whereas
the "promising" technologies have yet to be developed.]
Group discloses nearly $406,000 in spending
on anti-coal ads. An anti-coal group financed by a natural gas company has reported spending
nearly $406,000 on its advertising campaign last year, setting a lobbyist spending record. The group,
Know Your Power, was required to file a report on what it spent on full-page ads urging readers to call their
legislators "and let them know where you stand." After the state ethics commission issued that ruling,
the group filed its report.
Rejection of Proposal for Coal-Fired Power Plants
Defies Kansas Climate Data. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment has rejected a
request to build two new 700 megawatt coal-fired electricity generating power plants, citing concerns over
the proposed plants' carbon dioxide emissions and "the potential harm to our environment and health."
In making its October 18 finding, the department ignored all of the known climate history and future climate
projections for the state of Kansas.
Bipartisan bill would give coal plant another
chance. A coal plant expansion in western Kansas could move ahead despite a regulator's objection
under a proposed law pitched Wednesday [1/31/2008] by plant supporters. The plant would have to reduce
its carbon emissions and pay a tax on any excess carbon it emits. That's meant to address worries that
the plant would add to global climate change.
The Editor says...
Naturally that tax would be passed along to the consumers. And who decides what "excess
carbon" means?
EPA to Kansas: Start over on coal plant
proposal. A federal official has told Kansas to start over its review process for a proposed
coal-fired electric plant in southwest Kansas that Gov. Mark Parkinson had endorsed. Sunflower Electric
Power Corp., based in Hays, plans to build the electric plant in Finney County. Sunflower had wanted to
build two plants, but Rod Bremby, the state's secretary of health and environment, rejected an air-quality
permit for them in October 2007, citing their potential carbon dioxide emissions.
Closing the Door on
Building New Coal Power Plants. Community [i.e., environmentalist] opposition, legal challenges,
and financial uncertainty over future carbon costs are prompting companies to rethink their plans for coal.
Since the beginning of 2007, 95 proposed coal-fired power plants have been cancelled or postponed in the
United States — 59 in 2007, 24 in 2008, and at least 12 in the first three months of 2009.
This covers nearly half of the 200 or so U.S. coal-fired power plants that have been proposed for construction
since 2000.
"No Coal" Goal. The road to
Copenhagen in December 2009, where the United Nations will attempt to come up with a successor to the Kyoto (global
warming) Protocol, is already before us. The signs along the road indicate the global-warming alarmists are already
blitzing the general public and the media about the supposed need to severely limit fossil-fuel usage, particularly coal.
Greens Will Leave us Cold and Hungry.
Earthworks is about to initiate its own "No Dirty Energy" campaign "to alert the public to the climate, ecosystem
and community risks associated with mining and burning the world's dirtiest fuel sources?" Labeling coal
and oil "dirty" is pure PR and ignores the fact that coal, a cheap and abundant energy sources, provides just
over fifty percent of America's electricity, an energy without which the entire nation would cease to function.
Los Angeles will end use of coal-fired
power. Los Angeles will eliminate the use of electricity made from coal by 2020, replacing it with power from
cleaner renewable energy sources, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said. Consumers of the Los Angeles Department of Water
and Power, the largest city-owned utility in the United States with 1.45 million electricity customers, will see higher
power bills in the fight against climate change, he added in his inaugural speech for his second four-year term as mayor on
Wednesday [7/1/2009].
The Editor says...
Guess what, L.A. — the climate will inevitably change, and you'll be stuck with higher electric rates for
no reason!
FutureGen 'Clean Coal' Project Scaled Back by
Obama. The scope of the stalled FutureGen "clean coal" project in central Illinois is being scaled back by
the Obama administration in an effort to revive the plans for a coal-fired power plant that spews fewer gases into the
air. The U.S. Energy Department said today [6/12/2009] it will support a modified version of the proposal, seeking to
build a plant in Mattoon, Illinois, that can capture and bury 60 percent of its carbon emissions. The Bush
administration had crafted the original idea for a plant that could trap almost 100 percent of emissions, and then
canceled it after costs exceeded estimates.
Capitol
Hill's Coal-Fueled Power Plant Dims Clean Energy Hopes. As Congress tries to clean up the
nation's energy sources and cut gases blamed for global warming, it is struggling to do so in its own
backyard. The Capitol Power Plant, a 99-year-old facility that heats and cools the hallowed halls of
Congress, still burns coal and accounts for one-third of the legislative branch's greenhouse gas emissions.
For a decade, lawmakers have attempted to clean it up.
