Blog

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 […]
05Apr

Crushed by Coal’s Survival

April 5, 2017 “This day may be remembered as a low point in human history …” — David Arkush, head climate programs for Public Citizen. That day? Last Tuesday. The “end of days” event?  President Trump signing an executive order blunting the regulatory assault on U.S. coal. Bad enough the president prefers his steak well done, […]
29Mar

A New Era for American Energy

March 29, 2017: “The War on Coal is over – and a new era of American energy has begun.” So tweeted our vice president this weekend, foreshadowing the events that occurred at EPA headquarters. It was a stirring sight: 30 coal miners from the Brush Valley Mine in Pennsylvania alongside President Trump, EPA Administrator Pruitt […]
22Mar

A Realistic Debate About Coal

March 22, 2017 The unseemly haste to bury coal is taking a new tact. From Axios to The Washington Post, this week’s conventional wisdom about coal is: Trump can’t put king coal back on its throne. This is how coal’s critics set up the quintessential straw man, then triumphantly knock it down. It’s a staple […]
16Mar

CPP’s Last Stand

March 16, 2017: The Obama Administration’s so called war on coal, a campaign that appeared destined for victory just a few months ago looks to be in full retreat. An executive order, expected soon, will start a re-examination of costly and potentially unlawful policy impediments to energy independence. Prominent among these will be two, both […]