Britain to ban coal mines under Miliband's net zero plans.  Britain will ban new coal mines in a landmark decision that forms part of Ed Miliband's drive to hit net zero.  The Government said it was bringing forward a decision to restrict new licences, ending an era of coal-fired power generation that at its peak supported more than 1m jobs.  It follows the closure of the last UK coal power station in September, ending 142 years of coal-fired generation in the UK.  Ratcliffe-on-Soar closed on Sep 30 following five decades of service that powered more than 2m [two million] homes and produced enough electricity to make more than 1bn cups of tea per day.

Indonesia Dumps Climate Politics in Favor of Energy Security.  The archipelago nation of Indonesia represents just 1% of Earth's land area, but it has set the stage for global geopolitics surrounding fossil fuels and climate policies.  As a part of climate negotiations between G-7 nations, Indonesia was expected to be the first among developing countries to announce early closures of coal plants.  In the spotlight is the 660-megawatt Cirebon-1 plant in West Java province, which had been scheduled to shut down by 2035.  However, it is understood that Jakarta will not follow that timeline but rather continue to operate the plant to its originally projected end of life in 2042. A stumbling block to the early closure is a price tag of more than $1 billion to replace the coal plant with so-called renewable energy.

Is Climate Change Fanaticism the Greatest Killer of All Time?  How many people are dying each year from climate change lunacy?  The left's immoral war on energy has now become one of the planet's leading causes of death and infant mortality.  This is the only conclusion from a new 2024 study, finding more than 1 billion people STILL lack access to reliable electric power. [...] So here we are in the year 2024 and a population TWICE the size of the United States still has no electricity some 125 years after Edison's invention of the light bulb!  Energy poverty has become one of the leading causes of death.  Then we have a half-trillion-dollar climate change industrial complex (funded by the U.S. government and leftwing tax-exempt foundations) instructing poor nations in Africa and Asia to use LESS electric power and to avoid using coal and natural gas — the most plentiful and cheapest forms of energy.

Plans for Britain's first coal mine in 30 years scrapped after landmark legal defeat.  Approval for Britain's first coal mine in 30 years has been quashed by the High Court in a landmark victory for climate campaigners.  In a ruling published on Friday, Mr Justice Holgate said a decision by the Conservative government in 2022 to rubber-stamp the Cumbria coal mine in Whitehaven was "legally flawed".  The judgment comes after a legal challenge from Friends of the Earth and South Lakes Action on Climate Change, who successfully argued that the planning permission did not take into account the impact of burning coal on the environment.  Mr Justice Holgate said: "The assumption that the proposed mine would not produce a net increase in greenhouse gas emissions or would be a net zero mine is legally flawed."  This marks a significant setback for West Cumbria Mining, the mine's owners, which had won approval on the basis that Whitehaven could produce high-grade metallurgical coal for use in steelmaking across the UK and Europe.

Natural Gas Industry's Smear of Coal Is False and Self-Defeating.  Smearing coal has become a marketing strategy of a natural gas industry that embraces pseudoscientific views of coal combustion as being hazardous.  In so doing, gas supporters give credence to a fallacious regulatory regime of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which erroneously classifies carbon dioxide as a pollutant and assigns health effects to low-level pollution without scientific proof.  To boot, a false representation of coal, oil and natural gas as environmental bogeymen is perpetuated.  Perhaps the most enthusiastic user of this foolish ploy is Toby Rice, CEO of Pittsburgh-based EQT Corp., who introduced two years ago a global plan to replace coal with liquefied natural gas.

How is Nickel for EV Batteries Smelted in Indonesia?  With Coal.  Indonesia is building several new coal-fired power plants for industrial users, despite its stated commitment to start phasing out coal and transition to clean energy, according to a new report.  These so-called captive coal plants will have a combined capacity of 13 gigawatts, accounting for more than two-thirds of the 18.8 GW of new coal power in the pipeline.  Most of the plants will feed the nickel, cobalt and aluminum smelters that the government is promoting in an effort to turn Indonesia into a manufacturing hub for electric vehicles (EVs) and batteries.  Critics say the building spree goes against both these green technology aspirations and Indonesia's own climate commitments, but regulatory and funding loopholes mean the government can freely build more new captive coal plants.

This article includes misinformation about global warming — in the first sentence.
Loopholes allow multilateral development banks to fund captive coal in Indonesia:  Report.  Publicly funded multilateral development banks (MDBs) like the World Bank might finance a wave of "captive" coal expansion in climate-vulnerable countries vulnerable to climate change, which will speed up global warming.  A new report reveals that the World Bank's private sector arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), has indirectly financed at least one captive coal project on Indonesia's Obi Island via its financial intermediary client, Hana Bank Indonesia. [...] Nickel, whose processing in Indonesia is often powered by captive coal, is a key element in the batteries that power EVs and energy storage systems.  Captive coal also often powers other metals such as steel and aluminum, which are key resources for renewable energy projects, including solar and wind power.

U.K.'s 1st new coal mine in 30 years faces legal challenges.  Climate campaigners are challenging the U.K.'s approval of the first new coal mine in the country in three decades, with the High Court beginning hearings on the case on Tuesday.  The U.K.'s previous Conservative government approved in December 2022 the Woodhouse Colliery project in Whitehaven, northwest England, developed by West Cumbria Mining.  Earlier this year, West Cumbria Mining (WCM) said that it "continues to focus on preparatory works prior to commencement of real construction activity, no later than early 2025," when it announced that the High Court would hear on July 16-18 a challenge by two parties against the Government's approval of planning.

China is the coal furnace of the world, and everyone is fine with that.  Even though India now consumes more than Europe and the US combined, there is really only one coal consumer. [...] China burns four times as much coal as the second largest coal burner in the world.  Everyone else is an also-ran in the coal stakes.  For every ton the US consumes, China fries 12 times as much.  And poor patsy Australia, for every ton we apologetically ignite, China burns 50. More coal was burned on Earth in 2023 than ever before in human history, and more than half of it was burned in China.  Moreover, despite all the Sino nodding to sacred targets China shows no intention of putting the brakes on the coal train.  Around the world, 95% of all new coal power plants built in 2023 were built in China.

Hydrocarbons are growing faster than alt-energy.  [Scroll down to Chart 7]  As I noted last December in "Two Days After COP28, IEA Delivers More Coal Hard Reality," the International Energy Agency has been predicting a decline in global coal demand for years.  I explained that in 2015, the IEA claimed, 'The golden age of coal in China seems to be over."  That year, the agency predicted global coal demand would fall to 5.5 billion tons by 2020. That didn't happen.  Instead of falling, coal demand keeps powering upward, with major increases in China and India.  Other Asian countries, including Vietnam, the Philippines, and Bangladesh, are also burning more coal.

China and India Break Coal Production Records.  Back in April, the Environmental Protection Agency issued a new final rule that will force U.S. coal-fired power plants to install carbon capture systems or shut down operations.  The rule is a key part of President Biden's pledge to eliminate all energy sources that emit carbon dioxide by 2035 in the electricity sector and by 2050 for home heating, steel production, and all other uses.  But, as Tsvetana Paraskova reported in May, the Biden Administration plan faces insurmountable problems, given that fossil fuels still provide 60 percent of total U.S. electricity generation.  Coal's share has fallen to 16 percent, while natural gas accounts for 43 percent.  Coal-fired power generation is highest during summer heatwaves when wind power is intermittent.  Thus, coal still supplies more electric power than wind (11 percent), hydropower (6 percent), or solar (4 percent).  The push seeks to eradicate not just coal but all fossil fuels from American society.

Biden Goes All-In With War on Coal.  The Biden administration's war on coal came out of the shadows recently, with the release of a new series of regulations that have the clear intent of locking up millions of acres of federal land from coal mining and drilling for oil and natural gas, as well as shutting down the nation's remaining coal-fired power generation fleet.  The Bureau of Land Management released a new rule that will effectively make it impossible to continue to mine coal or drill for oil and gas anywhere on federally owned lands.  This will cripple coal mining in the Powder River Basin and other western reserves, which provide most of the nation's thermal coal used for energy production.  This action alone would have been devastating, but it was just part of a much larger and far-reaching series of regulatory actions.

Biden Lauches Largest Attack Yet On American Coal With New Lease Ban In Powder River Basin.  The Biden administration is going after western coal producers with new rules published last week that eliminate new coal leases in the nation's largest coal-producing region.  Last Thursday, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced the agency would halt additional leases to mine coal across the Powder River Basin, which runs through southeast Montana and northeast Wyoming and is the most productive stretch of coal reserves in the United States.  The Washington Post described the administration's move as the "biggest step yet to end coal mining."  [Advertisement]  Larry Behrens, the spokesman for the energy nonprofit Power the Future, told The Federalist the agency's decision illustrates a president who holds "nothing but contempt for affordable and reliable energy."  "It's also no surprise to see his environmental friends celebrate this terrible decision as their singular goal is to destroy private sector jobs in favor of more heavily subsidized energy failures," Behrens said. "Every American should remember this decision next time the White House says they're not responsible for high prices."  [Tweet]

Coal's importance for Solar Panel Manufacturing.  Coal is not the favorite "child" these days.  It seems that almost the entire western political world has sworn to send coal to its grave.  Not only have the United Nations and the IEA literally declared "war" on coal, but countless political, activist organizations and even leading financial institutions have pledged, if it had to be in their power, to immediately stop the usage of coal.  The reason for all of this is of course this "terrible" chemical element called carbon (number 6 on the periodic table).  Please remember though that the same carbon is the 2nd most abundant element in the human body and it is a key building block for all life on Earth.  By the way, carbon is not only essential because CO2 is plant food and plants grow best at 1.500 ppm of CO2 in the air (current atmospheric content is 420 ppm), CO2 is also a greenhouse gas, contributing to keeping our Earth temperature temperate and livable.  I have to mention that the prize for keeping Earth livable has to go to water, or better yet, water vapor, the most important and most abundant greenhouse gas.  We all understand that increased greenhouse gas concentrations will contribute to slight warming, though only a few of us have learnt — including me only after studying it — that there are so called saturation levels to consider which means that higher concentrations of any greenhouse gas have less and less impact on temperature changes (the warming impact logarithmically declines).

Biden Signs Suicidal 'No Coal' Pact, While Rest of World Builds 1,000 New Plants.  The Biden administration has just signed an economic suicide pact that would require the United States and six other Western democracies to shut down its coal power plants by 2035, while China, India and the rest of the world currently have more than 1,000 new coal power plants in the planning or construction phase.  The no-coal pact allows all nations but the Suicidal Seven to continue using as much affordable coal power as they like.  Climate activists often point to China as a climate role model, noting that China manufactures more wind and solar power equipment than any other nation.  China, however, isn't stupid enough to use much of that equipment.  Realizing that conventional energy — and especially coal power — is more affordable and reliable than wind and solar power, China manufactures wind and solar equipment, sells the equipment to America and Western Europe, and then powers its own economy primarily with coal power.

Coal's importance for Solar Panel Manufacturing.  Why is it that solar panel manufacturing is impossible without coal?  I always thought that coal is "only" important for electricity, contributing to 36% of global power demand, or over 8h of 24h every single day of the year.  I always thought that coal is "only" required to produce all steel.  Let us have a look at solar panel manufacturing, which is really about silicon production.  The vast majority of all energy required to make solar panels is consumed during silicon production, purification, and wafering.  But first let's talk about purity.  6N pure silicon means 99.9999% purity level, 11N pure silicon means 99.999999999% purity level, you get the point.  You may now have a first glimpse of the chemical and mechanical difficulty of making such a pure metal from a natural product.  In this blog post you will see how important uninterrupted power supply is, especial for industrial processes such as silicon smelting.  Obviously, this power comes from coal in China, and cannot come from wind or solar.

Renewable-leading Germany likely to be dependent on coal to keep the lights on through 2027.  Germany's energy regulator predicts the country will need to increase the amount of coal-fired plants it has on standby in order to ensure enough electricity during future cold snaps.  According to Bloomberg, the regulator said Tuesday that Germany needs 9.2 gigawatts to cover projected shortfalls in wind and solar generation for the 2026-2027 winter period.  In 2022, the country had to put 8.3 gigawatts of primarily coal-fired generation on backup, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine deprived Germany of Russian natural gas supplies.  Germany has among the most aggressive nuclear-free efforts to transition its electricity grid away from any fossil fuel generation, and it reportedly hopes to phase out coal entirely by 2030.  The country shuttered its remaining nuclear power plants in 2023, and with battery facilities providing only a fraction of the backup the nation needs, much of its backup generation comes from coal and gas plants.  Since embarking on its energy transition, the country has seen its energy costs skyrocket and its once-powerhouse economy falter.

No Coal Storage.  In a summary of a recent peer-reviewed paper, the principal author stated that an electric grid predominantly powered by intermittent renewables such as wind and solar would require storage approximately equal to 25% of annual generation to be reliable.  Other studies have reported similar results.  US coal powerplants produced approximately 700,000 GWH of electricity in 2023.  The Administration has announced a goal of eliminating coal generation by 2030.  Achieving this goal would require installation of approximately 270 GW of wind and solar rating plate capacity generation, depending on the percentages of wind and solar generation.  Based on the Fekete paper, the US would also require a total of approximately 175,000 GWH of additional electricity storage as the result of the elimination of coal power plants.

G7 Countries Including United States Reach Agreement to Shut Down All Coal-Fired Power Plants by 2035.  Ministers from the Group of Seven (G7) nations have agreed to eliminate all coal-fired power plants by 2035.  The countries that are members of the Group of Seven (G7) are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States, as well as the European Union.  This declaration was made by Andrew Bowie, a UK minister at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, during an interview in Turing, Italy.  "We do have an agreement to phase out coal in the first half of the 2030s," Bowie said.

Wyoming governor, secretary of state say EPA rules will hurt state's coal industry.  Wyoming officials are not happy with the federal government's latest rules involving coal-fired power plants.  The Environmental Protection Agency's new rules finalized this week will require existing coal-fired plants and new natural gas plants to "control 90% of their carbon pollution" and will make mercury emissions standards stricter.  The stated purpose from EPA is to help combat climate change, but Gov. Mark Gordon isn't buying.  "It is clear the only goal envisioned by these rules released by the Environmental Protection Agency today is the end of coal communities in Wyoming," Gordon said in a press release.  "EPA has weaponized the fear of climate change into a crushing set of rules that will result in an unreliable electric grid, unaffordable electricity, and thousands of lost jobs."  According to the Energy Information Administration, which is part of the Department of Energy, Wyoming accounts for two-fifths of all domestic coal mined.

Biden's EPA Says Sweeping Power Plant Regs Won't Harm America's Grid — Experts Are Saying The Exact Opposite.  The Biden administration says that its new rules for fossil fuel-fired power plants will not cause grid reliability problems, but power grid experts are warning that the exact opposite could end up being the case.  The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced final rules for fossil fuel-fired power plants Thursday, marking one of the most aggressive moves that President Joe Biden has made in an effort to fight climate change.  While the EPA says that the rules will not make the electricity that powers the economy less reliable, power grid experts are concerned that the rules will constrain the amount of affordable and reliable power available to meet expected increases in demand over the coming years.  Under the new regulations, America's existing coal plants will have to use carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology to control 90% of their carbon emissions by 2032 if they want to stay running past 2039, and certain new natural gas plants will also have to cut their emissions by 90% by 2032, according to the agency.

When did we vote on this?
Biden EPA Threatens to Shut Down Coal Plants Amid Energy Crisis.  Just last month, it was determined that the cost of electricity in the United States was still rising at a rate faster than the national average for inflation.  In other words, even if you are somehow managing to pay your rent or your mortgage in this economy and maintain a place to live, you might not be able to afford to heat it or keep the lights on.  So what has Joe Biden done in response?  He has ordered the EPA to issue new rules that will either make electricity more expensive or remove some of it from the power grid.  (Possibly both.)  Under the new rules, coal and natural gas power plants will be forced to capture nearly all smokestack emissions or... (wait for it) shut down.  What could possibly go wrong?