Lawmakers ask coal-fired plant near Capitol to
switch to gas. Four days before a planned civil disobedience action at a coal-fired power plant
near the U.S. Capitol, the leaders of the House of Representatives and the Senate asked Thursday for the plant
to replace all its coal with natural gas. ... The power plant, three blocks south of the Capitol, has been
running every day since it went into service in 1910. It provides heating and cooling for the Capitol,
the Library of Congress and about 20 other federal buildings on Capitol Hill, using both coal and natural gas.
Coal-Cap Disaster.
By pulling the plug on half of our current electricity production, cap-and-trade will risk a massive undermining of the
American economy, as well as our future economic and national security. The coal story is so important simply because
the U.S. has massively undeveloped coal resources. With 27 percent of the world's coal reserves estimated at
270 billion tons, the U.S. is the Saudi Arabia of coal. And yet cap-and-trade would destroy this critical sector.
Gas Prices Too
High? Burn Coal. The most logical answer to high gasoline prices has to be coal. We have
centuries' worth of coal, and we have clean-burning systems such as fluidized bed combustion. But we've been retiring
the old coal-fired power plants, and burning scarcer oil and natural gas in our power plants. That has driven up both
gas and gasoline prices. Hybrid cars conserve a little oil, but shifting the power plants to "clean coal" would
conserve a lot of it.
From Coal
to Fuel: As demand for oil began to rise early in the 20th century, scientists became intrigued
with the possibility of converting carbon-rich coal into hydrocarbon liquids as a potential replacement for
petroleum-derived fuels. Franz Fischer and Hans Tropsch, two German scientists, accomplished the feat
in the 1920s.
Burning Coal at Home Is Making a
Comeback. Problematic in some ways and difficult to handle, coal is nonetheless a cheap, plentiful,
mined-in-America source of heat. And with the cost of heating oil and natural gas increasingly prone to spikes,
some homeowners in the Northeast, pockets of the Midwest and even Alaska are deciding coal is worth the trouble.
Burning coal at home was once commonplace, of course, but the practice had been declining for decades.
Democrats are opposed to coal-fired power
plants — unless they own them. Green
lobby guides Democrats on climate bill. Democratic lawmakers who spent much of the Bush
administration blasting officials for letting energy lobbyists write national policy have turned to a
coalition of business and environmental groups to help draft their own sweeping climate bill. And one
little-noticed provision of the draft bill would give one of the coalition's co-founders a lucrative exemption
on a coal-fired project it is building.
Saving lives with coal. Since 1970,
unhealthy power plant pollutants have been reduced by almost 95% per unit of energy produced. Particulate emissions
(soot) decreased 90% below 1970 levels, even as coal use tripled, and new technologies and regulations will nearly eliminate
most coal-related pollution by 2020, notes air quality expert Joel Schwartz. Moreover, the vast bulk of modern power
plant particulates are ammonium sulfate and ammonium nitrate. "Neither substance is harmful, even at levels tens of
times greater than are ever found in the air Americans breathe," Schwartz says.
Clean-Coal Debate Pits Al Gore's
Group Against Obama, Peabody. Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and his Alliance for
Climate Protection say clean-coal technology is a fantasy. Peabody Energy Corp., the biggest U.S. coal
producer, says another prominent Democrat has pledged to make the technology a reality: President
Barack Obama.
Coal Hard Facts: Cleaning It Won't Be
Dirt Cheap. Coal, more than any other fuel, powers the planet. It is the primary source of
electricity in dominant economies from the U.S. to China to Germany. In all those places, coal is cheap
and, unlike oil, domestically plentiful. Its use is rising, particularly in developing countries that
soon will consume more energy than the industrialized world.
The
Facts about Air Pollution from Coal-Fired Power Plants. America's improving air quality is an untold success
story. Even before Congress passed the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1970, air quality had been improving for decades.
And since 1970, the six so-called criteria pollutants have declined significantly, even though the generation of electricity
from coal-fired plants has increased by over 180 percent. (The "criteria pollutants" are carbon monoxide, lead,
sulfur dioxide [SO2], nitrogen oxides [NOx], ground-level ozone, and particulate matter [PM]. They are called "criteria"
pollutants because the EPA sets the criteria for permissible levels.) Total SO2 emissions from coal-fired plants were
reduced by about 40 percent between 1970 and 2006, and NOx emissions were reduced by almost 50 percent between
1980 and 2006. On an output basis, the percent reduction is even greater, with SO2 emissions (in pounds per
megawatt-hour) almost 80 percent lower, and NOx emissions 70 percent lower.
Second thoughts on
warming: President-elect Barack Obama wants to phase out coal-based electricity generation,
switch to renewable energy and follow Europe's lead on climate change. That could prove difficult.
