02Mar

Opinion: America’s Economy Demands Full-time Electricity

Via The Centre Daily Times: Thanks to the production of baseload electricity from a diverse mix of power plants, households are benefiting from cheap and reliable electrical energy. This is especially true in states with coal and nuclear plants, where an abundance of dispatchable power means assured electricity for businesses and better prices for the […]
27Feb

NMA Applauds Interior Decision to Resume Coal Leasing

The National Mining Association (NMA) today issued the following statement from Rich Nolan, NMA President & CEO, applauding the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for concluding its final environmental assessment and finding no significant impact that would impede processing applications for new coal leases on federal land. “Efforts under the Obama […]
20Feb

Guidance to Get Going

It’s not every day when a notice from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is cause for excitement. Yesterday was one of those rare exceptions. The IRS finally issued guidance on the 45Q carbon capture tax credits. It was guidance the energy industry has been anticipating for two years, ever since Congress passed bipartisan legislation creating […]
19Feb

America Blessed with an Extraordinary Opportunity

Via Fosters.com: If you had to capture the remarkable changes in U.S. energy production in one word, that word would be “technology.” From technological advances driving the shale revolution in oil and natural gas to dramatic declines in the cost of solar and wind power to the design of advanced reactors for nuclear power to […]
19Feb

Coal Still Has a Promising Future

Via The Casper Star-Tribune: Public concern over global warming has cast much-needed attention on efforts to curtail carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels. As the most carbon-rich fuel, coal is right between the crosshairs. But substantial global warming won’t be avoided unless coal-rich countries – especially China and India – reduce greenhouse-gas […]
18Feb

The Case for U.S. Leadership on Advanced Coal Technology

Via The Casper Star Tribune: While it can feel like the world is in the midst of an energy transition — where one source of energy is replaced by another — that’s not what’s happening. Instead of transition, we’re in a period of addition. The growing use of wind and solar power is actually coming […]
13Feb

Markets Must Better Value Flexible, Dispatchable Coal Power

How valuable is a kilowatt hour of electricity? That, of course, depends greatly on when that electricity is produced and just how much it’s needed. Consider the gulf in value of excess electricity generated by solar power midday and the electricity produced by a coal plant when demand is spiking and intermittent sources of power […]
13Feb

Coal Must Remain in Energy Mix

Via The Grand Forks Herald: In an era of fracking for oil and natural gas and growth in solar and wind power, who knew the plain old coal plant could have value in a carbon-constrained world? And yet, coal generation has turned out to be a surprising bright spot in energy tech’s universe of late. […]