Blog

23Jan

Behind Coal’s Comeback

“The headwinds we faced in recent years have now filled our sails.” That was Hal Quinn’s succinct description of the change in coal’s prospects last year. At USEA’s Annual Energy Forum last week, NMA’s CEO spelled out the winds of change that today are not only favorable but, equally importantly, have reversed. Start with government’s […]
17Jan

The Difference After Year One

January 17, 2018 After year one of the Trump Administration, we can say this about the president’s record so far: despite accusations of favoritism, he has been as generous to the news industry as he has been to corporations. Especially for scribes in the Beltway Thunder Dome, Trump and his Administration have provided all manner […]
08Jan

Where’s the Crisis?

January 8, 2018 “There was no crisis, so no need for FERC action” goes the mantra last week from renewable fuel advocates. The roof didn’t fall in, the gun wasn’t loaded, the rope didn’t snap, so go back to sleep. This is the head-in-the-sand logic of complacent dogmatists. The implication is that nothing less than […]
03Jan

The Vortex Validation

January 3, 2018 What a year it was that just ended.  After seeing an election that embarrassed the political “experts”, we enjoyed a booming economy that embarrassed the economic experts. That gifted student of failure Casey Stengel said it best: “Nobody here knows anything.” Energy experts found their own platitudes exposed by reality.  None is […]
20Dec

What Could Go Wrong?

December 20, 2017 “I cannot conceive of any vital disaster happening to this vessel. Modern ship building has gone beyond that.” — Captain Edward John Smith, HMS Titanic “There is substantial evidence showing that …. outages caused by disruptions of fuel supply to generators appear to be virtually nonexistent.” — Joint letter to FERC from […]
15Dec

Green Demand, Dry Water

December 14, 2017 “Energy favoritism” is now a bona fide topic of Washington conversation. Where else would energy subsidies and government intervention become a heated topic at Christmas parties? But a topic it is, energized by two events.  First, House and Senate tax bills that may or may not reduce welfare payments to some energy […]
06Dec

Miner’s Day Becomes Miner’s Year

December 6, 2017 Seventeen years ago, Congress set Dec. 6 as National Miner’s Day, little knowing the renewed significance this date would have in 2017. A day that was born in recognition of a tragedy – the loss of 362 men in a coal mine accident in West Virginia in 1907 — has today become […]
30Nov

Science Dies in the Dark

November 30, 2017 During the last administration, serving in the Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy was akin to tending bar during Prohibition.  There was often demand for a stiff drink, but teetotalers made sure that “alcoholic beverages” weren’t on offer. So it was with the fossil energy office at a time when coal […]
21Nov

Rhine Whine

November 21, 2017 Of all the column inches written from Bonn last week, New York Times reporter Brad Plumer (Nov. 18) may have underscored the biggest significance. German chancellor Angela Merkel acknowledged that the developed world’s clean energy leader would likely fail to honor its ambitious emissions reduction pledge. There are at least two ways […]
15Nov

Chatterjee Strategy

November 15, 2017 What response to Energy Secretary Perry’s proposal can we expect from FERC by its Dec. 11 deadline? FERC Chairman Neil Chatterjee provided a clue if not an answer: he proposed throwing a temporary “lifeline” to some coal plants in danger of retirement until the commission completes a robust assessment of grid reliability […]