Biden Admin Finalizes New Rules to Restrain Fossil Fuel Power Plant Carbon Emissions.  The Biden administration has finalized an array of new regulations on fossil-fuel-fired power plants, including a rule requiring many power plants to prevent the release of 90 percent of their carbon emissions.  "The Biden-Harris Administration is announcing key actions to build on this momentum and deliver clean electricity to more homes and businesses, helping lower energy costs for American families and power the U.S. manufacturing renaissance driven by President Biden's Investing in America agenda, while providing cleaner air and water to communities long overburdened by pollution from fossil fuel power plants," the White House said on April 25.  The new carbon emission regulations, announced by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), specifically call for fossil fuel plants to cut their carbon emissions and reduce other air and water pollutants.

The Editor says...
Carbon dioxide is not carbon, nor is it a pollutant.

China, India, Indonesia, Japan and Vietnam plan to build more than 600 coal power units.
Five Asian countries account for 80% of new coal power investment.  Five Asian countries are jeopardising global climate ambitions by investing in 80% of the world's planned new coal plants, according to a report.  Carbon Tracker, a financial thinktank, has found that China, India, Indonesia, Japan and Vietnam plan to build more than 600 coal power units, even though renewable energy is cheaper than most new coal plants.  The investments in one of the most environmentally damaging sources of energy could generate a total of 300 gigawatts of energy — enough to power the UK more than three times over — despite calls from climate experts at the UN for all new coal plants to be cancelled.  Catharina Hillenbrand von der Neyen, the author of the report, said: "These last bastions of coal power are swimming against the tide, when renewables offer a cheaper solution that supports global climate targets.  Investors should steer clear of new coal projects, many of which are likely to generate negative returns from the outset."

Baltimore is the largest US coal export port and the 22nd-largest exporter globally.  The coal trade from Baltimore will be "probably frozen in time... Every other port is just jam-packed with coal right now — it would take six weeks to send rail cars back up to West Virginia and transfer them to barges."

Bill Gates Wants to Shut Down West Virginia's Coal Industry.  Bill Gates is working hand-in-hand with West Virginia's political establishment to crush the coal industry.  Last year, he met with a bipartisan group of politicians that included Carol Miller, Joe Manchin, and Jim Justice, to, as Miller put it, "discuss energy investments and best practices to improve our workforces in [West Virginia]."  "Innovation makes West Virginia coal, gas, and carbon capture the backbone of U.S. energy independence that supplies reliable, affordable power to the world," Miller added, talking out of both sides of her mouth as she tried to convince her constituents that inviting in, Bill Gates, one of the world's foremost climate scam artists and an open-borders advocate, will somehow benefit West Virginians.

Alaska lawmaker's bid to revive stalled green energy policy defines coal as 'clean'.  Burning coal to make electricity generates significantly more carbon pollution than using natural gas for the same purpose.  But a new bill drafted by Sutton Republican Rep. George Rauscher still seeks to define coal-generated electricity as "clean energy" — putting it on the same footing as wind, solar, tidal and hydroelectric power.  The proposed legislation, House Bill 368, is Rauscher's bid to advance an energy policy debate that has otherwise stalled at the Alaska Capitol.  "There's a reality to keeping the lights on and keeping everybody warm today," Rauscher said.  "As opposed to the vision of what we're going to have in the future."  Conservation and other advocacy groups have been pressing lawmakers to require Alaska's urban utilities — which serve residents and businesses between Fairbanks, Anchorage and the Kenai Peninsula — to generate more of their electricity from sources like wind and solar.

China built 47GW of coal power last year and is "way off track" to meet emissions targets.  If coal is a planet wrecking problem, if it really mattered, about 30 countries are beating themselves up in a grandiose public flagellation, while one country is wrecking the planet and nobody cares.  The truth is that no one is behaving like they think CO2 is causing a crisis.  All over the West everyone wears the hippie-care coat while buying the cheapest fridges, phones and fashion they can get from the global coal furnace.  And China nods the nod then keeps on adding coal power plants.

Coal's Life-Saving Role Ignored by Climate-Obsessed Media.  In regions with particularly harsh winters and limited access to reliable heating sources, the threat of death and illness due to anti-fossil fuel policies is particularly grave.  Central Asia, where economic hardship and energy constraints converge, exemplifies this challenge.  In places like Mongolia, staying warm is a continual wintertime focus.  With many households depending on coal and frequent blackouts impacting those who are connected to the grid, the situation can become grim fast.  This year, the country's imports of electricity from Russia were disrupted, resulting in load shedding to millions of people in the middle of winter.  At minus 35-degrees Fahrenheit, the people of Mongolia were left to fend for themselves.  To brave this harsh climate, they rely on just two crucial energy sources: internal electricity generation from their plentiful coal reserves and the direct use of coal for heating homes.  When faced with below-freezing, snow-blanketed winter days, neither wind nor solar power can guarantee a steady energy supply.  In other countries of the region, the scenario is similar.

New Report:  Coal, Natural Gas Saved the Grid In January Winter Storm.  January Winter Storm Demonstrates Importance of Coal and Other Fossil Fuels February 2024 Energy Ventures Analysis (EVA) has prepared a report on the performance of different electricity resources — coal, natural gas, nuclear, hydro, oil, wind, and solar — during the January 13-21 winter storm.  The report focuses on the five most-impacted regions of the country — Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO), PJM Interconnection (PJM), Southwest Power Pool (SPP), and the southeastern U.S. — and compares the performance of resources in early January before the storm with their performance during the peak of the storm when electricity demand spiked.

Hawaii got rid of its last coal plant, then rolling blackouts hit the island.  [Tweet with video clip]

UK turns to last coal plant amid Arctic blast for electricity boost.  Amidst a cold spell, the UK heavily relies on its final coal power plant, Ratcliffe-on-Soar, contributing 3.4% to the nation's electricity production on Monday, marking its busiest week in at least a year.  Recent figures show increased dependence on coal, notably above average levels throughout the year.  Forecasts predict low temperatures, heightening electricity demand.  While Monday saw grid pressure relief due to wind power, the National Grid Electricity System Operator may incentivise families to reduce electricity usage if needed.  Unlike last winter, only Ratcliffe-on-Soar remains operational, prompting contingency measures such as payments to households to manage demand during peak times.

Germany Will Rely on Coal to Avoid Blackouts.  [Scroll down]  Then came the budget crisis.  The Federal Ministry of Economics told members of the Bundestag's Energy Committee that the Power Plant Strategy had been "shelved for the short term".  In the new plans for the federal budget, with adjustments announced on Wednesday, the financial resources for the strategy have been postponed by two years.  So it's essential for the next election period.  Whether the strategy will return and what it may look like is more questionable than ever.  It is now clear that this has apparently initiated a shift that could have existential significance for the Greens in the federal government.  In a draft of the SPD parliamentary group's current work planning for the first half of 2024, which has been seen by the Berliner Zeitung and dated January 4th, the Power Plant Strategy is completely missing.

India plans to double coal production, ignoring climate pledges.  As climate diplomats at COP28 in Dubai debated an agreement to transition away from fossil fuels last December, India was facing another energy conundrum:  It needed to build more power capacity, fast.  "To meet growing demand," the Indian government said on Dec. 11 it expects to roughly double coal production, reaching 1.5 billion tons by 2030.  Later, the power minister Raj Kumar Singh set out plans on Dec. 22 to add 88 gigawatts of thermal power plants by 2032. The vast majority of which will burn coal.  The move to invest more in the world's dirtiest fuel — one of the biggest contributors to global warming — may seem counterintuitive for the South Asian country, which is highly vulnerable to climate impacts.  Yet, as the country heads into elections during April and May, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is keen to avoid any risks of power shortages.  Along with record heat waves India has seen big spikes in peak demand for electricity over two successive years.

Coal's Life-Saving Role [is] Ignored By Climate-Obsessed Media.  On a recent cold winter day, residents of Munich were surprised to see people skiing in the street.  Yes, that is how much snow fell in the German city and other parts of Europe during the early winter of 2023-2024.  Despite a disruption to both ground and air travel, the Germans survived the freezing weather with access to heating and basic utilities.  But not everyone in our world is as fortunate as those living off reliable energy sources in Western economies.  Billions of people all over the world do not have access to secure sources of heat and electricity.  For these, winter can be a death blow.  A political war against fossil fuels is making matters worse for those unprotected from frigid temperatures.  The gravity of winter's hazard has been overshadowed by the prevailing discourse on purported man-made climate change.  We have been inundated with warnings about the perils of warming.  But historically, it is the cold that has been disastrous.  It has altered the course of history across the world and left people scrambling for food as plant life dwindled.

It appears the Church of the Climate Change Cult (CCCC) is losing some of its Flock Part 5.  Coming out of COP 28 the US joined 56 other nations in the "Powering Past Coal Alliance" where Steven Guilbeault, a long-time member of the CCCC sits as the Co-chair along with Graham Stewart, the UK Minister of State for Climate Change.  While the US is currently the 3rd largest user of coal in the world, they have promised to be coal free by 2035 but it is basically meaningless.  Their consumption when compared to China and India's annual increases simply means those two countries will increase their coal consumption and it will represent 76% in the near future, up from the 70% it represented in 2022!  It is worth noting with the US joining the other 56 countries it means there are still 138 countries who are not members of the "Alliance"!  The following is a chart from the IEA with a forecast out to only 2026 suggesting China, Indian and other Asian countries will be consuming more coal in 2026 than they did in 2022!

India Scoffs at Coal 'Transition': 'Not Happening in Foreseeable Future'.  India burns so much coal that it has an entire cabinet-level ministry devoted to coal.  The Ministry of Coal informed the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of Parliament, this week that India will not be transitioning to any alternative form of energy in the "foreseeable future."  The ministry said more mining and importing of coal will be necessary to meet the energy needs of the growing industrial economy.  The Hindustan Times noted that no one participating in the just-concluded winter session of Parliament acted like India's promise at the COP28 climate conference to begin eliminating fossil fuels was sincere.  COP28, hosted by fossil fuel superpower the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in December, climaxed with an ostensibly "historic" agreement to "transition away from fossil fuels."  Stronger language that would have called for a more aggressive "phase out" was removed from the final joint declaration, but it was still the first climate conference agreement to explicitly discuss eliminating coal and oil on a near-future timetable.

Boom Boom:  Out Go the Lights!  Ruling like the dictator whom he says Donald Trump aspires to be, President Joe Biden has decreed restrictions, if not prohibitions, on gas stoves, gas furnaces, gasoline-powered cars and trucks, and other products.  Congress has passed no such laws for Biden to sign.  Instead, he has acted unilaterally, as despots do. [...] Biden's "Climate!" guru, John Kerry, attended the just-concluded COP28 global-warming hoe-down in Dubai.  Some of its 80,000 participants got delayed en route, as their private jets bogged down as 17 inches of snow closed Munich's airport.  Kerry soldiered forth and soon declared that "There shouldn't be any more coal power plants permitted anywhere in the world."  He added: "I do not understand how adults who are in a position of responsibility can be avoiding responsibility for taking away those things that are killing people on a daily basis."  When coal took a break from its homicides du jour, it also yielded 19.7% of U.S. electricity in 2022, according to Biden's own Energy Information Administration.  Biden's Environmental Protection Agency unveiled edicts on Dec. 2 that would clamp down on methane emissions from new and existing oil and gas wells.  Methane and natural gas are essentially interchangeable.  So, this bid to reduce 58 million tons of methane through 2038 is a barely disguised billy club to beat down the natural gas industry.  Never mind that, last year, 39.9% of U.S. electricity came from natural gas.

President Biden just pledged to shut down 60% of America's electric power.  The Biden administration made two virtue-signaling proclamations at last week's COP28 conference in Dubai that it says will help save the planet from climate change.  The policies aren't likely to change the planet's temperature by even one-tenth of a degree, but they might just destroy the 21st-century American industrial economy as we know it.  First, Team Biden announced it will stop production of all new coal plants in the United States.  This comes on the heels of President Biden's Environmental Protection Agency saying this year it would impose new power plant emission regulations that are virtually impossible for coal plants to comply with.  The bottom line:  No more coal.  Period.  But the White House was just getting started.  Vice President Kamala Harris trumpeted the next day new rules to "sharply reduce methane from the oil and natural gas industry."  The administration calls methane a "super-pollutant" that it wants to eliminate because it's "many times more potent than carbon dioxide."  But methane is effectively a hydrocarbon that comes from natural gas.

The Editor says...
Methane is a naturally-occurring gas.  It is not a pollutant; it is beneficial; it is not something to avoid.  Climate change is not a crisis.  The climate will always change.  The climate does not respond to legislation.  You might as well burn all the hydrocarbons you need, because the earth isn't being ruined by your use of them.  The billions of people who live in China and India couldn't care less about methane or carbon dioxide, and if they don't care, you might as well use as much natural gas as you like, because it won't make any difference.

Newt Gingrich:  U.S. Climate Czar John Kerry Is 'Not Mentally Sound'.  John Kerry's call to end all coal-powered electricity generation is "silly" and "self-destructive," writes former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, and "makes the United States look delusional."  In his punchy essay, Gingrich insists that it is "not hyperbole or exaggeration" to call John Kerry "crazy," since the word crazy means "marked by thought or action that lacks reason."  Mr. Kerry's failing mental state was on full display during his recent "emotional speech" to the United Nations Climate Change Conference, where he made a plea to "end all coal burning power plant construction in the entire world."

Most Deserving Of A Lump Of Coal.  Climate czar John Kerry, who must have nightmares of everyone's carbon footprint but his own, dreams of outlawing coal-fired power plants across the world.  Doing so is "how you can do something for health," he said from the United Nations 28th global warming cocktail party in oil-rich Abu Dhabi.  Avoiding blackouts and holding down electricity prices are also good for health, but health is not what the warming activists are interested in.  After declaring that "there shouldn't be any more coal power plants permitted anywhere in the world," the White House's climate hector in chief admitted "the reality is that we're not doing it."  How dare India, with a growing population of 1.43 billion, displease the imperious Kerry by asking "private firms to ramp up investments in new coal-fired power plants to meet a dramatic rise in electricity demand and bridge nearly 30 gigawatts of additional requirement by 2030."  How dare the Chinese unleash "a massive coal power expansion" to meet its needs.  It's as if they want to get a small taste of the sweet life Kerry has enjoyed for all of his now nearly 80 years on Earth, the advantages that come only when cheap and plentiful electricity is available at the flip of a switch.  He won't stand for it.

Biden to phase out American (coal) power.  Reports indicate that the United States has committed to phasing out coal power plants, and sooner rather than later, though no specific date has yet been given.  The U.S. joins 56 other nations who have similarly pledged to rid themselves of coal power.  U.S. "special envoy" John Kerry recently announced that Washington has agreed to join something called "the Powering Past Coal Alliance" which means the Biden administration has effectively vowed to build no new coal plants and to phase out existing plants.  Kerry said the U.S. and other PPCA nations "will be working to accelerate unabated coal phase-out across the world," and added, "the first step is to stop making the problem worse: stop building new unabated coal power plants."  Due to other Biden administration "regulatory actions" and "international commitments" already in the works, there is some speculation that it may target 2035 as a coal-free date.

US Joins New Climate Pact to Shut Down All Coal Plants.  The United States has "proudly" committed to not build any new coal-fired power plants and to get rid of existing ones entirely, John Kerry, special presidential envoy on climate matters, said on Dec. 2.  "To meet our goal of 100 percent carbon pollution-free electricity by 2035, we need to phase out unabated coal," he said in a statement, in which he announced at the annual United Nations COP28 climate change summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates that the United States had officially joined a coalition of 56 other countries who all plan to ditch coal in the name of climate change.  "We will be working to accelerate unabated coal phase-out across the world, building stronger economies and more resilient communities.  The first step is to stop making the problem worse:  stop building new unabated coal power plants."

