Blog

03Aug

Off to the Coal (aka “Swing”) States

August 3, 2016 This week finds the candidates embarking on campaign swings through battleground states – Colorado with nine electoral votes, Virginia with 13, Pennsylvania with 20 and Ohio with 18. Another description for battleground states is “coal states.” Like most toss-up states this year, they either produce or use lots of coal, and sometimes […]
27Jul

Holdren the Heretic

July 27, 2016 It’s hardly newsworthy when energy experts question the “keep it in the ground” doctrine, the new battle cry of fossil fuel critics. This doctrine has now become the litmus test for the party faithful gathering in Philadelphia this week. In fact, a specific commitment to keep fossils in the ground was even […]
21Jul

Keep Americans Employed and Safe with Abundant Coal

July 21, 2016 Recent headlines remind us that we no longer live in a secure world, if we ever did. Whether it is economic security or national security, the mood of the country suggests Americans today have less of both. So it’s understandable that GOP conventioneers would seize on jobs and safety as twin themes […]
12Jul

Lost Production Equals Lost Employment from the Clean Power Plan

July 13, 2016 The administration has long blamed coal’s troubles on the marketplace, not on its regulations. In congressional hearings, all the president’s men and women discount the impact of the Clean Power Plan on jobs, coal communities and the grid – even as they claim credit for regulating coal out of the grid when […]
07Jul

Searching for the Power Plan’s Benefits

July 7, 2016 In a House subcommittee hearing this week, Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) echoed the doubts of many when he questioned the benefits of this administration’s anti-coal regulations –  leaving aside the legality of them. In a “where’s the beef” remark, Rep. Barton told agency air chief Janet McCabe he was hard pressed to […]
29Jun

An Energy Plank for Costlier Electricity

June 26, 2016 The initial meeting of the Democratic Platform Committee last week proposed a little noticed shift in the party’s energy policy – one that carries high risks and costs to match for the U.S. economy.  If this proposal stands, it would, for the first time, reject the “all of the above” energy approach […]
21Jun

BLM Keeps Coal in the Ground and Stakeholder Opinion in the Dark

June 21, 2016 Today the Bureau of Land Management will solicit stakeholder comments on the Obama administration’s moratorium on federal coal leases and its keen interest in hiking royalties on coal operators. There’s no legitimate reason for either, other than to “keep coal in the ground.” A moratorium threatens jobs and billions of dollars in coal […]
14Jun

House Hears Costs of Keeping Fossil Fuels in the Ground

June 14, 2016 This week we heard more evidence, as if any is needed, on the mounting costs of the Obama administration’s de facto energy policy.  That would be its short-sighted determination to keep fossil fuels like coal in the ground. Today, Wyoming’s top economic official, Alex Kean, told a House panel that royalties from […]
08Jun

EPA Ignores What Senate Will Hear Tomorrow on Clean Power Plan

June 8, 2016 It took a Freedom of Information Act request to pry real “transparency” out of EPA.  In contrast to the agency’s public utterances, confidential emails reported last week showed EPA’s alarming reaction to the Feb. 9 Supreme Court ruling that stayed the agency’s Clean Power Plan. “This is very obviously disappointing, and we […]
02Jun

EPA Guides States Past a Supreme Court Decision

June 2, 2016 Some state agencies continue to work on EPA’s Clean Power Plan (CPP) despite the Supreme Court’s decision to stay the rule. [NMA v EPA …] Undaunted, these agencies not only ignore a high court ruling that, for all practical purposes, shelved the administration’s signature climate change regulation but ignore also the governors […]