21Jun

America Needs Coal and Nuclear Power for Energy Diversity

Via The Rockland County Times: In the face of rising electricity demand, Energy Secretary Rick Perry recently unveiled a plan to preserve some of the nation’s key coal and nuclear power plants. It’s a sensible move since the nation’s power grid can’t rely solely on natural gas, wind, and solar. What America’s families and businesses […]
20Jun

It’s Past Time to Align Energy Policy with Energy Reality

Coal’s much-publicized decline isn’t a decline at all. Coal plant retirements in the U.S. and some parts of Europe have created a narrative that coal is in irreversible global retreat. The data tell a different story. The oil and gas giant BP’s recently released annual Statistical Review of World Energy offers an important reality check […]
19Jun

Coal and Nuclear are Hedges Against Volatile Natural Gas Prices

Via The Daily Sentinel:  Imagine American consumers trying to make ends meet under the weight of soaring natural gas and electricity prices. Anyone who thinks this country no longer faces the threat of runaway energy prices should consider that almost 115,000 megawatts of “base-load” electricity-generating capacity from coal plants has been shuttered since 2010 — […]
13Jun

The World is More Uncertain Than You Think

Nobel Laurette Daniel Kahneman, the author of the best-selling Thinking, Fast and Slow, offered some sage advice to investment professionals at the CFA Institute’s recent annual conference. According to the institute’s blog, Kahneman said: “When something happens, you immediately understand how it happens. You immediately have a story and an explanation. You have that sense […]
13Jun

Save Coal and Nuclear Power — We Might Need It

Via The Deseret News: There is nothing more important for future electrical power in the United States than whether, in the wake of an enormous loss of baseload power due to overregulation in recent years, our country preserves financially stressed nuclear and coal plants for essential baseload power. Although the Trump administration has taken steps […]
11Jun

The Government Has Placed Lead Shoes on the Coal Industry

Via The Washington Post:  Catherine Rampell’s June 5 op-ed, “A new kind of ‘free market’,” revealed a glaring misunderstanding of the electricity market and the dynamics that have pushed well-operating coal and nuclear power plants into early retirement. Far from being free, the electricity marketplace has been shaped by overzealous regulation and enormous subsidies for […]
08Jun

Coal, Nuclear Power Remain Vital

Via The Times-Tribune: As the United States enters an era of upheaval in electricity markets, we are obliged to make the best possible use of energy sources through significant government intervention that will lead to greater electric stability and reliability. Because they provide baseload power around the clock, economically challenged coal and nuclear plants can […]
08Jun

American Indians Rally to Save Arizona Coal Plant, Saying Hundreds Will Lose Jobs

Via The Salt Lake Tribune: More than 300 people who say their livelihoods depend on a coal-fired plant on a sprawling American Indian reservation rallied in Phoenix Wednesday to request a 90-day delay in steps being taken to shutter it by 2019. Demonstrators — including miners who extract the coal that fires the plant, plant […]
07Jun

Troubles in Texas, California Highlight Concerns Over America’s Baseload Power

Via The Morning Consult: The Eastern United States is probably breathing a sigh of relief that summer is finally here. In part, that’s because early 2018 saw a particularly brutal stretch of winter. But it wasn’t just a “bomb cyclone” that chilled millions of homes this past winter. It was the prospect of brownouts and […]