The Editor says...
Carbon dioxide is not carbon, and carbon dioxide is not a pollutant.  So, technically, we already have "100 percent carbon pollution-free electricity."

US commits to shutting down its coal plants during COP28.  The Biden Administration is forging ahead with its green agenda by committing the United States to not building any new coal plants and phasing out existing plants.  U.S. Special Envoy for Climate John Kerry announced at the annual United Nations climate change summit, known as COP28 and which is being held in Dubai, although no date was given for when the existing plants would have to go.  "We will be working to accelerate unabated coal phase-out across the world, building stronger economies and more resilient communities," Kerry said in a statement.  "The first step is to stop making the problem worse:  stop building new unabated coal power plants."  Kerry said America was joining the Powering Past Coal Alliance, a pact of nearly 60 countries that have promised to accelerate the phasing out of coal-fired power stations, except the very few that have carbon capture and storage.

The Editor says...
Nobody voted to outlaw the combustion of coal, which would certainly lead to widespread blackouts.  Nobody voted for John Kerry to have that kind of authority, either.

Putting oil spills into perspective.  I am 70 years old.  My electricity has been provided by a coal-fired power plant my entire life.  I have been privileged to have AC for around 60 years.  My heat has been provided by natural gas almost all my life.  I have lived within one mile of the coal plant, with scrubbers, for 44 years.  I raised three children in this close proximity.  Not once, that I can remember, did I worry about the air quality or worry about opening the doors and windows.  We are all very healthy.  Our current power plant was updated in 2005, at the cost of several hundred million.  It passed all environmental standards yet now, Democrats want to put it out of existence to claim they can change the climate.  It is a shame they care so little about the poor and middle classes that still have to pay off the plant, and now a replacement.

Major coal port remains blocked by climate protesters.  Protesters have spent the night blockading the world's largest coal port over what they say is the failure of government to act on climate change.  Several hundred protesters blocked Newcastle Port's shipping lane on Saturday, remaining overnight and into Sunday with the action due to end at 4 pm.  The group behind the protest, Rising Tide, claims over half a million tonnes of coal will be prevented from leaving the port for the duration of the action.  Protesters are demanding the government stop allowing new coal projects, tax fossil fuel export profits at 75 percent to fund community and industrial transition, and pay for climate loss and damage.

The Editor says...
What "climate loss and damage" exists?  What does that mean?  Where is this damage?  Can you prove that man-made climate change inflicted damage on anything?  No, you can't.

Here's why a $2M coal mine in Wyoming could be worth $37B.  A former Wall Street banker who dished out $2 million for an old coal mine in rural Wyoming has possibly hit a $37 billion mother lode after the discovery of "rare-earth elements" at the site, according to a report.  Randall Atkins, the son of infamous oil tycoon Orin Atkins, bought the sleepy Brook Mine outside of Sheridan, Wyo., sight unseen, 12 years ago.  However, recent tests conducted by government researchers revealed that the 15,800-acre mineral reserve contains what might be the largest unconventional rare-earth deposit in the country, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Liberal billionaire commits $500 million to destroying America's coal industry.  [Scroll down]  Enter Michael Bloomberg, former New York mayor, and one-time 2016 Democratic presidential nominee.  Recently, Bloomberg announced a $500 million initiative aimed at closing all remaining U.S. coal-fired power plants.  Why would someone commit such resources against an industry that has provided affordable and reliable energy for decades?  The likely culprits:  greed, ego, and political influence.  Bloomberg's contributions aren't solely for environmental causes.  While pinning down his full portfolio is challenging, he's invested in natural gas, renewable energy, and media outlets such as Bloomberg Green, which promote a green-focused narrative.  It seems Bloomberg might view environmentalism not just as a cause but also as a business venture.

They shut down the coal-fired power plants and look what happened.
Rollin', rollin', rollin' blackouts in... Tennessee?!  [W]hat has the TVA — America's largest government-owned utility, by the by — given up and replaced that brings them to a place where they have to institute rolling blackouts?  The first thing to consider is the influx of people the region is seeing.  According to the TVA's own webpage [...] It sounds like everyone who didn't move to Florida stopped in TN. [...] But if you can't keep the power on, those gains will be fleeting.  The second thing to consider is, again, the fact that the TVA is owned by the federal government.  It puts them under extraordinary pressure to go along with whatever the latest "thing" is as far as the clean/renewable energy push goes, and it seems this is where it's starting to trip them up.  They're shooting for "net zero" emissions by 2050.

Germany Fires Up Coal Power Plants for Winter to "Save Gas".  The German Government on Wednesday approved putting coal power plants back online from October until the end of March 2024 to address scarce natural gas this winter and avoid shortages, Reuters reports.  Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine and a drop in Russian gas imports to Germany, Berlin reactivated coal-fired power plants and extended their lifespans, with a total output of 1.9 gigawatt hours generated last winter.  The Government said it will make proposals by next summer on how to 'offset' the increased carbon dioxide emissions the plants will generate this winter.

Germany Brings Back Mothballed Coal Plants to Help Keep Lights On.  Germany will bring several mothballed coal plants back to the market this winter to ensure that Europe's largest economy can keep the lights on when demand peaks.  An order to allow the renewed activation of units belonging to RWE AG and LEAG was passed by the cabinet on Wednesday, according to an economy ministry release.  TheThe move should help save gas and prevent supply shortages in the upcoming heating season, it said.  [Paywall]

EV Battery Factory Will Require So Much Energy It Needs A Coal Plant To Power It.  A $4 billion Panasonic electric vehicle battery factory in De Soto, Kansas, will help satisfy the Biden administration's efforts to get everyone into an EV.  It also will help extend the life of a coal-fired power plant.  Panasonic broke ground on the facility last year.  The Japanese company was slated to receive $6.8 billion from the Inflation Reduction Act, which has been pouring billions into electric vehicles and battery factories as part of its effort to transition America away from fossil fuels.  The Kansas City Star reports that the factory will require between 200 and 250 megawatts of electricity to operate.  That's roughly the amount of power needed for a small city.

Michael Bloomberg pumps $500 million into [a] bid to close all US coal plants.  Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced on Wednesday he will pump $500 million into the next phase of his energy transition campaign, aiming to shut down "every last" coal plant in the United States and slash gas-fired capacity in half by 2030.  The $500 million infusion into his decade-long Beyond Carbon initiative aims to "finish the job on coal" by working with state and local organizations to force the closure of the roughly 150 coal plants that have not yet retired, slash current gas generation in half and block the construction of new gas-fired plants.

Carbon County, Utah, Named for Its Abundance of Coal, No Longer Produces It.  I had been slowly trending toward conservatism before the 2008 presidential election.  After 40-plus years of being a liberal, one just can't quit cold turkey, or cold donkey, as the case may be.  But I remember the night that sealed the deal.  It was when I learned that Obama planned to bankrupt the coal industry.  Obama's declaration was more than a nod to the environmental lobby.  Democrats are anti-fossil fuels, but at the time, I thought they did not yet have the clout to completely shut down the oil and gas fields.  I suspected that coal might be a bit more vulnerable.  A few hours east of where I Iived lies Craig, Colo.  It has always been a town that depended on its coal mines to survive.  Without them, the town and its residents would fall on hard times.  A few hours to the south of my home is Price, Utah.  It is in Carbon County, which is so named because of the coal deposits found there.

China is building new coal power so fast that 'energy transition' by the West is meaningless.  Bloomberg reported on August 30 that a recent update by British/Dutch oil giant Shell seems to have quietly abandoned a previously-announced radical plan to cut the company's carbon emissions.  Meanwhile Shell will increase investment in finding and producing more oil and natural gas.  The same media platform reported August 29 that China's government has now approved the building of more new coal-fired power plants than are currently operating in the United States.  The researchers who worked this out stated that these new coal plants are mostly in places with lots of existing coal power, and will provide capacity beyond that needed to back up renewables.  This would appear to be a tacit admission that more fossil fuel energy is required to meet rising demand for electricity, even as Chinese population growth has stagnated.

The 'Climate Emergency' Is a Hoax.  More than 1,600 scientists, including two Nobel laureates, have signed a declaration saying that "There is no climate emergency." [...] Of course it would be helpful to research what can be done to relieve the problems brought about by man, such as the "hole in the ozone layer," which is now closing, but climate change is not an apocalyptic emergency and needs to be attended to without bringing devastation to the hundreds of millions of people already in extreme poverty.  The Biden administration, however, appears not to be concerned about the widespread poverty and massive starvation that will be caused by the unavailability of cheap and reliable energy in underdeveloped countries, or the inflation caused by the skyrocketing prices that are crushing Americans "barely able to afford one meal a day". These are man-made problems, created by importing expensive (nearing $100 a barrel again) — often dirtier — oil from adversaries of the United States, such as Russia and Venezuela, instead of extracting it far less expensively at home.  The Biden administration also does not seem concerned that so long as China and India keep burning coal — the Chinese Communist Party is permitting two new coal-power plants a week, easily cancelling out whatever benefits the US might be providing, and reportedly exceeding "all developed nations combined" in carbon emissions.

From Poverty to Moon Landing:  How Coal Propelled Indian Economy.  On August 23, India landed a craft near the Moon's South Pole — an historic feat matched only by three other countries and made possible by the subcontinent's largely uninhibited use of fossil fuels.  The acceleration of coal usage between 2000 and 2020 played a pivotal role in bringing electricity to billions and ushering in a new era of economic growth and improved living standards.  So much so, that a nation that once did not even have enough food for its population now has funds for space missions.  India is a country with a long history of energy poverty — a term that encapsulates the struggle of millions to access basic electricity services.  In 1995, only about 50% of the people had access to electricity.  Vast segments of the population suffered stunted economic development and substandard education, healthcare and overall quality of life.  Rural homes were shrouded in darkness after sunset, hindering productivity and limiting opportunities.

King Coal Outdistancing Wind/Solar/Hydro/Other Renewables.  In the worldwide battle for electric generation, coal isn't down and out.  It isn't even on the ropes.  According to World Energy Data (formerly BP's data collection report), coal is still the champ.  In 2022, coal accounted for 35.4% of global electric generation, followed by natural gas (22.7%), hydro (14.9%), nuclear (9.2%), wind (7.2%), solar (4.5%), geothermal, biomass, and other renewables (3.6%).  The historic trends contradict the conventional view that fossil generation has been declining, while renewables are gaining.  According to the data, "The share of low carbon fuels (nuclear, hydro, wind & solar) peaked at 36% in 1995, coinciding with COP1 [the first UN conference of parties]."

While Biden Shuts Down U.S. Coal, China's Coal Use Surges To Record Levels.  As much as it's reported that the world is going through a transition away from fossil fuels to wind and solar energy, the data doesn't support it.  The International Energy Agency released its 2023 Coal Market Update on Thursday, which shows that global coal consumption in 2022 rose by 3.3% to a record 8.3 billion tons.  While the use of coal in European countries and the United States has declined, those reductions are offset by increases in Asian countries, primarily India and China.  Thirty years ago, the U.S. and European share of coal consumption was 40%.  By 2024, the IEA predicts it will fall to 8%.  Rep. John Bear, R-Gillette, told Cowboy State Daily that the efforts to reduce emissions in the U.S. by shutting down coal plants will have no impact on global warming because Asian countries are moving full steam ahead with coal.

Biden Brags About Killing Coal Plants As Grid Operators Warn Of Rolling Blackouts.  President Joe Biden boasted that there will be no more new coal-fired power plant developments in the U.S. during a Wednesday speech in Chicago, Illinois, even as the U.S. continues to grapple with energy problems.  Biden bragged that his economic and energy policies have disincentivized any future development of coal-fired power plants while touting the merits of green energy technology his administration's policies favor, according to video of his speech.  His remarks come about one month after a May 2023 grid assessment report from the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, which warned that the power grids serving most of New England and a large majority of Americans who live west of the Mississippi River face "elevated risk" of rolling blackouts this summer if weather conditions are hotter than normal.

South Africa's grid is dissolving — climate activists hit hardest.  I ran across this article in Climate Change News decrying the fact that the coal lobby in South Africa is fighting against shutting down the coal industry and replacing it with renewables.  It's a tale filled with evil carbon villains. [...] If only the mean, nasty coal people would let the activists work their magic, all would be rainbows and sunshine and butterflies fluttering in the breeze.  Sad, really, that such mean people are so powerful.  [Tweet]  Of course, the story ignores one minor point:  South Africa's power grid is collapsing, with electricity shut off to residents for 8-13 hours a day.  The problems that most South Africans face these days has nothing to do with carbon "pollution;" it is the fact that they are forced to use candles to light their homes and watch their food rot for lack of refrigeration.  That the coal lobby has any political power at all is a miracle in South Africa.  The country is falling apart before our eyes, becoming a failed state after decades of being one of the only functioning countries on the continent.  The power company?  Apparently not as well functioning as the coal lobby, perhaps because it is run by the government which is a socialist mess.

Unreliable Green Energy Has the World Running Back to Coal and Nuclear.  Tokyo's move away from nuclear energy was entirely because of the unwarranted fears surrounding the technology.  However, once it was understood that Fukushima was more of a natural disaster than a fundamental technological failure, the country began to reverse its nuclear retrenchment and is now fully on track with an ambitious plan to use power reactors.  Historically, much of Japan's electricity needs have been met by fossil fuels, especially coal.  Then, in the late 2000s, like most developed economies of Europe and North America, Japan was confronted by pressures to reduce coal use to address a purported climate emergency.  However, Japan now realizes that it can continue to use coal using state-of-art technology, which reduces pollution significantly.  In its coverage of a new clean-coal plant backed by $384 million of public funds, Nikkei Asia reports that the country's initiatives are bearing fruit and providing much needed electricity.

Joe Manchin threatens to oppose Biden nominees over upcoming power plant crackdown.  Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., is threatening to oppose all of President Biden's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) nominees over an expected regulation targeting power plant emissions.  Manchin, who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, blasted the Biden administration for aiming to shut down fossil fuel-fired power plants regardless of the impacts on the nation's power grid.  The Democratic lawmaker argued that neither the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law or Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), both of which he supported, gave the EPA authority to regulate power plant emissions.  "Neither the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law or the IRA gave new authority to regulate power plant emission standards," Manchin said in a statement to Fox News Digital on Wednesday [5/10/2023].

China is burning more coal than the rest of world combined.  [Tweet with video clip.]

Green New Deal Appeasement Leads Nowhere.  The sad story of North Dakota's largest coal-fired power plant, Coal Creek Station, should be an important lesson for anyone involved in carbon-based energy.  The prior owner of Coal Creek was Minnesota-based Great River Energy, which has come under growing pressure from the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission to rethink its coal dependency and was looking at its options, including mothballing the dependable plant that was producing reliable and affordable electricity for 1.7 million consumers in Minnesota and Wisconsin.  In 2021, Rainbow Energy, based in North Dakota, agreed to buy the plant.  The sale closed in mid-2022.  Rainbow Energy's plan to save Coal Creek Station included a large-scale carbon capture and storage project.  That plan should have been music to the ears of Green New Dealers.  Rainbow Energy's carbon sequestration plan had several significant technical hurdles and it was also going to be expensive.

China automating mines to improve safety as coal output grows.  China is pushing automated technology to improve the safety and efficiency of its coal mining industry, the world's largest, which has long been plagued by safety lapses.  At the Hongliulin mine, run by state-owned Shaanxi Coal Group, telecoms equipment giant Huawei Technologies has installed 5G technology that reduces the number of workers underground, replacing them with machines directed from the comfort of air-conditioned "virtual mines" on the site's surface.

China uses more coal than all other nations on earth combined & shows zero signs of changing course.  [A chart, a tweet, another chart, and no further discussion.]

