16Apr

Letter: Only Coal Provides Reliable Power

Via The Virginian-Pilot: TO MANY SKEPTICS, particularly those on the political left, the shutdown of coal plants has demonstrated the industry’s shaky future. With more than 400 units — more than one-third of the entire U.S. coal fleet — already shut down or due to close in the next few years, few places in the country […]
11Apr

RFF Sees the Heat But Not the Blast

Did ancient Pompeii decline because of the heat? Well, yes, heat had much to do with its evisceration. But if you don’t consider the role of Vesuvius you wouldn’t appreciate what happened to Nero’s favorite metropolis. That’s the problem we have with the findings of a report last week from Resources for the Future. In […]
10Apr

New England Faces ‘Horror Story’ of Expensive Power

Via The Washington Examiner: New England is struggling to keep the lights on as it pursues aggressive clean energy goals, a dilemma that is so troublesome that the region’s power grid operator warns of blackouts if something doesn’t change. “I am getting nervous in New England,” said Robert Powelson, a Republican commissioner of the Federal Energy […]
09Apr

OPED: Coal Emerges as Power Champ in Cold Winter

Via The York Dispatch: It’s been a rough winter for much of America. As the Department of Energy has reported, a “bomb cyclone” winter storm struck much of the eastern United States in late December and early January. It plunged the region into a deep freeze and sparked a significant rise in demand for additional power. […]
05Apr

Federal Coal’s Day in Court

Via The Hill: An obscure decision by a federal judge has prompted an important question for policymakers mulling energy policy: Does federal coal mined in the West have a bigger impact on global climate change than it does on the nation’s economy? The question isn’t academic after a federal district court in Montana last month ruled that the […]
05Apr

Trump Makes American Coal Great Again — Overseas

Via Foreign Policy:  President Donald Trump vowed to make U.S. energy dominance a cornerstone of his foreign policy, and, sure enough, the United States this year is producing and exporting record amounts of oil and natural gas. More surprising, though, is the huge resurgence in U.S. exports of coal to countries all over the world, from Argentina […]
05Apr

A Common Thread in the Climate Change Debate

EPA’s listening session last week in Gillette, Wyo. – the last of four – brought to an end the coast-to-coast listening sessions, extending from the San Francisco Bay to the Powder River Basin, on through West Virginia, where voices from all sides debated the EPA’s future regulation of carbon emissions. The final hearing was a […]
04Apr

Why Shipping Coal to Asia Makes Ecological Sense

Via Crosscut.com It may seem counter-intuitive, but building the proposed coal-exporting shipping terminal, Millennium Bulk Terminals-Longview facility, can reduce global greenhouse gases by making U.S. coal readily available to Asia. The state Department of Ecology’s final environmental impact statement for the Millennium coal export facility validates this point. Unfortunately, the details were buried in the appendices, where most people wouldn’t look. Meanwhile, […]
03Apr

Wyoming Coal Country May Experience Steady Demand For Up To 30 Years

Via The Casper Star-Tribune: Wyoming’s coal mines may experience steady demand for the next 30 years, despite the planned retirement of many power plants that burn Powder River Basin coal, according to an article from the Energy Information Administration Friday. The possibility that thermal coal demand will face a short-term decline until about 2022 before stabilizing until […]