Coal generates half of all U.S. electricity. Wind provides less than 2 percent of all electricity
and cannot be relied on when it's needed. Europe's lead can't even be defined, much less followed.
Biden:
'No coal plants here in America'. Some great rope line video from Joe Biden's recent Ohio swing,
where he was asked by an anti-pollution campaigner about clean coal — a controversial approach in
Democratic circles for which Obama has voiced support, particularly during the Kentucky primary. Biden's
apparent answer: He supports clean coal for China, but not for the United States. "No coal
plants here in America," he said. "Build them, if they're going to build them, over there. Make
them clean."
Gore
urges civil disobedience to stop coal plants. Nobel Peace Prize winner and environmental crusader
Al Gore urged young people on Wednesday [9/24/2008] to engage in civil disobedience to stop the construction
of coal plants without the ability to store carbon. The former U.S. vice president, whose climate change
documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" won an Academy Award, told a philanthropic meeting in New York City that "the
world has lost ground to the climate crisis."
Gore's
Rebellion. Speaking last Wednesday [9/24/2008] on a celebrity panel in New York, the Nobel
Prize Laureate proclaimed: "If you're a young person looking at the future of this planet and looking
at what is being done right now, and not done, I believe we have reached the stage where it is time for
civil disobedience to prevent the construction of new coal plants that do not have carbon capture and
sequestration." He added, "clean coal does not exist." Mr. Gore didn't explain how far he
thinks his young acolytes should go in their rage against the coal-burning machines that provide about
50% of U.S. electricity. Sit-ins? Marches against power plants? How about trashing power
lines: What could he mean by "civil disobedience"?
Gore the Vandal: Did you see the
news item about Al Gore's speech this week in which he urged "civil disobedience" to stop the construction
of coal-fired plants to meet our nation's growing need for more electrical power? Gore epitomizes what
I suspect future generations will call "The Great Global Warming Hoax", but in the meantime, he is able to
generate the bogus science and anti-energy propaganda that is at the core of environmental ideology.
Up in smoke. The
Environmental Protection Agency's rejection of a permit for a Utah coal plant this week spells trouble
for three coal-fired power plants proposed in Nevada. Environmentalists are hailing the decision,
released Thursday [11/13/2008] by the EPA's Environmental Appeals Board, as the final straw for new traditional coal
plants. Utah's permit was denied because it did not limit greenhouse gas emissions ... .
Nonsense
has me incensed. Beware the New Luddite who preaches coal-fired power plants are "factories of
death." True, such plants emit carbon dioxide and pollution which shortens life, but there is another factor
to consider. That is, the certainty that without the energy such plants provide, millions will die because
in the absence of electricity, people must use wood fires to heat and light their homes, and to prepare food, which
catastrophically shortens life because of the air pollution it causes. Without electricity, without energy,
people must stop work when the sun goes down. They can't store food. They can't efficiently pump water.
The fruits of environmentalism: UK
faces blackouts within 10 years after closure of coal power plants. Britain faces blackouts
within ten years as power stations go out of service. Energy experts claim government dithering has
failed to guarantee the construction of new plants. Nine oil and coal-fired power plants are to close
by 2015 because of an EU directive that aims to limit pollution. At the same time, four ageing nuclear
power plants will also be shut.
Utah coal plant permit blocked by
EPA panel. The Environmental Protection Agency was blocked Thursday [11/13/2008] from issuing a
permit for a proposed coal-burning power plant in Utah without addressing global warming. The ruling by
an agency appeals panel means the Obama administration probably will determine the fate of other similar
plants. The panel said the EPA's Denver office failed to adequately support its decision to issue
a permit for the Bonanza plant without requiring controls on carbon dioxide, the leading greenhouse gas.
The Editor says...
Note to Associated Press writers: Please note that "the leading greenhouse gas" is water
vapor, not carbon dioxide.
Hidden Audio: Obama Tells SF Chronicle He Will Bankrupt Coal
Industry. Imagine if John McCain had whispered somewhere that he was willing to bankrupt
a major industry? Would this declaration not immediately be front page news? Well, Barack
Obama actually flat out told the San Francisco Chronicle (SF Gate) that he was willing to see the coal
industry go bankrupt in a January 17, 2008 interview. The result? Nothing.
Palin Attacks
Obama on Coal Production. Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin unleashed a new
volley against Barack Obama on a four-city tour of Ohio on Sunday [11/2/2008] by touting newly released audio
comments made by the Democratic presidential candidate promising to restrict the construction of new coal-fired
power plants in the U.S. The issue is particularly sensitive in coal-rich Ohio, West Virginia, and
Colorado. Obama made the comments to the San Francisco Chronicle in January, which were posted on
YouTube over the weekend.
