13Jan

Dominion: Lack of Transmission, Coal Shutdowns Bring Blackouts to Virginia Peninsula

Via UtilityDIVE: Dominion Resources will shutter its Yorktown coal plant in April, and afterwards may need to use rotating blackouts on the Virginia Peninsula in order to maintain grid reliability and avoid voltage collapse. The Yorktown’s two units do not run often, and violate environmental emissions standards. They are required to close by law, RTO […]
13Jan

Donald Trump’s Administration Must Keep the Promises Made on Clean Coal

Via The Hill:  A number of new coal-powered energy plants equipped with carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology are due to come online across the U.S. over the coming weeks, much to the ire of green activists. CCS technology captures up to 90% of carbon dioxide emissions created when fossil fuels are burned to generate […]
12Jan

Obama’s Interior Dept. Calls for Major Changes to ‘Modernize’ Federal Coal Program

Via The Washington Post: With just days until President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, the Department of the Interior finalized a report Wednesday calling for major changes to the federal coal program by which the U.S. manages the leasing of land to companies for exploration and production across 570 million publicly owned acres. A year ago, new […]
12Jan

A Steep Price for Ignoring Working Americans

Via TribLIVE: Congress returned last week, just in time to digest a prescient election post-mortem from celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain. In a New Year’s Day dissection of his party’s November collapse, Bourdain blamed “privileged Eastern liberals for showing utter contempt” for working-class America. As Bourdain sees it, when media and pop culture figures “mock them […]
11Jan

Great Expectations

January 11, 2017 In the political world, as in the real one, we often experience a frustrating disparity between expectation and reality. The incoming administration and the 115th Congress may prove to be the exception. At least with respect to major regulations that have hamstrung the coal industry. Early signs suggest that House and Senate […]
11Jan

NMA Condemns Administration’s Politically Contrived Coal Lease Policies as Damaging to Jobs, Communities and Taxpayers

Days before leaving office, the Obama administration has once again advocated policies designed solely to destroy America’s coal industry in the face of a political referendum favoring good jobs and affordable energy. Instead of the open and honest conversation promised by the administration on federal coal leasing policies, today’s report predetermines outcomes before the program […]
09Jan

Obama’s EPA Chief Says Biggest Regret Is Not Connecting With Rural Voters

Via The Daily Caller: Not being able to sell rural voters on the importance of switching from fossil fuels to solar and wind power is Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Gina McCarthy’s biggest regret, she said Friday. “We tried to change the outreach and messaging in rural America in a number of ways, but … […]
07Jan

Congress Can Act to Help Miners Survive a Regulatory Onslaught

Via The Roanoke Times: Quinn is President and CEO of the National Mining Association. On the way out the door, the Obama administration just threw one more regulatory punch at America’s coal miners. Just days before Christmas, the outgoing administration published its extreme stream rule in order to guarantee it will take effect the day […]
06Jan

Lawmakers Begin Process of Striking Down Stream Rule

Via E&E Publishing: Congressional Republicans and other pro-coal lawmakers are swiftly lining up to strike down the Obama administration’s new Stream Protection Rule. Reps. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) and Evan Jenkins (R-W.Va.) each put forward resolutions this week to block the Interior Department’s new restrictions on coal mining near waterways released last month. Both Jenkins’ H.J. […]
05Jan

Job-Crushing Regulations Trump Can Gut on Day One

Via Lifezette: Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, pending confirmation, will soon hold one of the most vital posts in President-Elect Donald Trump’s administration to restoring job growth in much of the nation. Pruitt, nominated to head the Environmental Protection Agency, will be the focus of intense criticism from Democrats during his confirmation hearings. “There has to be attention […]