World builds more coal power in spite of pollution, pledges and coal end-date.  The world is still developing new coal power, in spite of it being the most polluting fossil fuel, of promises to phase down coal and despite agreements that all coal stations should close by 2040.  These are the [...] conclusions of a report by California-based NGO Global Energy Monitor (GEM), which tracks energy projects around the world.  Nearly all newly commissioned coal projects are in China, said GEM, which called China the "glaring exception to the ongoing global decline in coal plant development".  The world already has around 2,100 gigawatts (GW) of capacity already, while an additional 176 GW of coal capacity is under construction at more than 189 plants, and a further 280 GW is planned.  The global capacity to burn coal grew by 19.5 gigawatts last year, enough to light up about 15 million homes.  That 1% increase comes just as the world should be retiring its coal fleet four and a half times faster to meet climate goals, the report said.

Here's a news bulletin for John Kerry:  China couldn't care less about climate change.
Kerry Threatens More Biden Executive Orders, Thinks China-Russia Will Help Combat Climate Change.  Turns out Joe Biden's climate czar is deeply concerned about our imminent death from climate change, but don't worry, he has a plan to save us all — we'll just get the Chinese, Russians, and Indians to work with us: [...] It's hard for me to believe that Russian President Vladimir Putin wakes up wondering if he's not helping the U.S. reach "the goals we've set."  Actually, I'm guessing he doesn't give a whit, and if anything takes pleasure in defying us.  Meanwhile, China and its leader Xi Jinping may say the right things about climate change at international conferences, but their main goal is to build more coal-fired power plants, which they continue to do at a prodigious rate.

The causes of skyrocketing global natural gas and coal prices.  Skyrocketing natural gas and coal prices are not a failure of the fossil fuel industry, but the total failure of anti-fossil fuel policies, which falsely promised that if we dramatically restricted fossil fuel energy production, green energy could easily replace it.  There is no physical reason that the natural gas and coal industries can't meet rising demand.  The world has hundreds of years' worth of gas deposits and thousands of years worth of coal deposits.  But governments radically restrict the freedom to utilize those deposits.  There is no technical or economic reason the natural gas and coal industries can't meet demand.  These industries have gotten radically more capable and efficient in the last two decades — especially natural gas with fracking.  But governments radically restrict their freedom.  In Europe, fracking and other shale gas technologies could produce a lot of gas, but Europeans have over and over chosen to ban fracking -- reassuring citizens that solar and wind would provide all the energy they need.  How is that going?  America has been called "the Saudi Arabia of coal."  At today's prices, America's coal industry would love to be powering the world.  But it can't because of onerous restrictions on coal transport, as well as myriad domestic restrictions on desperately-needed coal production.

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm praises China.  What at first would appear to be a head-scratcher comes sharply into focus only when you understand that China is constantly increasing its greenhouse gas output without U.S. rebuke.  Its output is now greater than all the other developed nations combined!  Nothing the rest of the world (i.e.  America and Europe both committed to net zero) does will achieve Biden's stated goals to "save" the planet.  China greenlights two coal plants a week while the U.S. and Europe shutter their own, risking brownouts and people dying from the cold!  Why are we such zealots for dumping our traditional sources of energy with nothing on the near horizon to replace our needs?  Granholm knows what's going on, and, like our President, both are in the tank for an ever-ascendant China.

Britain uses coal-power back up for the first time with supply tight.  Britain's National Grid called on reserve coal-power units for the first time to provide electricity during a period of expected tight supplies on Tuesday as a cold snap sweeps the country.  The energy grid operator warned in October that homes could face three-hour rolling power cuts this winter if the country was unable to secure enough gas and electricity imports.  Contracting some coal plants to remain available is part of its tool box to help prevent cuts.

China barrels ahead on coal plant construction.  Joe Biden's greenie czar, John Kerry, has been looking like a boob lately, jetting around the world in a plume of greenhouse gas emissions, and talking up China as America's partner in making the climate green. [...] Coal is king in China and to the Chinese, John Kerry is just another Western green idiot to pat on the head as the real business of state powers onward.  They had a good time playing him with his greenie games, however.  Just this past year, Kerry was touting China as a partner in the quest to go green, and China played along with the farce to perfection.

China permits two new coal power plants per week in 2022.  Coal power plant permitting, construction starts and new project announcements accelerated dramatically in China in 2022, with new permits reaching the highest level since 2015.  The coal power capacity starting construction in China was six times as large as that in all of the rest of the world combined.  50 GW of coal power capacity started construction in China in 2022, a more than 50% increase from 2021.  Many of these projects had their permits fast-tracked and moved to construction in a matter of months.  A total of 106 GW of new coal power projects were permitted, the equivalent of two large coal power plants per week.  The amount of capacity permitted more than quadrupled from 23 GW in 2021.  Of the projects permitted in 2022, 60 GW were not under construction in January 2023, but are likely to start construction soon, indicating even more construction starts in 2023.  In total, 86 GW of new coal power projects were initiated, more than doubling from 40 GW in 2021.

As Biden Wages War on American Coal, China Makes a Massive Move with the Power Source.  China approved 168 coal-fired power plants in 2022, the most rapid expansion of the country's coal-fired power capacity since 2015, according to a report by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) and Global Energy Monitor (GEM) Monday [2/27/2023].  Chinese companies began constructing 50 gigawatts (GW) worth of coal-fired power capacity in 2022, more than triple the rest of the world put together and spiking 50 percent from 2021, according to the report.  Conversely, President Joe Biden's signature Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is expected to lead to the retirement of 30 GW to 60 GW of U.S.  coal-fired power plants by 2030, by making it more difficult for coal to compete with renewables, E&E News reported, citing an analysis by analytics firm Rhodium Group.

Joe Biden Meets the Tar Baby.  As EE News said recently, "Coal's survival beyond 2030 is not consistent with [President] Biden's emission goals."  Biden's climate envoy John Kerry in Glasgow assured his UN colleagues that, "by 2030 in the United States, we won't have coal."  Indeed, the last U.S.  coal-fired power plant came online over a decade ago.  Except for a few tiny nations, the rest of the world may be giving lip service to coal's coming funeral.  But in the real world, global power generation from coal rose 9 percent in 2021 to a projected 10,350 terawatt-hours, and many Asian nations are increasing their reliance on the tried and true provider of heat and electricity.  In 2022, global coal demand was expected to return to its all-time high (set in 2013), then surpass that level in 2023.  Projections are that, by 2025, countries in Asia will use half of the electricity in the world.  The biggest user is China, whose share has risen from just 10 percent in 2000 to a projected 33 percent by 2025.

India's Uncompromising Commitment to Coal.  This week, the UK scrambled to ready its coal plants as wind turbines froze in extremely cold weather.  It is no surprise as coal is one of the most reliable, affordable and abundant energy sources in the world.  In fact, coal is still the largest contributor to global power generation.  Leaders of Asian countries know this and are not inclined to risk their objective of economic liberty with overreliance on highly volatile and expensive "renewable" technology.  A country soon to become the world's most populous, India faces a plethora of challenges, and it does not want to add to the troubles of a sometimes-fragile energy system.  So it is that strategists are keen on increasing the country's dependency on coal despite global calls to reduce emissions from the combustion of fossil fuels.

China To Accelerate The Construction Of Coal-Fired Power Plants.  China expects to add 70 gigawatts (GW) of coal-fired power generation this year, up from 40 GW of capacity from coal installed in 2022, a report from the power sector's group, China Electricity Council, showed.  The coal additions, however, will not be the biggest capacity increases in China in 2023, per the report quoted by Bloomberg.  Solar and wind will see massive growth in capacity additions this year, too, with solar power expected to add a huge 100 GW of capacity and wind — another 65 GW, China Electricity Council said.  China's electricity generation capacity from renewable sources is expected to jump above 50% for the first time this year. [...] Although renewable energy installations are set to jump, coal-fired capacity additions in China will also surge this year as Beijing has put more emphasis on energy security since the autumn of 2021 when power shortages crippled its industry.

Environmentalism will be the ruin of Germany.  To add insult to injury, in 2022, even Germany's much-vaunted environmental goals have been missed.  If Germany's green zealots thought that sacrificing industry would be good for the planet, they were wrong.  Coal, one of the most polluting energy sources of all, provided a vital lifeline in 2022, with Germany's coal power output increasing by 20 percent on the previous year.  Nevertheless, it seems there are no limits to German madness.  Despite Germany's reliance on coal this year, economy minister Robert Habeck has recently announced that Germany will now give up coal entirely by 2030 — eight years earlier than originally planned.  This move comes just as Germany's elites are pushing for more heat pumps to replace gas boilers for home heating and for electric vehicles to replace petrol cars.  Both of these will require even more electricity to be produced, yet the German government seems determined to produce less.  All of this is a recipe for economic disaster — in Europe's most important economy.  Could a hostile power have designed a policy more devastating to the fundamentals of the German economy than that of the current government?  Probably not.  In the short term, the only way the government's proposals make any sense is if Germany is planning to go back to using Russian gas.  That might explain the German government's reluctance to more effectively support Ukraine.

German village to be razed for coal mine.  Activists built barricades and set them on fire while the police prepared for the planned eviction of the village Luetzerath. [...] Even though global coal demand is set to increase only marginally this year, it is enough to push it to an all-time high, amidst the global energy crises, says the International Energy Agency (IEA).  The IEA's latest Coal 2022 report forecasts that the world's coal consumption will remain at similar levels in the next few years in the absence of strong efforts to accelerate the transition to clean energy use.

Cold winter exposes climate frauds: Germany returns to coal.  This is weird.  After "leading the way" for the climate communists, Germany now faces a freezing winter and ballooning energy crises — they're at the precipice of an economic meltdown, so they're bringing back their coal. [...] [Carlos Fernandez] Alvarez acknowledges that a transition away from gas and coal as a source of energy is at this moment, not achievable without forcing people to return to the Dark Ages.  Ramrodding through policy to conform to "climate goals" results in "an unprecedented energy crisis" — it's just not feasible.  Secondly, Alvarez eviscerates the seriousness of the "climate crisis."  It's obvious the powers that be don't mind sacrificing the prosperity and comfort of the average citizen, so if it were actually a crisis, they'd make us use candles.  But it's not a crisis, rather it's communism in disguise, and therefore they can't do too much too soon, it's a boil the frog type strategy.

'Necessary evil': France refires coal plant amid energy woes.  The end of France's coal era seemed so certain last year that the operator of one of the country's last coal-burning plants posted an upbeat educational video on YouTube titled "Let's visit a coal plant that's going to be destroyed!"  The plant in the northeastern town of Saint-Avold indeed halted coal production as scheduled earlier this year — but not for long.  This week, its workers were back at the controls, transporting coal from storage heaps and refiring furnaces, as part of emergency efforts to keep the heat and electricity on this winter.

From a Time When Communism Was Taught Right.  [Scroll down] We see now that China is showering entities like the World Health Organization and many organizations in the United States with Chinese cash so they toe the party line.  Many universities, think-tanks, and media have been corrupted.  Many corporations are beholden to cheap labor — think slave labor — to produce their goods and services.  Others provide service contracts that are configured to the restrictive nature of China.  These same companies hope to export their restrictive contracts from China to the United States.  Climate change hysteria is pushing for the elimination of fossil fuels in the United States and elsewhere.  The World Economic Forum is driving these changes on behalf of the Chinese government, Meanwhile, China is clamoring for the purchase and extraction of American minerals and building fossil fuel plants without pollution controls at an exponential rate to fuel its economic growth and rising influence in the world.

Despite a bloodbath quarter for electricity prices, hated Brown Coal still sells at just 4c per KWh.  Despite setting price records — averaging $200/MWh across the whole quarter for the whole five-state National Energy Market, there's like a cone of silence around the price of brown coal.  The ABC is happy to evangelize about 30 minute "renewable energy records", but they don't mention that the three-month total system costs went off like a bomb.  Somehow Australia has all that free cheap green power and yet the wholesale costs exploded. [...] The average wholesale price for all generators last quarter was 20 cents a kilowatt hour (or $200 per megawatt hour), but brown coal generators were still able to supply during that same incendiary quarter for just at 4¢ a KWh.  That was the average "winning bid".  So last quarter brown coal was one fifth the price of black coal, and one sixth the price of gas or hydro, and no one is talking about it.

Australia — largest coal exporter in world — still has 300 years of coal left.  We, the Global Crash Test Dummies of Renewable Energy, have the fourth largest known reserves of coal in the world.  We have so much coal we can keep digging it up at the current rate for the next 294 years (assuming we don't discover more, which we will).  If we didn't export three quarters of our coal, but used it all ourselves, it could power Australia for the next 1,000 years.  (But we'd miss the money — better to sell the stuff before nukes make it worthless).  We have so much more coal than we need, most years we are the world's largest exporter of coal.  Indeed, Australia contributes fully one third of the entire global coal export trade.  (Three other countries, China, India and the US, dig up more than we do, but they use it themselves.)  Coal also makes up 3% of our entire GDP, employs near 50,000 people, is one of our top two exports, and brought in $54 billion dollars last year.  If any nation was going to ask hard questions about the need to abandon coal it should be us.  Instead, our leaders (bar Abbott) trip over themselves in the rush to sell out the national interests.  All for the glorious pursuit of symbolic achievements in planetary air conditioning.  Our industrial competitors beam with joy as they pat us on the back, praise our greenness, and burn our coal.

West Virginia Hates Sen. Manchin Now.  Senator Manchin's dirty 'Inflation Increase Act' deal, its betrayal of coal country, army of IRS agents, and inflationary spending has paid off some of his backers and made Bill Gates very happy.  Gates was described as having personally lobbied Senator Manchin and Schumer in "anticipation of a rare moment in which significant federal dollars might be secured for the clean-energy transition."  Billions of those dollars, ripped out of the hands of truck drivers, veterans and small businessmen, will have been "secured" for Gates and his ventures.  The Microsoft founder was described as having "tapped into a relationship with Manchin that he'd cultivated for at least three years". [...] Now Manchin's dirty deal may cost him his Senate seat.  A new poll released Wednesday by Jackson County radio station WMOV 1360 AM and Oregon-based Triton Polling and Research found that U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin is vulnerable after his support for the Inflation Reduction Act.

America was built on coal.  Now Biden wants to abolish it.  The one promise that President Joe Biden has faithfully kept is his pledge to "close down" fossil fuels.  We get two-thirds of our energy in America from fossil fuels, and almost one-third of our power comes from coal.  That's quadruple the amount of energy we get from wind and solar, which are niche forms of energy.  But Biden doesn't see it that way.  He recently reiterated his pledge to end coal production altogether.  "No one is building new coal plants because they can't rely on it," Biden said on Nov. 4 while in California. "We're going to be shutting these plants down all across America and having wind and solar."  I hope the people in Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Wyoming are listening because thousands of mostly union jobs are associated with the coal plants he wants to shutter.  Biden says we need to "shut down" these plants and the jobs that come with them because we need to combat climate change.  One problem:  Most of the rest of the world is using more coal even as we use less.  Even the sanctimonious Europeans are turning to coal because their natural gas supplies from Russia are no longer reliable.

The Massive Increase In China's Coal Production This Year.  While the rest of the world is cutting back on coal production and shutting down coal-fired power plants, China is going full-steam ahead, doing quite the opposite.  The increase in China's coal production in 2022 will be nearly three times more than the largest European producers in a year.  If the world thought China peaked in coal production a decade ago, think again.  China's coal production reached a high of almost 4 billion tons in 2013, declined to a low in 2016, then rebounded, and is estimated to reach a new all-time high in 2022.

China has caused more pollution in 8-years than Britain has in the last 220, report claims.  China is responsible for 14 percent of all emissions throughout history, making it the second biggest polluter in the world, while the USA is in first place as it is responsible for 25 percent of all emissions.  In comparison, the UK has emitted just 4.6 percent of all emissions, which is the fifth highest in the world.  The Telegraph has reported that China has caused more pollution since 2013 than Britain has since the Industrial Revolution first began.  It comes at a time former Labour leader Ed Miliband recently suggested Britain should pay to help developing countries recover for "loss and damage" from climate change.

