13Sep

Quinn: ‘Coal is Rebounding’

Via The Bluefield Daily Telegraph: BLUEFIELD — The 22nd biennial Bluefield Coal Show at the Brushfork Armory officially kicked off with optimism this morning, welcoming 195 exhibitors to the “coal show for coal people” and to a renewed growth in the market. “We have worked to make it a good show every year of the […]
13Sep

EIA: Coal Production Increases Will Continue Through 2018

Via Utility Dive: Dive Brief: Coal production is up and will continue to rise through next year, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s latest Short Term Energy Outlook. Coal production for August was the first month since October 2015 where production topped 70 million short tons (MMst). Dive Insight: EIA’s monthly outlook is a mixed […]
12Sep

Weathering the Storms

September 12, 2017 Nature has rudely interrupted a static Beltway debate about grid reliability and the need for baseload power. The series of powerful storms swept through sprawling cities and Caribbean villages, annihilating every structure in their path. For hundreds of thousands of people impoverished by nature’s fury is now added the lack of electricity. […]
11Sep

Forest Service Backs Expansion of Colorado Coal Mine

Via The Olympian: The U.S. Forest Service is backing the expansion of Colorado’s largest coal mine over the objections of environmentalists. The Daily Sentinel reports that Forest Supervisor Scott Armentrout announced Thursday that that the benefits of expanding the West Elk Mine near Somerset outweighed the potential environmental threat. The mine got initial consent to […]
08Sep

America’s Electricity Supply — Better Safe than Sorry

Via Fosters.com: Few things are more essential to the way we live than electricity. And yet few are more often overlooked than the electricity grid that supplies it. Most of us simply assume that the power needed to keep our AC going and the lights on will always be there, and at an affordable price. […]
08Sep

Coal Critical to Power Future in Illinois

Via The Illinois Times: Electricity is easy to take for granted. But imagine the disruption to our lives if we could not charge our iPhones that connect us to the rest of the world or flip a light switch with the guarantee that power was at our beck and call. Power reliability, however, has been […]
07Sep

Column: Include Coal in Energy Mix

Via The Detroit News: Michigan will continue to need electricity produced at coal plants in the years ahead for a number of reasons. One is that while renewable energy is making large advances, it will still require coal-fired plants due to the intermittent generation of wind and solar power. Another is that nuclear energy will […]
06Sep

Montana Coal Mine Production Up 2 Million Tons

Via the Billings Gazette: Montana coal production is more than 2 million tons ahead of where it was this time last year, although analysts say the future is far from bright for the fossil fuel. Most of the production is coal mined from Spring Creek, a Cloud Peak Energy mine in southeast Montana. The Montana […]
05Sep

Abandoning Coal Could Mean Blackouts for U.S. Power Grid

Via Lifezette:  There’s plenty of talk these days among energy advocates and environmentalists about the need for natural gas to replace coal as the workhorse producer for America’s daily electricity needs. And coal has undoubtedly been on the ropes in recent years, with both expanded natural gas production and a host of federal regulations cutting […]
31Aug

Study Documents Coal’s Value for Baseload Power

The National Mining Association (NMA) today hailed a new report documenting the value of coal for ensuring the reliability and resiliency of the national power grid. The report, “The Contribution of the Coal Fleet to America’s Electricity Grid,” was prepared by PA Consulting Group for the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE), and documents […]