Blog

26Jul

Coal’s Benefits: Seen Only When Gone

July 26, 2017 The front-page story in Sunday’s Washington Post was a despairing look at the human cost of “the collapse of the coal industry.”  “Disabled and Disdained” is an example of a growing interest by both broadcast and print media in the social destruction left in the wake of a vanishing industry and the […]
19Jul

Kemper’s Collapse – A Speed Bump, Not a Dead End

July 19, 2017 When the Kemper Power Plant finally folded its cards, it prompted a shrill chorus of “we told you so’s” from the guardians of renewable energy. The  foundation-fueled NGOs see in Kemper’s collapse the death Nell of “clean coal”. Pity about those  miners now without a future, they say. Whatever can we do […]
14Jul

Hamburg and Wilsonville

July 13, 2017 As the president debated environmental and economic concerns with G-20 worthies in Hamburg last week, his cabinet officers were discussing them with locals here at home. “America first,” a serviceable description of the administration’s message, predictably played better here than over there. Energy Secretary Perry pitched advanced coal technologies at a visit […]
28Jun

Green Fantasy Gets Bad Reviews

June 28, 2017 Just in time for Energy Week comes a new paper by 21 academicians, all from prestigious research institutions, that drives a stake in the heart of the prevailing renewable energy fantasy. The authors, writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences last week, systematically demolish the claim made in the […]
15Jun

The Light They Will Not See

June 15, 2017 Look hard enough at politics and you will always find irony. That’s why it “makes strange bedfellows.” Here’s one recent example. President Trump’s support for the coal industry, together with his regulatory re-set that helped to revive it, has made coal a surrogate for him – a president the major media deeply […]
17May

Congress’s Kill Switch

May 17, 2017 Judged by the reviews from the toughest critics, Washington has a new hit on its hands. “Historic” says The New York Times. “Ambitious” says The Washington Post. “A once-in-a-generation opportunity,” says Politico. They’re describing the Congressional Review Act’s (CRA) impact on regulations. When President Obama said he had a pen and threatened to use it, […]
10May

The “Good” Steroids

May 10, 2017 The International Olympic Committee is reviewing the legitimacy of literally hundreds of medals awarded to athletes who are suspected of having used banned substances. When the medalists are drugged, the game is rigged and the competition doomed.So, keep this in mind when you read about the growth in wind (5.6 percent of […]
03May

Scary Perry

May 3, 2017 Energy Secretary Perry, usually affable and agreeable, hit a raw nerve last week with his announcement of a report. Not the findings of the report. No. Just the fact that his department would undertake a study of the possible impact that regulations have had on grid reliability. The flustered response to this […]
19Apr

Easter in Coal Country

April 19, 2017 “The war on coal is over,” EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt told a group of miners in Pennsylvania last week. They survived the eight-year conflict. Many didn’t. In 2011 the MATS rule took out 33,000 MW of coal based power generation, as EPA unleashed a barrage of regulations that sent the coal industry, […]
13Apr

What Trump Can Do for Coal

April 13, 2017 By now we know his reputation. Shoots from the lip, dismisses facts as inconvenient truths, creates his own truth from his unassailable position as billionaire newsmaker. Yup, that’s Michael Bloomberg. With a recent editorial in The New York Times and new speechifying to green groups, the Sierra Club financier who once scolded […]