Biden Keeps Promising To Make Energy More Expensive.  Believe Him.  Yes, we're going to make energy more expensive.  That's Joe Biden's closing message for 2022.  "We're going to be shutting these [coal] plants down all across America and having wind and solar," Biden told a crowd in deep blue California on Friday, arguing that it was "cheaper" to generate electricity from wind and solar.  Is it?  In California, which not only leads the nation in "clean energy" production but is leading the rest of us into rolling blackouts, residents pay 24.62 cents per kilowatt-hour for energy, around double the national average.  There are only three other states where residents fork 20 or more cents over, the isolated Hawaii and Alaska and the frack-banning New York.  The price of a gallon of gas in California is around two dollars over the national average, at $5.458.  In Texas, it's $3.173.  The president also forgot to mention that affordable natural gas, propelled by technological efficiencies like fracking, is as much a reason for the struggles of coal.

Senator Joe Manchin Pretends to be Surprised That Joe Biden is Banning Coal Powered Energy.  Yesterday, Joe Biden declared that all coal-fired electricity plants in the U.S would be shut down, saying, "we're going to be shutting these plants down all across America and having wind and solar."  Today, West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin, the senator who gave Joe Biden the vote he needed for the 'inflation reduction act' also known as the climate change investment act that will eliminate all oil, coal and natural gas development, pretends to act surprised that Joe Biden will destroy the West Virginia coal mining industry.

Biden Says the Quiet Part Out Loud About Climate Change And His Handlers Are Trying To Save The Situation.  In a move that surely had his tapioca dealers talking themselves back from the ledge, the President stated that they would be shutting down coal-fired power plants 'across America'.  West Virginia may be the first state that comes to mind when one thinks of coal country, but Pennsylvania is a close second and is home to one of the key senate races of this election.  Democrat senate hopeful, Fetterman, was likely stunned by Biden's recklessness ... and her husband probably was too.

Is Biden's Real Problem, Senility or Leftism?  The Biden administration disaster can be put down to 1 part senility and 4 parts leftist insanity.  What else could explain doing this before a crucial election in a coal state where the Dems are struggling on energy issues?  ["]Biden made the comments on Friday when discussing energy, stating that coal plants cost too much to operate and advocated for renewables as an eventual replacement.  'No one is building new coal plants because they can't rely on it,' Biden said.  "Even if they have all the coal guaranteed for the rest of the existence of the plant.'  'So it's going to become a wind generation,' Biden added.  'And all they're doing is, it's going to save them [...] a lot of money and using the same transmission line that they transmitted the coal-fired electric on.  We're going to be shutting these plants down all across America and having wind and solar power.'["]  Why?  That's the obvious question that comes to mind.  The message isn't new, but the timing is spectacularly bad.

Manchin's rebuke shows how toxic Biden's energy views are.  It's not often that a senator launches a brutal, frontal assault on a president from his own party.  It's even rarer when he does it just before a national election.  But that is exactly what West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin just did to Joe Biden.  At issue was Biden's recent speech attacking coal, a bedrock of the West Virginia economy.  Manchin was furious over Biden's promise to shut down all of America's coal-fired power plants.  That view might be red meat for Biden's audience of green-power advocates and rich California donors, but it is poison in West Virginia.  And it is those West Virginians who elected Manchin, the only Democrat still standing in a state that is now deep red. [...] President Biden's comments are not only outrageous and divorced from reality, they ignore the severe economic pain the American people are feeling because of rising energy costs. [...] Shutting down coal-fired plants is hardly a new position for Biden.  He said as much while campaigning for president.  But why return to that theme just before an election when high energy prices are already a political burden?  Some combination of Biden's usual foot-in-mouth disease, his quest for rich donors, and an effort to spur turnout among base voters.

Biden Brags About Shutting Down Massachusetts Coal Energy Plant After Massachusetts Energy Company Announces 64% Increase in Electricity Rates.  During a speech today, Joe Biden bragged about the example of his visit to a Massachusetts coal-fired plant that was forced to close due to regulation.  However, what Biden didn't mention was the energy provider telling customers to expect a 64% increase in electricity rates effective November 1st.  [Video clip]

Biden says coal plants 'all across America' will be shut down, replaced with wind and solar.  President Biden said Friday that coal plants are too expensive to operate, and "we're going to be shutting these plants down all across America" in order to shift to wind power in a comment that drew criticism from the Republican National Committee.

Europe Is Transitioning -- To Coal!  In Germany, they are tearing down a wind farm to make room for the expansion of an open pit lignite coal mine.  Dismantling of wind turbines has already begun.  Lignite is brown coal.  It has been mined at the mine in question for well over a hundred years.  RWE, the German company that owns the mine has also announced that it is returning lignite-fired coal units that were previously on standby to service.  Those plants came back online this month.  "The three lignite units each have a capacity of 300 megawatts.  With their deployment, they contribute to strengthening the security of supply in Germany during the energy crisis and to saving natural gas in electricity generation," RWE said last month.

Coal mine demolishes neighboring wind farm to boost country's energy supply, drawing ire of climate activists.  A German energy company is dismantling a wind farm to allow for an adjacent coal mine to expand its operations, officials said.  The German coal mine Garzweiler, operated by energy company RWE, admits the situation appears to be "paradoxical" — sacrificing one energy source for another — but defended the decision as necessary to strengthen supplies amid the ongoing energy crisis, Oilprice.com reported.  "We realize this comes across as paradoxical," RWE spokesperson Guido Steffen said in a statement.  "But that is as matters stand."

The Greens' Cloud Cuckoo Land.  Two recent developments in Australia add to the overwhelming evidence that Western governments are living their deluisions.  Of course, there are many more than two such developments.  I've just picked two of them at random.  The first concerns the Liddell coal power station in the Hunter region in the state of New South Wales (NSW).  Liddell is being closed down prematurely in April next year.  Incidentally, Eraring, the largest power station in Australia (at 2.3 GW), also in NSW, will close prematurely in 2025.  The Australian Energy Market Operator expects more early closures.  On cue, it's been announced that the closure of Loy Yang, supplying 30 percent of the state of Victoria's power, will be brought forward ten years to 2035.  No odds are being offered on bets it will close earlier than that.  It's all part of the continuing shutdown of coal power stations in Australia.  Meanwhile, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, et al, are still building them, and using heaps of Australian coal to power them.

Coal power plant closure leaves schools underfunded, hundreds unemployed in NM.  The clamor of second graders breaking away from lessons to form lunch lines has gotten quieter in a rural New Mexico community, where families losing coal jobs have been forced to pack up and leave in search of work.  At Judy Nelson Elementary, 1 in 4 students have left in an exodus spurred by decisions made five years ago to shutter a coal-fired power plant and mine that sit just up the road from the school in a largely Navajo community.  The plant and mine had provided electricity to millions of people across the southwestern U.S. for nearly a half-century.  The San Juan Generating Station burned its last bit of coal Thursday.  The remaining workers will spend the coming weeks draining water from the plant, removing chemicals and preparing to tear down what has long been fixture on the high-desert horizon.

Demand for coal in Europe a boon for Tanzania.  The sleepy Tanzanian port of Mtwara mainly dealt in cashew nuts until late last year.  Now it bustles with vessels loading up with coal, as Russia's invasion of Ukraine drives a worldwide race for the polluting fuel.  Tanzania traditionally exports thermal coal only to neighbouring countries in East Africa; sending it further afield was out of the question, as it required trucking the material more than 600 kilometres from mines in its southwest to Mtwara, the nearest Indian Ocean port.  Europe's crippling energy crisis has changed all that.

Germany's Russian gas crisis sparks coal rush.  "A rush like this in the summertime, it's unheard of — everybody wants coal," says Frithjof Engelke, a supplier of the briquettes which have become a hot commodity in the German capital.  A looming shortage of Russian gas in the wake of the Ukraine war has reignited enthusiasm for this method of heating private homes despite its sooty residue and heavy carbon footprint.  Engelke, 46, head of the century-old Berlin business Hans Engelke Energie, says it's brought a bonanza for his family business: "My holidays will have to wait."  He and his team are frenziedly taking orders, organising deliveries by truck — now booked out until October, and getting supplies ready for those who come directly to pick up coal from his warehouse.

Coal industry wants to slow down proposed regulations.  Grid operators and coal interests are urging the Environmental Protection Agency to rethink a series of proposed rules to crack down harder on pollutants from coal-fired power plants, a signature environmental move by President Joe Biden's administration that starkly contrasts the industry-friendly approach of former President Donald Trump.  In April, the Biden administration proposed a number of rules designed to reduce the release of toxins and other dangers from coal plants.  That includes nitrogen oxide and mercury pollution, as well as cross-state smog.  But such steps would make it nearly impossible to keep coal plants running, the industry argues.  Coal interests see it as a gut punch to an industry that is already on its heels, with the future being focused more on lower-emitting sources, such as gas and renewable wind and solar.

Germany's painful lesson for US climate warriors on the dangers of going green.  [German leaders] last week said they now plan to keep the country's last three nuclear plants running, at least temporarily, to avoid having to divert natural gas for electricity.  That pauses a years-long march away from nuclear power that's backed by much of the German public (even though nuclear-energy production emits virtually no greenhouse gases).  The government's also looking to restart 16 mothballed coal-burning power plants.  That's right:  coal — one of the dirtiest fossil fuels and largest sources of carbon emissions.  So much for leading on clean energy.  Germany had little choice:  After Russia cut its gas exports by 80% and threatened to end them altogether — punishment for Berlin's support for Ukraine — Germany (along with much of the rest of the continent) faces the prospect of a truly bitter winter, with inadequate supplies of gas and other fuels to see it through.  Its energy regulator says gas consumption must fall 20% to avoid shortfalls, and the government's already begun imposing limits.

The Editor says...
When very cold weather comes to town, not one resident is going to care how dirty the coal is, or what happens to the carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere, as long as the power stays on.

Hawaii Electricity Prices To Skyrocket As Final Shipment Of Coal Arrives.  Hawaii is receiving its final shipment of coal this week, which Gov. David Ige called a huge step forward in the state's transition to clean energy.  What he meant was that local are about to pay a lot more for basic essentials.  A law put in place a couple of years ago will finally shut down the island's last coal burning power plant.  And since coal is the dirtiest — but cheapest — source of power for Oahu, it means that all else equal, power prices are about to skyrocket.

Coal plants are being kept online to prevent blackouts as green transition falters.  Coal-fired power plants in several states are delaying planned shutdowns in order to avoid blackouts and energy shortages as the delayed development of renewable energy sources is leaving gaps in states' power grids amid high energy demand.  At least six coal plants in New Mexico and three other states are temporarily halting their retirement as utility providers say import tariffs and other supply disruptions on solar panels imposed by the U.S. Commerce Department are making it difficult to meet high demand, according to Reuters.  Fossil fuels like coal plants and natural gas are preventing blackouts by filling the gaps in the grid that are being created by the push to implement green energy nationwide amid President Joe Biden's aggressive energy transformation plan.

Coal is making a comeback and consumption is expected to return to 2013's record levels.  Coal prices are soaring and global coal consumption is expected to return to record levels reached almost 10 years ago as the global energy supply crunch continues.  While investors in coal stocks are having a field day thanks to high coal prices, curbs on carbon emissions are taking a backseat as markets and governments scramble to stock up on traditional energy supply amid bottlenecks caused by the Ukraine war, analysts say.

Green Fail:  Germany to Reconnect First Coal Power Plant to Energy Grid.  In a demonstration of the failure of Germany's pursuit of so-called "green energy" and its policy of relying on Russian gas in the meantime, a coal-fired power plant will be reconnected to the nation's electricity grid.  While the economic powerhouse of Europe — so called — scrambles to secure energy sources before the winter months, the previously shuttered Mehrum coal power plant in Lower Saxony will become the first to once again be connected to Germany's grid.

Austria to reopen closed coal-fired power station, despite climate goals.  Austria is preparing to reopen a coal-fired power station that closed in 2020, over fears of Russian gas supplies being cut due to the war in Ukraine.  The EU imposed sanctions against Moscow after it started the conflict and European countries are now preparing for retaliation from the Kremlin in relation to energy imports.  According to Christof Kurzmann-Friedl, a site manager at the power plant, every option is needed right now to reduce the impact.  "We are preparing ourselves for the fact that we will no longer have the same certainty of gas flow that we have become accustomed to in recent years and decades, and that every contribution that can be made to replace the use of gas will be called upon," Kurzmann-Friedl said.  "Coal is a particular possibility, let's put it that way, and could help reduce gas consumption."  However, the EU has major ambitions to reduce carbon emissions, including a pledge to become carbon neutral by 2050, and restarting the use of coal represents a major setback for the bloc's goals.

Europe Snaps Up Coal From Abroad to Fill Gap Left by Russia.  A hunt by Europe's coal consumers to replace Russian cargoes with shipments from across the globe has boosted imports to a key hub by more than a third, helping to fill severely depleted stockpiles.  Coal poured into the Antwerp-Rotterdam-Amsterdam region — a huge transport hub for energy and commodities — in the first half of this year, with imports surging 35% to 26.9 million tons compared with the same period last year, according to Kpler.

Power cost hike, supply crunch ahead as last Hawaii coal plant closes.  Hawaiian Electric (HECO) said Oahu residents should get ready to pay even more for electricity this fall.  A massive coal power plant is closing, and renewable energy intended to replace it won't be ready in time.  Always Investigating has the details.  Coal is the cheapest but dirtiest source of power for Oahu, and a law put into place a couple years ago brings that to a hard stop Sept. 1, even though replacement power projects are behind schedule.  That means consumers can cut back, try solar and batteries, or pay more for the oil-generated power that will have to patch the gap this fall.  How much more is not yet known.

Coal: Europe's security blanket, the Third World's necessity.  How many lives do European coal plants have?  Nobody knows.  But by now, most of the world understands that Europe's reliance on coal is no longer deniable.  In a time of global energy instability featuring an embargo on Russian energy, the EU's wealthiest nations have embraced coal as a savior like the Peanuts character Linus grasping his blanket.  Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands are planning to utilize their coal plants to make up for a shortage in power from gas plants.  Although many gas drilling projects have been resurrected around Europe, electricity from gas plants is set to decrease due to the Russian ban.  This return to coal prompts us to revisit promises made by these very same nations to end coal dependency.  Is the reign of King Coal inevitable?

One more blockbuster Supreme Court decision could still be coming.  West Virginia vs. the EPA asks whether important policies that impact the lives of all Americans should be made by unelected D.C. bureaucrats or by Congress.  This SCOTUS could well decide that ruling by executive agency fiat is no longer acceptable.  The case involves the Clean Power Plan, which was adopted under President Barack Obama to fight climate change; the program was estimated to cost as much as $33 billion per year and would have completely reordered our nation's power grid.  The state of West Virginia, joined by two coal companies and others, sued the EPA, arguing the plan was an abuse of power.

Coal-fired dragon in China ignores climate zealots.  China has once again shrugged off global calls for reductions in fossil fuel emissions by reaffirming its commitment to produce and consume more coal than ever.  Developments in the coal sector during the past six months indicate that the dragon is determined to avoid a repetition of 2021, when more than 17 provinces experienced unprecedented blackouts due to energy shortages.  While the Western media were busy covering COVID lockdowns, vaccines and woke nonsense in 2021, millions of households in China were thrust into darkness by electricity-supply failures.  Industrial plants were forced to shut down and economies slumped in at least 15 provinces.  Already the world's biggest consumer of coal, China is now eager to increase consumption to stave off energy shortfalls.  Having produced a globe-leading 4.1 billion tons of coal last year, the country plans to add 300 million tons of production in 2022.  Between July and October 2021, the ANI news agency reports, China added 464 metric tons of annual capacity, which is greater than the annual production of South Africa — the world's seventh largest producer.  At least 169 new coal mines are expected to be added to the 1,600 existing mines in the coming years.