Palin,
Obama Camp Spar Over 'Bankrupting' Big Coal. Is there more daylight between Republican and
Democratic energy proposals than commonly thought? In the election's final weekend, coal once again
became the battlefield, with a broadside attack from Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin on
Sen. Barack Obama's plans to "bankrupt" the coal industry. She referred to a January interview
Sen. Obama gave to the San Francisco Chronicle in which he said that new environmental
regulations — including caps on greenhouse-gas emissions — would make
traditional coal-fired plants terribly expensive.
We Cannot Worship Nature and Remain
Free. When I heard Barack Obama promise to bankrupt the coal industry I did not hear
a man at war with coal — I heard a man at war with man. His harsh words for the coal
industry sprang from his near deification of nature and his subsequent willingness to sacrifice
not only our livelihoods in the name of "environmental responsibility" but our freedom as well.
Enviros
play dirty on coal, natural gas. They don't discuss the subject too openly outside their own circles,
but environmentalists make crystal clear on their Web sites that they want to stop all coal-based power production
in this country. They claim coal can never be made clean, so it must be eliminated before it's too late to
do anything about global warming. Ted Nace puts it succinctly in a Grist Web site post: "The
stakes, for all life on the planet, surpass those of any previous crisis." That may sound extreme, but
Nace is merely expressing mainstream environmentalist thinking.
Obama's
Aggravated Buggery. The facts on the ground make it inescapable that, regardless of one's intentions,
opposing coal means supporting poverty. This applies to the Obama administration, to be sure, which
has not only escalated a three-decade-plus war on U.S. coal communities (and the U.S. economy), it has even
extended the war to trying to block other countries' use of the most abundant, affordable, and reliable
energy source for liberating people from drudgery.
Bad News: Scientists
Make Cheap Gas From Coal. If oil prices rise again, adoption of the new coal-to-liquid
technology, reported this week in Science, could undercut adoption of electric vehicles or next-generation
biofuels. And that's bad news for the fight against climate change.
Stop the War on Carbon.
Coal is derived from plant material. It is as clean as the most fertile soil and as "green" as any forest.
Because it was derived from plant material, every constituent in coal is a valuable atmospheric and soil nutrient
needed to maintain healthy plans and animals. ... To wage war on carbon is to wage war on life.
Mayor Bloomberg gives $50 million to fight coal-fired power plants.
New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg will donate $50 million to the Sierra Club to support its nationwide
campaign to eliminate coal-fired power plants. Sierra Club executive director Michael Brune described the
gift from Bloomberg Philanthropies, which will be spread out over four years, as "a game-changer, from our
perspective."
Legislating from the bench: Georgia
Judge Blocks Coal Power Plant. In yet another skirmish involving arguments over human-induced
global warming, a Georgia judge has halted construction of a coal-fired power plant. Fulton County
Superior Court Judge Thelma Wyatt Cummings Moore invalidated a state-issued permit for the $2 billion,
1,200-megawatt Longleaf Energy Plant. Moore's decision, handed down July 1, stated Dynergy must
first obtain a permit from state regulators limiting the amount of carbon dioxide the plant would be allowed
to emit.
New EPA rule
will cost each taxpaying American $280. By the EPA's own admission, power plants will have to
spend $10.6 billion over the next four years to meet new, more stringent standards for anti-pollution
controls. The EPA says that these measures will "save $59 billion to $140 billion in annual
health costs, preventing 17,000 premature deaths a year along with illnesses and lost workdays." Of
course, just how those ridiculous figures were arrived at is anyone's guess, because the EPA doesn't make
that research readily available. Think about it: those statistics are, at face value, patently
false. We have 17,000 premature deaths a year thanks to dirty air?
The Editor says...
Who has "lost workdays" because the air pollution is so bad? Nobody.
Coal Power Opposition Raises Blackout Possibilities.
The lights may soon go out in the Washington, DC metro area and other parts of the country due to environmental activist
opposition to coal-fired power plants, energy analysts are warning. "Electric power has already become painfully
expensive in Washington and its suburbs. Now, local utilities, say, it could become something even worse:
scarce," the Washington Post reported on February 3.
Protest
halts coal train for six hours. Thirty-seven demonstrators were arrested after about 1000 people halted trains
in Newcastle yesterday [7/12/2008] in a protest against the coal industry's role in climate change. Three coal trains
bound for Carrington Coal Terminal — one of the ports which make Newcastle the world's biggest export
point — were halted for about six hours after about a dozen protesters chained themselves to carriages. Hundreds
of others lined the fence as mounted police held them back from the rail line from 11:00 am until
about 2:30 pm.