Germany to fire up coal plants as Russia turns down the gas.  Germany must limit its use of gas for electricity production and prioritize the filling of storage facilities to compensate for a drop in supply from Russia, Economy Minister Robert Habeck said Sunday [6/19/2022].  In a move that goes against the principles of his environmentally-friendly Green Party, the country will also have to increase the burning of coal, Habeck said.  Russian gas company Gazprom announced last week that it was reducing supplies through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline for technical reasons, saying there had been delays in the repair of compressor turbines by the German company Siemens Energy.  Germany has come under intense criticism in the past, particularly from the United States, for its reliance on cheap Russian energy sources, which Washington has always seen as a security risk for Europe.

India to reopen coal mines as demand for energy soars.  In the past month, as India broiled under a historic heat wave and consumed a record amount of electricity for cooling, the Coal Ministry announced it would reopen old mines and increase output by 100 million tons.  As cities went into rolling blackouts because of electricity shortages, the Power Ministry ordered plants that burn imported coal to run at full capacity.  The environment ministry has given coal mines permission to boost production by up to 50% without seeking new permits, according to a May 7 memo.

India and China Coal Production Surging By 700M Tons Per Year:  That's Greater Than All U.S. Coal Output.  If you think the world is moving beyond coal, think again.  The post-Covid economic rebound and surging electricity demand have resulted in big increases in coal prices and coal demand.  Since January, the Newcastle benchmark price for coal has doubled.  And over the past few weeks, China and India have announced plans to increase their domestic coal production by a combined total of 700 million tons per year.  For perspective, US coal production this year will total about 600 million tons.  The surge in coal demand in China and India — as well as in the U.S., where coal use jumped by 17% last year — demonstrates two things:  that the Iron Law of Electricity has not been broken, Second, it shows that it is far easier to talk about cutting emissions than it is to achieve significant cuts.

What Energy Price Spike?  Aussie Greens Call for Coal Ban.  [Scroll down]  The new Australian Labor Government, which was elected on a promise of strong climate action, will likely have to depend on a coalition with Green politicians to pass legislation.  But Labor's razor thin parliamentary majority is in peril, if Labor caves in to their Green coalition partners, and triggers even worse energy price spikes for ordinary Australians with radical fossil fuel bans.  Doing nothing is also a risky choice.  Australia's coal exports might be going strong, but our fossil fuel power stations are rapidly approaching the end of their service life.  Power companies over the years appear to have responded rationally to open political hostility, by running their equipment into the ground, patching rather than maintaining, to squeeze every last dime out of their investments before some radical green politician pulls the plug.  Our crumbling fossil fuel power station infrastructure is all but ready for the scrap heap.

Net Zero?  India Plans to Double Coal Use by 2040.  As the USA and Europe retreat from prosperity, India seems determined to overtake China, with a 400 million ton boost to coal production in the next two years, and a massive relaxation of environmental rules and other incentives to boost coal mining and industry.

Get ready for more blackouts because of environmentalist policies.  People across the United States and in many other countries are already experiencing sticker shock when they receive their utility bills this year.  The price of energy is continuing to climb along with the price of gasoline.  Unfortunately, according to the leader of one energy industry analysis group, that's not going to be the end of the bad news.  There are already places where the electrical grid is under so much strain that rolling blackouts have been enacted again and we're only going to see more of that going forward.  This issue has little or nothing to do with Russian energy supplies or the war in Ukraine.  The reality is that in many parts of the United States, we're barely producing enough electricity to meet the demand for power, and thanks to environmentalist policies put in place by the government, we're shutting down coal-fired power plants at a rate far faster than we can replace all of that juice through other methods.

Coal has lots of staying power.  Global coal-fired power rebounded last year to record levels amid high natural gas prices and economic revival from the pandemic, per the International Energy Agency and data-tracking green group Ember.

Green Germany Weighs Reopening Coal Power Plants amid Energy Crisis.  Germany is considering reopening some of its decommissioned coal power plants in the hopes of getting a handle on its ongoing energy crisis.  The reopening of shuttered plants is seen as an option as the country struggles to ween itself off of its addiction to Russian fossil fuels.  While authorities have already rejected plans of delaying the decommissioning of the remainder of its nuclear power stations, a new plan involving either delaying the shut down of coal fire plants that are still in operation, or the re-opening of plants that have previously been terminated, is now on the cards.

China Seeks to Cut Reliance on Coal Imports With Mining Boom.  China plans a massive increase in coal mining, a move that will dramatically reduce its reliance on imports and deal a blow to its near-term climate actions.  The National Development and Reform Commission, the nation's top economic planner, told officials from major mining regions at a meeting late last week that it wants to boost domestic production capacity by about 300 million tons, according to people familiar with the matter.  It also plans to build a 620 million-ton stockpile of the fuel split between government, miners and users.

The Editor says...
Obviously China has no intention of cutting its own throat to avoid carbon dioxide emissions.  If China isn't afraid of CO2, it doesn't do any good for the rest of us to avoid CO2, either.

Ships Sail For South African Coal After Russia Sanctions.  Europe's surging demand for coal is reviving an infrequent trade lane for shipments from South African mines.  The fossil fuel typically heads east from Richards Bay Coal Terminal, the continent's biggest export hub.  Of the 59 million tons of coal shipped from the South African port last year, only 4% went to Europe and more than 86% was delivered to Asia.  There may have been a shift in that balance since Feb. 20 as a handful of bulk carriers have headed west round the Cape of Good Hope after calling at Richards Bay, according to ship tracking data compiled by Bloomberg.  At least two stopped directly at RBCT.  Europe's key coal price climbed to a record on Wednesday as sanctions and companies' own decisions to stop trading with Russian counterparties mean traders are trying to buy elsewhere.

The West's Green Energy Delusions Empowered Putin.  How has Vladimir Putin — a man ruling a country with an economy smaller than that of Texas, with an average life expectancy 10 years lower than that of France — managed to launch an unprovoked full-scale assault on Ukraine? [...] Putin knows that Europe produces 3.6 million barrels of oil a day but uses 15 million barrels of oil a day.  Putin knows that Europe produces 230 billion cubic meters of natural gas a year but uses 560 billion cubic meters.  He knows that Europe uses 950 million tons of coal a year but produces half that.
[Emphasis added.]

EPA emissions case [is] not a slam dunk for coal interests even with a conservative court.  Coal interests and the Environmental Protection Agency just faced off before the Supreme Court in a case that could drastically choke off the agency's ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.  West Virginia led petitioners to have the court put locks on the administrative state, which court-watchers of all persuasions agree that conservative justices want to achieve.  But some are doubting after Feb. 28's oral arguments that the case is a guaranteed win for the judicially conservative view, even on a court with six justices nominated by Republicans, in large part because of the tricky procedural circumstances of the case.  Underpinning West Virginia v. EPA is a petition by a mix of coal-producing states and coal companies asking the high court to establish whether the Clean Air Act gives the agency broad authority to restrict power plant emissions, including by employing "outside the fence" regulations, or those reaching beyond an individual, existing stationary source, as the Obama-era Clean Power Plan attempted to do.

The Future Of Global Coal Production.  Coal is the world's most affordable energy fuel, and as such, the world's biggest commodity market for electricity generation.  Unfortunately, as Visual Capitalist's Niccolo Conte notes, that low-cost energy comes at a high cost for the environment, with coal being the largest source of energy-related CO2 emissions.  Despite its large footprint, coal was in high demand in 2021.  As economies reopened following the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, countries struggled to meet resurgent energy needs.  As a readily available low-cost energy source, coal filled the supply gap, with global coal consumption increasing by 450 million tonnes or around +6% in 2021.

China Wants to Buy 100 Million Metric Tons of Coal from Russia.  The governments of China and Russia are developing an agreement that would see Beijing purchase 100 million metric tons of coal from Moscow, the Kremlin announced on Friday [2/198/2022].  "[A]n intergovernmental agreement with the People's Republic of China is being developed, and the figure is 100 mln tonnes [of coal]," Sergey Mochalnikov — the Head of Department of Foreign Economic Cooperation and Fuel Markets Development at the Russian Energy Ministry — told reporters on February 18.  "In the coming years, consumers should receive as much coal as they need," Mochalnikov said.  "Russian coal exports have very good prospects due to reduced supply on the world market," Mochalnikov noted on Friday.

As Colorado coal plant shuts down, a town dependent on coal for jobs grapples with a bleak-looking future.  In a quiet valley tucked away from Colorado's bustling ski resorts, far from his hometown in northern Mexico, Trinidad Loya found a way to support his family's American dream: coal.  He, his son and grandson — all named Trinidad Loya — all have worked for the coal plant in Craig, Colorado, the eldest Loya having started there more than 30 years ago.  The plant employs 180 people, paying higher salaries and providing far more job security than most other jobs in the rural area in northwest Colorado about 40 miles from Steamboat Springs.  That's all about to change.  The coal plant is closing, along with the mine that feeds it, employing nearly another 115 workers.

As coal use surges, America finds it's hard to unplug from carbon.  So much for the myriad claims about going "beyond coal."  According to a new report from the Rhodium Group, U.S. coal consumption jumped by 17 percent last year compared to 2020 levels.  That's a huge increase, which Rhodium says was "largely driven by a run-up in natural gas prices."  Rather than burn gas, which averaged about $4.93 per million Btu last year — more than two times the price in 2020 — many electricity producers chose to burn coal instead.  The surge in domestic coal use is significant for two reasons.  First, it proves again that coal remains an essential fuel for electricity producers both here in the U.S. and around the world.  Second, it shows that the Biden administration's pledge to decarbonize the electric grid by 2035 is little more than wishful thinking.  Hate coal if it makes you happy, but the reality is that power producers have relied on it ever since Thomas Edison used it to fuel the world's first central power plant in Lower Manhattan in 1882.

The Climate Movement and It's 10 Biggest Failures of 2021.  [#3] COP26 fails to 'consign coal to history.'  The president of this year's annual UN climate meeting (COP-26) set as a conference goal the "consigning of coal to history."  But ahead of the conference, West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin exercised his own veto of sorts to effectively block President Biden from zeroing out the U.S. coal industry by 2030.  Neither the coal-loving Chinese nor Russian presidents (both putting off "net zero" until 2060) even bothered to attend the conference.  The leader of coal-dependent India showed up but delayed his country's elusive net-zero goal until an unimaginable 2070.

China fires up giant coal power plant in face of calls for cuts.  China, under fire for approving new coal power stations as other countries try to curb greenhouse gases, has completed the first 1,000-megawatt unit of the Shanghaimiao plant, the biggest of its kind under construction in the country.  Its operator, the Guodian Power Shanghaimiao Corporation, a subsidiary of the central government-run China Energy Investment Corporation, said on Tuesday that the plant's technology was the world's most efficient, with the lowest rates of coal and water consumption.

Global Coal Power Demand On Track For Record As Green Energy Transition Crumbles.  There's no question that the 'greenification' of the global economy has returned many industrial countries to coal in 2021. New data from the International Energy Agency (IEA) shows that the amount of electricity generated worldwide from coal is on track to hit a record high.  IEA's Coal 2021 report says global power generation from coal soared 9% in 2021 to an all-time high of 10,350 terawatt-hours.  The rebound comes amid a rash of green policies and stupid political choices, such as decommissioning oil and gas-fired power plants and fossil fuel exploitation projects, ironically resulting in an energy crisis worldwide.

EIA: Coal-fired power generation surges 22% in past year.  The share of coal in U.S. power-generation is rising for the first time since 2014 amid Joe Biden's crackdown on oil drilling and pipelines.  The Energy Information Administration found coal-fired power generation has increased by 22 percent over the past year amid surging prices of natural gas and oil.  The cost of coal power stands at nearly $2 per million of British Thermal Units.  Meanwhile, natural gas costs almost $5 for the same amount of energy.

Chinese plan to cause Australia 'economic pain' from trade bans backfires.  Communist China's plan to bring Australia's economy to its knees through economic boycotts has backfired after the nation had to wind back some of its policies as its energy crisis worsened.  Since September, the Asian superpower has been struggling to cope with a power crisis leading to rolling blackouts and factories shutting down across the country.  Some of the outages were so severe that Chinese citizens had to live without traffic lights and phone reception in some areas.  But even though more than two-thirds of China's electricity comes from coal-fired plants, the nation refused to buy any Australian coal. [...] But in China's latest customs report, it revealed that last month it imported 2.78 million tonnes of Australian coal in what could be a relaxation of its ban and a major backflip on its part.

The Coming Coal Crisis.  [Scroll down]  For self-appointed climate changers, coal is an easy target.  It produces more carbon dioxide emissions than natural gas, diesel, gasoline, or propane.  Additionally, although smokestack scrubbers can remove much of the sulfur dioxide and other pollutants in coal plant exhaust, such technologies aren't used everywhere.  Coal mining also produces methane, another greenhouse gas, and can harm rivers, mountaintops, and other ecosystems.  The problems with coal and other fossil fuels are even easier to emphasize when the environmental harms of solar, wind, and other renewables are minimized or ignored.  Yet as winter approaches amid worldwide energy woes, one-sided rhetoric on coal is giving way to cold, hard reality.  A crisis of not enough coal being available to meet the world's needs may be in the offing.

China and India are right to keep coal.  COP26 came to an end this week.  But in the media coverage of the conference, there has been zero effort made to understand why two of the biggest consumers of fossil fuels have pushed back at attempts to reduce coal use.  It is much more comfortable to run stories about how poor countries around the world are suffering instead.  Last Wednesday, for example, the BBC's climate editor told the story of a Madagascan family facing life-threatening consequences from the world's first climate change made famine.  But to my knowledge there has been no comparable look at the millions of families in India and China who depend on coal to provide them with life-saving electricity.  From the perspective of India, this is the West — having fuelled its own economic growth during the 19th and 20th centuries thanks to coal — now kicking the ladder away.  As one Indian entrepreneur put it: 'Why should Indians be asked to reduce carbon emissions, when the West has been polluting the planet for decades, and has reaped the benefits?' Li Gao, director general of the Chinese ministry's department of climate change, asks: 'Many developing countries don't even have electricity.  In this situation, if you don't use coal, what will you use?'

John Kerry says US 'won't have coal' by 2030.  President Joe Biden's climate envoy John Kerry said the United States won't have coal plants by 2030.  "By 2030 in the United States, we won't have coal," Kerry said Tuesday [11/9/2021] during an interview with Bloomberg at the United Nations's COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland.  "We will not have coal plants."  The U.S., the world's largest economy, generates nearly 25% of its electricity from coal despite the rapid retirements of coal plants in recent years that have struggled to compete with cheaper and cleaner natural gas and renewable energy.  Kerry's comment is among the most explicit to-date of a Biden official making clear that the administration sees no role for coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel, in the future power grid.  The U.S. refused to join a pledge among more than 20 countries agreed to this week at COP26 to phase out coal use at home.

Workers Wanted:  Miners Offered $100k Per Year As Coal Prices Soar.  Coal supply shortages in Asia and Europe are pushing prices for the dirtiest fossil fuel to record highs and have become a challenge for US suppliers due to a shortage of miners, according to Bloomberg.  For the last three and a half decades, the number of coal mining jobs in the US has collapsed from 180,000 to 42,500 in August.  The industry remains 9,500 miners short from pre-COVID times.  With coal prices worldwide screaming to all-time highs ahead of winter as China and Europe scramble for supplies, the US coal industry is failing to find new miners willing to do the dirty work as demand soars.

U.S. Coal Industry Says [Coal is] Almost Sold-Out For 2022.  U.S. coal miners are enjoying the surge in demand for the fossil fuel, with almost all of their production through the end of next year — and some into 2023 even — already sold, according to a Bloomberg report.  Prices are higher, too.  According to the report, Arch Resources, the second-largest coal miner in the United States, has sold its 2022 output at prices 20 percent above current spot market rates.  This suggests that this year's surge in coal demand may not be just a short-lived hiccup in the energy transition.  Share prices of coal miners are also rising amid the demand surge.  Peabody Energy Corp., America's largest coal miner, saw its stock gain 17 percent within a day earlier this month.  U.S. coal-fired electricity generation is expected to increase this year for the first time since 2014, after years of decline, according to information published by the Energy Information Administration.

Rep Donalds Explains Why Biden's Energy Policies will Drive CO2 Emissions Up.  Rep Donalds (R-FL) ripping into Congressional attempts to intimidate energy producers and violate their First Amendment rights, and explaining that China and Russia are not attending COP26 because they want to "build an economy".  [Video clip]  Rep Donalds demonstrates an impressive grasp of the issues, explaining that if Democrats punish gas production, energy producers will go back to burning coal, and emissions will rise — because gas or coal are the only options.  A lot of power plants these days which burn coal actually turn the coal into a gas before burning it, so it is surprisingly straightforward to flip a modern gas generator back to burning coal, or vice versa, once the appropriate gassifier equipment is installed.  No doubt utility companies are already preparing for the switch.  If Biden's democrats shut down the US gas industry, because of the climate methane scare or continued harassment of fracking, coal use will surge almost overnight.

Coal is making a comeback.  Supplies are so scarce that Pa.'s and NJ's electric grid operator is worried.  Coal, a pariah fuel for climate activists, has made a quiet comeback this year in the post-lockdown economic resurgence.  Coal stockpiles at power plants are getting so low that the regional electric grid operator, PJM Interconnection, has taken steps to prevent a system collapse this winter similar to Texas earlier this year.  PJM, based near Valley Forge, this month imposed new rules on power plants in 13 states and the District of Columbia to make sure electricity generators do not run short of fuel during a cold snap.  The rules could force some coal generators to curtail operations to build up emergency reserves, increasing power prices already on the rise.

Al Gore: 'Time to say goodbye to coal, oil and gas worldwide'.  Former Vice President Al Gore called on the world to "say goodbye to coal, oil and gas" to fight climate change in a video released Friday ahead of the upcoming UN COP 26 global warming conference.  Oil, gas and coal are the source of 79% of U.S. energy consumption, according to the latest data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.  Nuclear energy provides 9% of U.S. energy, while renewable energy accounts for 12%.  Gore called on public and private sector leaders to "get real" about immediately reducing greenhouse gas emissions and about moving away from fossil fuels to "clean" energy.

China Launches 'All-Out' Coal Production Campaign.  China on Tuesday [10/19/2021] launched a major effort to ramp up coal production and stabilize coal prices ahead of an anticipated surge in electric power demand this winter.  China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) reportedly ordered mine operators to "produce as much coal as possible."  CNN noted on Wednesday that China made an effort to scale back coal production this year to placate climate change activists, but those desultory efforts simply evaporated in the face of rolling blackouts that interfered with the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) industrial goals.

Who loves coal?  One week to Glasgow and China is suddenly digging up record amounts of coal.  China is holding a busted flush in the Global Green Poker game.  In late summer, local bureaucrats in two-thirds of China's provinces started enforcing power-saving measures on companies, but after four weeks of rolling blackouts the middle kingdom is so desperate for coal it can't keep pretending to be Green.  The Rust Belt factories were grinding down, homes were even losing power, winter is knocking at the door and the only thing with fuel in China were the prices.  It's the worst energy crisis in a decade, and there's no holding out for another three weeks to fool the rest of the world into thinking it cares about "carbon".  Instead a national communist committee called the China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has apparently ordered mines to go all out — and they are.  The word is that China is now digging up nearly 12 million tons of coal each and every day.  If they keep this up it will be a "One Billion Ton" quarter, and potentially nearly a 4-billion-ton year.  That's about 8 times Australia[']s entire annual production and about six times the US's.

While Western Nations Kill Energy, China Builds Coal Plants By The Dozen.  The United Nations Climate Change Conference is due to start on Oct. 31 in Glasgow, Scotland — a city built by the coal and steel industries.  Alok Sharma, the president-designate for the conference, was in Paris last Tuesday solemnly declaring that "Responsibility rests with each and every country ... because on climate, the world will succeed, or fail as one."  Continuing the theme, one of the conference logos observes "The Climate Has No Borders" — which is great, so far as it goes, but someone forgot to tell China.  It's Charlie Brown, Lucy, and the football for the dozenth time, with environmental activists and climate bureaucrats playing the part of Charlie Brown; China, a genocide-committing, nuclear-armed Lucy; and the football, China's promised phasing out of coal.

China's plan to build more coal-fired plants deals blow to UK's Cop26 ambitions.  China plans to build more coal-fired power plants and has hinted that it will rethink its timetable to slash emissions, in a significant blow to the UK's ambitions for securing a global agreement on phasing out coal at the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow.  In a statement after a meeting of Beijing's National Energy Commission, the Chinese premier, Li Keqiang, stressed the importance of regular energy supply, after swathes of the country were plunged into darkness by rolling blackouts that hit factories and homes.  While China has published plans to reach peak carbon emissions by 2030, the statement hinted that the energy crisis had led the Communist party to rethink the timing of this ambition, with a new "phased timetable and roadmap for peaking carbon emissions".

India facing massive, widespread power outages as worldwide shortage of coal takes plants offline.  What the Greenies in America and throughout the West don't seem to understand when they rip the use of fossil fuels, especially coal, is that there is a vast part of the world that is still developing to our standards and as such, they require a lot of energy in order to convert their economies to scale with those of the developed world.  That takes a lot of power generation, and a lot of power generation can cost a lot of money — far more than the citizens of said developing country can afford.  So the alternative for these developing nations is to fund their growth with electric power generation that is as efficient as it is cheap, even if said power generation isn't up to our environmental standards.  That generally means coal-fired power plants.  And do you know which countries have a lot of them?  China and India, both of which are now facing power shortages this winter due to a global dearth of coal.

Green Policies Return the World to Coal.  There's scarcely a place in the modern world which will not be feeling the high cost and discomfort of a shortage of energy supplies and their increasingly soaring prices. [...] Some of the shortages are due to accidents, like the cutting of an undersea cable to the UK, but most are due to green policies and stupid political choices, ironically shutting down oil and gas-fired power plants and fossil fuel exploitation and transport at the demand of the greens, who grossly overestimate both global warming and the ability of air, sun and water to take their place.  Ironically, this means coal — the dirtiest possible fuel — is back in huge demand[.]  Despite an import ban on Australian coal, China relented and has begun unloading Australian coal because of an extreme power crunch.  Coal is now in demand in Europe as gas prices soar and the EU's energy policies are [largely] responsible.

US Desperate for Coal Miners to Meet Soaring Global Demand.  Coal supply shortages in Asia and Europe are pushing prices for the dirtiest fossil fuel to record highs and have become a challenge for US suppliers due to a shortage of miners, according to Bloomberg.  For the last three and a half decades, the number of coal mining jobs in the US has collapsed from 180,000 to 42,500 in August.  The industry remains 9,500 miners short from pre-COVID times.  With coal prices worldwide screaming to all-time highs ahead of winter as China and Europe scramble for supplies, the US coal industry is failing to find new miners willing to do the dirty work as demand soars.

Europe is switching back to coal to survive bleak winter.  Having banned fracking in much of Europe and with low wind speeds compounding the continent's energy crisis, gas prices in the UK and much of Europe are going through the roof.  A shortage of affordable natural gas is forcing European companies to switch to coal to survive a bleak winter.

How the Tories have fuelled Britain's energy crisis.  Britain is caught in an energy crisis of the government's own making.  It is true that gas prices have spiked all over the world — but Britain is suffering more than most.  Energy suppliers are going out of business, thanks to the government's price cap.  Even fertiliser companies are going bust, with serious knock-on effects for the food industry: the British Meat Processors Association says shortages could hit within a fortnight.  The trigger for this crisis has been the sudden surge in demand for gas as the global economy recovers from the Covid lockdowns.  Gas prices have doubled in the United States, for example.  In Britain, however, prices are five times higher.  Why?  Because America exploited fracking technology and capitalised on its huge inland gas reserves.  Britain passed up the fracking opportunity, in spite of vast reserves found in Lancashire and Yorkshire.  We are living with the consequences.  While the UK government is right to phase out the burning of coal (easily the dirtiest form of energy, emitting around twice as much carbon dioxide as gas plants), it is also running down our gas infrastructure without providing a viable alternative.

The Editor says...
Carbon dioxide is not dirty.  Carbon dioxide is not a pollutant.  The emission of carbon dioxide is not something to be avoided — especially if China has no such intentions.  Burning coal is a lot better than watching everyone freeze in their dark little homes.  If electricity is cheap and plentiful, coal looks really good.  Learn from this experience.  "Renewable" energy is unreliable.  China isn't playing your game.  There is no "climate emergency."  The climate changes all the time, imperceptibly.  Fire up your coal-powered generators and live your life!

Europe's energy crisis:  A switch back to coal is on the cards.  Having banned fracking in much of Europe and with low wind speeds compounding the continent's energy crisis, gas prices in the UK and much of Europe are going through the roof.  A shortage of affordable natural gas is forcing European companies to switch to coal to survive a bleak winter.  Low wind speeds have compounded the continent's energy crisis, prompting utilities to turn to coal to bridge the shortfall.  The deepening energy crisis comes at a time when Western governments are trying to push emerging and developing countries to agree Net Zero targets at COP26 in Glasgow later this year.  Europe's embarrassing coal comeback will make any Net Zero demands almost impossible for politicians from the UK and Europe not least because they are also dealing with the growing fear of a voter backlash from the cost of Net Zero and rising energy bills.  The Spectator's editorial this week as spot on when it warned Boris Johnson that instead leading the world on Net Zero he "should be prepared for other countries to see, in his energy policy, an example of what not to do".

Goodbye To Coal?  Not So Fast!  The obituary of coal as an energy source has been written many times, but rumors of coal's death are premature, as two stories in the news show.  In the U.K., Britain is forced to fire up coal plant amid record power prices and winter squeeze.  Like the U.S., Britain has been relying increasingly on wind power.  Funny thing about that — it doesn't work when the wind stops blowing. [...] Coal has its faults, but unlike wind and solar, it is reliable and cheap.  Global demand for coal continues to grow, and Australia is a major exporter.  A representative of the United Nations requested or demanded that Australia stop producing and selling coal.

Britain forced to fire up coal plant amid record power prices and winter squeeze.  The UK has turned to a coal-fired power station to help boost its energy supply after global gas and power prices hit new highs and wind farms produced very low levels of electricity.  National Grid ESO, which balances Britain's electricity supply and demand, asked EDF to fire up two units at its West Burton A power station in Lincolnshire.  They had previously been on standby.  The Government plans to phase-out coal-fired power by 2024 in an effort to slash carbon emissions.  Most coal-fired power stations have closed, but some remain available to help meet demand[,] particularly in emergencies.  Wind power now generates about 20 [percent] of UK electricity across the year but varies hugely day by day.

Chinese Coal Prices Soar To Record High Ahead Of Surge In Mining.  Remember when China vowed last year hit peak carbon emissions in 2030 and to reach carbon neutrality in 2060?  Maybe it will (spoiler alert: it won't).  [B]ut long before we hit 2060, China plans on taking coal-based pollution to the next level.

The world needs more energy, not green BS.  In 2013, the World Bank, despite acknowledging many people's lack of access to electricity, said that, because of climate change, it would no longer be supporting the development of coal-fired power stations. [...] Coal is the cheapest form of energy, but it is denied to all those who can least afford the alternatives.  According to data compiled by the Sierra Club, a green, anti-coal NGO, there are 51 coal-fired power plants scheduled for construction in Europe, with a total capacity of 36 gigawatts (GW).  Yet in Africa and the Middle East — where there are far fewer champions of climate change — there are just 29 coal-fired power-plant projects in the pipeline, with a total capacity of 20 GW.  Meanwhile, a whopping 219 GW of capacity has been announced in China, and India has plans to increase its capacity by 75 GW.  The toxic excreta of UN bodies and green NGOs can be seen in these massively uneven patterns of development.

Asia coal demand surge in stark contrast with U.N. climate warning.  The latest U.N. report makes it clear that coal must exit global energy systems if there is to be any chance of avoiding severe climate disruptions.  The problem is that for much of Asia, it's still the go-to fuel in periods of high demand, and this doesn't appear to be changing at anything like the required pace. [...] Coal demand, and prices, have been stoked by a recovery in power generation as the region's economies emerge from the coronavirus pandemic and as warm temperatures boost the use of air-conditioning.  While this is likely a short-term situation, Asia is still the epicentre for the construction of new coal-fired generators, with several countries including China and India currently building massive capacity and advancing plans to build even more.

China To Build 43 New Coal-Fired Power Plants.  China is planning to build 43 new coal-fired power plants and 18 new blast furnaces — equivalent to adding about 1.5% to its current annual emissions — according to a new report.  The new projects were announced in the first half of this year despite the world's largest polluter pledging to bring its emissions to a peak before 2030, and to make the country carbon neutral by 2060.  The news shows that at least some in China are prioritizing economic growth over emissions reductions — although some analysts say they are still optimistic that China will reach its climate targets.

China restarts coal mines to keep up with power demand.  Operations at 53 shuttered coal mines in China will once again come to life, as China struggles to keep up with increased power demand, according to a statement by the National Development Reform Commission in China.  Last week, China announced it would restart 38 coal mines in Inner Mongolia.  Now, China has announced it will resume operations at 15 more coal mines, in the regions of Shanxi and Xinjiang.  The mines will operate for a year and will produce as much as 44 million tons of coal, which China hopes will satisfy the growing calls for power amid an intense heatwave and tick up in industrial activity.  China has struggled to answer the calls for both increased power and decreased emissions.  The news coincides with a scathing UN report that suggested this week that unless the world takes immediate large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, there will be no way to limit global warming to 2-degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

If Coal Is Dead, Then Why Are Ships So Full Of It?  Amid all the talk of global warming, climate change-induced catastrophes, decarbonization and green finance, the global trade in "dirty" coal is enjoying an ironic renaissance.  Bulk ships are busy transporting coal to Asia — and to eco-conscious Europe — boosting freight income for some of the very shipowners who publicly tout their environmental bona fides to investors.  "Turns out the news of the demise of coal has been greatly exaggerated," said Stifel analyst Ben Nolan in a new client note.  "Despite an unseemly carbon footprint, coal demand is actually accelerating this year."

Keep your Green New Deal.  Coal is making a comeback.  Global energy usage shrank significantly during the pandemic lockdowns and remained comparatively low during the winter.  But now that the United States is reopening, along with much of the rest of the world, energy demand is spiking at unprecedented levels.  In order to meet the increasing need, many countries, including America, are turning to a much-vilified but very reliable source.  Coal-fired power plants are driving up the need for more coal.  This trend flies in the face of all of the promises and treaties that have been in vogue of late, with countries promising to reduce their "carbon footprints" and go to renewable, green energy technologies.  The reality of the current state of green energy is sinking in, however, and people are going to meet that demand for electricity however they have to.

Ocasio-Cortez Wants to Shut Coal Plant Expert Says Would Turn Puerto Rico Into 'Third-World Country'.  Progressive "squad" member Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) cares about the people of Puerto Rico.  So much so that she is actively advocating to turn off 20% of the power for the already "electricity-challenged island."  Once again, she is putting her liberal agenda and climate talking points ahead of the actual human beings whose livelihood relies upon the decisions made by Ocasio-Cortez and her colleagues in the faraway land of D.C.  Daily Wire reports:  "During a Thursday hearing for the House Natural Resources Committee, the lawmaker expressed a desire to close down AES Puerto Rico's coal plant in Guayama, which — according to Center for Industrial Progress founder Alex Epstein, who testified before the committee — provides 20% of the power for the 'electricity — challenged island."

The G-7's crime against humanity.  Climate activists and their media allies were much chagrined that the G-7 would not agree on a fixed date to stop burning coal.  Germany plans to burn coal until at least 2038.  Japan is building new coal plants at home and financing them around the world.  And despite the best efforts of the Obama-Biden administration, much of the U.S. remains reliant on coal and will be so for years to come.  But don't get the idea that the Biden administration supports coal or recognizes its value to the U.S. electric grid.  "At the 11th hour, however, Biden's officials became nervous about the impact on domestic politics and the White House refused to sign off on [a timeline for {the} end {of} coal use], which then had to be left out of the final summit communique, according to officials, and a diplomatic note summarizing the meetings," reported Bloomberg.

Justices deny Wyoming, Montana coal suit against Washington.  The U.S. Supreme Court decided Monday [6/28/2021] that it won't allow Wyoming and Montana to sue Washington state for denying a key permit to build a coal export dock that would have sent coal to Asia.  Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito voted in the minority in the ruling against letting the two states sue the third in a case that would have gone directly before the high court.

State Treasurers Send Message to Banks:  If You Drop Coal, We Will Stop Using You.  Over a dozen Republican state treasurers sent a clear message to financial institutions Tuesday [5/25/2021], threatening to pull their assets if they "de-bank" fossil fuel firms.  John Kerry, the Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, is leading the Biden administration to push banks to help reduce the carbon emission in the United States, according to Axios.  This has also been criticized by the Senate Republican lawmakers on the Banking Committee.  All the Republicans already sent a letter to stop pressuring banks to make energy-related lending commitments.

Communist China:  World's Biggest Climate Polluter Keeps Polluting.  Communist China, in 2020, built over three times as much new coal power capacity as all other countries in the world combined — the equivalent of more than one large coal plant per week, according to a report released in April by Global Energy Monitor.  Also in 2020, China's CO2 emissions rose by 1.5% while those of most other countries fell.  Although, in 2020, the world retreated from coal, these retirements were eclipsed by China's new coal plants.  Even before China built those new plants, it was already the world's biggest emitter of fossil fuel carbon dioxide (CO2):  In 2019, China was responsible for almost 30% of CO2 emissions — roughly twice the amount emitted by the US, then the second largest emitter.  China, the planet's primary coal consumer, already has the largest concentration of coal plants globally; in 2020, it produced 3.84 billion tons of coal, its highest output since 2015.  In addition, China, in 2020, imported 304 million tons of coal, up 4 million tons from 2019.

Coal workers deal with uncertain future with Biden's infrastructure plan.  It is a resource that cannot be measured just by the power it produces.  "Coal means everything to this part of the country," said coal miner Matt Huonker.  "Without the coal mines in this area, there wouldn't be an Ohio Valley I wouldn't think," coal miner Michael Knight said.  In some parts of America, families are fueled by coal.  It's been that way for generations.  "You're either a coal miner or you're not," said Rick Altman with the United Mine Workers of America.

US coal production set to rise, in blow to Biden's climate goals.  Coal plant retirements are likely to slump to their lowest level since 2014 in President Biden's first year in office, according to federal data.  The U.S. Energy Information Administration projects more than 4 gigawatts of coal retirements this year, down from 9.4 GW in 2020.  Some 22 GW is slated for shutdown through 2024, compared with 41 GW during the Trump administration.  The U.S. coal fleet total is roughly 220 GW.  The slowdown may be an anomaly.  Many analysts expect coal to resume its long-term decline after a brief rebound this year.  But the dynamic hints at a potential risk to Biden's climate ambitions.

19 States Ask Supreme Court to Rein In EPA Powers Over Coal Plants.  West Virginia and 18 other states are asking the Supreme Court to review the scope of the Environmental Protection Agency's regulatory authority over greenhouse gases after an appeals court struck down a Trump-era rule months ago on carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants.  "The case, if granted, would be the biggest climate question to reach the Supreme Court in more than a decade," according to Bloomberg Law.  In Massachusetts v. EPA (2007), the Supreme Court gave the agency the power to regulate greenhouse gases.  The Jan. 19 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit was a victory for left-wing environmentalists that helped clear the way for the then-incoming Biden administration to impose new restrictions on the energy sector.

Sen. Manchin:  Compare 667 coal plants being built around world to zero in U.S..  As lawmakers debate energy policies to address climate change, West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin said the American public needs to understand that new coal-fired plants are being constructed around the world but there are zero new ones in the U.S. Manchin was asked for his opinion on putting a price on carbon as a way to combat climate change.  "Putting a tax, and really a tax to pass onto the consumer, will not fix the problem," Manchin said during a discussion organized by the National Press Club on Monday [4/19/2021].

In message to Joe Biden, India embarks on new coal boom.  India has set in motion the biggest ever auction of coal mines in the country despite the fossil fuel's key role in contributing to global warming.  The country will put 67 mines on the block, the most in a single auction.  Winners will be allowed to produce and sell the fuel, a reform meant to dislodge state monopoly over the domestic coal market and open it up to private firms.  The deadline for submitting technical bids is May 27 and electronic auctions have been scheduled from June 28 to July 28, the coal ministry said on Thursday [4/8/2021].  The auction sends mixed signals at a time when the world's third-biggest emitter of greenhouse gases needs to shed its dependence on coal.  India is under growing pressure to improve its climate commitments, which have forced government officials to debate a possible net-zero emissions target.  The country is one of the most vulnerable to climate impacts, and coal mining and burning also contributes to deadly air pollution.

As an industry faces destruction, it grows a voting coalition.  Imagine if you had a job.  A good job, one that required skill and critical thinking and had a broad impact in the community where you lived. [...] Within two decades, your profession goes from being championed by the Democratic Party and labor officials to one that they want to destroy. [...] [The workers] acknowledge their industry is in the center of a political storm and their fate does not rely on how many improvements the industry does to make it clean.  "Politicians and the press need a good guy and a bad guy to either win a race or tell a story.  We used to be the good guys that everyone stood up for," [John] Fisher says and then shrugs.  "Now we are the bad guys."

Mexico was once a climate leader; now it's betting big on coal.  As the climate crisis worsens and clean energy prices plunge, governments around the world have been weaning their economies of coal and other fossil fuels.  Mexico is moving in the opposite direction.  President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, popularly known as Amlo, has unveiled plans to buy nearly 2m tons of thermal coal from small producers like Rivera.  He also plans to reactivate a pair of coal-fired plants on the Texas border, which were being wound down as natural gas and renewables took a more prominent role in Mexico's energy mix.

The Editor says...
There is no climate crisis.  A climate crisis can't "worsen" if there is no crisis in the first place.  Mexico is moving in the opposite direction from socialist "governments around the world," which just shows that on the issue of coal consumption, Mexico is the only country operating on common sense.  And what is "thermal coal?"

Kamala Harris Tells Unemployed Coal Miners That After Biden Kills Their Jobs They Should Work Reclaiming Abandoned "Land Mines".  Joe Biden killed tens of thousands of jobs his first day in office when he canceled contracts with the Keystone XL pipeline.  Biden and his "Climate Envoy" John Kerry are waging war on the energy sector but fear not because Kamala Harris is here to save the day.  Kamala Harris talked about creating news jobs in her interview and shared her brilliant idea to "build back better" ...by reclaiming abandoned land mines in West Virginia.  "All of those skilled workers who are in the coal industry and transferring those skills to what we need to do in terms of dealing with reclaiming abandoned land mines."

China's 2020 coal output rises to highest since 2015, undermining climate pledges.  China's coal output rose last year to its highest since 2015, despite Beijing's climate change pledge to reduce consumption of the dirty fossil fuel and months of disruption at major coal mining hubs.  The world's biggest coal miner and consumer produced 3.84 billion tonnes of coal in 2020, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed on Monday [1/18/2021].  China's coal output dropped after reaching a peak of 3.97 billion tonnes in 2013, as Beijing axed excessive mining capacity and promoted clean energy consumption.  But production is rising amid surging industrial demand and an unofficial restriction on coal imports aimed at shoring up the domestic mining industry.

African nations planning 1250 new coal and gas power plants, new study reveals.  A new study into Africa's energy generation landscape uses a state-of-the-art machine-learning technique to analyse the pipeline of more than 2,500 planned power plants and their chances of successful commission.  The study shows the share of non-hydro renewables in African electricity generation is likely to remain below 10% in 2030, although this varies by region.  The research, published in Nature Energy, from the University of Oxford predicts that total electricity generation across the African continent will double by 2030, with fossil fuels continuing to dominate the energy mix — posing potential risk to global climate change commitments.

China loves coal far more than wind.  We have all heard about China building a lot of coal plants, but the central role coal plays in their booming economy is amazing.  It is a big reason they are the world's leading manufacturer.  China generates almost twice as much electricity as the U.S. they generate more from cheap coal than we do from all sources.  This makes them very competitive industrially.  China has some wind power but they are smart enough not to let it get in their way (unlike us).  Renewables are driving our power costs through the roof, while China wisely wallows in cheap juice.  By way of scale, not too long ago the U.S. burned about a billion tons of coal a year to make electricity.  We generated about 2,000 gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity from coal, roughly half of our total 4,000 GWh.  The foolish war on coal has reduced that to around 600 million tons, with further reductions scheduled.

Coal powers China.  While the West wages war on coal, hydro-carbons power China's industrial and military might.  China uses massive amounts of coal to generate electricity, smelt metals, and manufacture cement — they generate almost twice as much electricity as the USA, and two thirds of that is coal-powered.  In China, wind power is a token 5% (probably earning carbon offsets from western shysters).  But the stop-start power from wind/solar is not allowed to interrupt reliable base-load generators like coal. [...] It is a green fantasy to expect cheap reliable power from wind-solar.  And only UN climateers could believe that China will cap coal usage any time soon.

China Recolonizes Africa.  Joe Biden has pledged that one of his first acts as President will be rejoining the Paris climate treaty — which gives China a complete pass on reducing emissions until at least 2030.  Even Biden's designated "climate envoy," former Secretary of State John Kerry, says the existing treaty "has to be stronger," but then claims China will somehow become an active partner, instead of the competitor and adversary it clearly is.  His rationale:  "Climate is imperative, it's as imperative for China as it is for us."  As to China employing more Green technology and abiding by (much less strengthening) the Paris agreement, the evidence is at best spotty, at worst completely the opposite.  President Trump pulled the United States out of Paris, but between January 2017 and May 2019 the US had shuttered 50 coal-fired power plants, with 51 more shutdowns announced, bringing the total shutdowns to 289 (330 once announced shutdowns also take place) since 2010, soon leaving under 200 still operating.

2020 wasn't all bad:  There's good news about climate change.  Two important climate stories have somehow evaded media attention.  The first is that the authoritative International Energy Agency now recognizes that the high-emissions (and therefore high-warming) scenarios associated with future energy use are flat-out wrong, and the second is that global greening is fighting global warming. [...] In its revelation, the IEA relies heavily on a withering article by University of British Columbia's Justin Ritchie in the journal Energy, showing that the United Nation's future energy use scenarios generally employ what he calls a "return to coal hypothesis," in which coal use expands dramatically to the year 2100.  The high-end scenario used by the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change simply ignores the rapid fuel-switching that is occurring as hydrofractured natural gas displaces coal for electricity generation, especially in the U.S.  Yet, the panel's future energy consumption model producing the greatest warming is based upon the primitive notion that oil will soon be depleted and there will be a massive switch to coal, as Ritchie notes.

Joe Biden Just Promised No Coal Power Plants Will Ever Be Built In America If He Wins.  Democratic Presidential Nominee Joe Biden promised at the first presidential debate in Cleveland on Tuesday night that he will prohibit the creation of any new power plants that require fossil fuels if he is elected.  "Nobody's going to build another coal-fired plant in America.  No one is going to build another oil-fired plant in America," Biden said.  "They're going to move to renewable energy."  Biden instead suggested that a complete move to renewable energy would be the cheaper and more effective option, stumbling over his words and mixing up which number point he was on as he tried to explain himself.

Renewable Energy Fairy Tales.  Electricity in the U.S. is generated by using coal, natural gas, nuclear energy and hydroelectricity.  About 7% comes from wind and solar.  Coal is well suited for generating electricity.  We have vast resources and modern plants are nearly pollution free.  But coal is being driven out of business by the Sierra Club that has a long running hysterical campaign against coal.  Although they blame coal for every medical malady imaginable, the real reason the Sierra Club hates coal is that it emits carbon dioxide when burned and they believe that a great global warming disaster from CO2 is looming.

New York Pension to Coal Companies:  Evolve or We'll Divest.  The New York State Common Retirement Fund, the third-largest U.S. public pension fund, said it may divest from coal mining companies that aren't ready to move away from relying on thermal coal for profits.  The fund is reviewing 27 miners that earn at least 10% of revenue from mining thermal coal that's burned by power plants to produce electricity, either directly for industries or to supply power grids.

The Editor says...
I read a lot of news articles every day, and this is the first time I've ever heard of thermal coal.

China [is] Adding New Coal Power Plants Equivalent to Entire European Union Capacity.  China is planning to build another 300 coal-fired power plants that will produce the equivalent of all the coal-fired power plants in the 28-nation European Union.  Despite signing climate-change treaties to reduce CO2 emissions, including the United Nations-sponsored 2009 Copenhagen Accords and the 2015 Paris Agreements, China's coal-fired power capacity quintupled from 195 gigawatts in 2000 to 973 gigawatts in 2018.  While China relentlessly increased its coal-fired power generation, 1,756 gigawatts of planned coal-fired power capacity was canceled between 2010 and 2018, according to Global Energy Monitor.  Already accounting for almost half of the world's 2,024 gigawatts of coal-fired capacity, the Financial Times reported that China will add another 148 gigawatts of domestic coal-fired power, about the same as the European Union's 149 gigawatts of existing coal-fired capacity.

Joe Biden Suggests Coal Miners Should Learn To Code.  Former Vice President Joe Biden suggested Monday that displaced coal miners should learn to code.  "Anybody who can go down 3,000 feet in a mine can sure [...] learn to program as well," Biden said at a New Hampshire event Monday [12/30/2019].  He added later:  "Anybody who can throw coal into a furnace can learn how to program, [...]!" Biden's adversarial posture toward the coal industry bears similarities to that of 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, who said her administration would "put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business."

Coal consumption likely to rise as growing demand for electricity generation in developing countries.  Coal consumption is set to rise in the coming years as growing demand for electricity in developing countries outpaces a shift to cleaner sources of electricity in industrialised nations. [...] While this year is on track for biggest decline ever for coal power, that is mostly due to high growth in hydroelectricity and relatively low electricity demand in India and China, said Carlos Fernandez Alvarez, senior energy analyst at the Paris-based IEA.  Despite the drop, global coal consumption is likely to rise over the coming years, driven by demand in India, China and Southeast Asia.  Power generation from coal rose almost 2% in 2018 to reach an all-time high, remaining the world's largest source of electricity.

Climate lunatics vs. the laws of physics.  According to reports, a cohort of Greta worshipers in the Northeast has been throwing their bodies in front of coal-filled freight trains for at least the past month in the hopes of stopping these fossil fuel payloads from reaching their destinations.  Video footage of an incident in Worcester, Massachusetts, as one example among many, shows a handful of rabid climate activists almost getting run over by one of these freight trains while it was en route to New Hampshire.  Similar incidents have occurred at various other points along the same track.  An activist group known as "350 New Hampshire Action" reportedly took ownership of at least one of these dangerous stunts, announcing that nobody was hurt but that the trains "refused to stop" — as if they somehow should have turned right back around and gone back to the coal mine.  But momentum is a real thing, unlike climate change.

Joe Biden is coming for your job.  Seems it's not enough for the such leftists to come for your toilet paper, your salt shaker, your meat, your SUV, or your air conditioner, Biden wants your job, too.  Your livelihood.  All for your own good.  Oh sure, he promises to replace it with something else, something green, see, as the state central planners dictate.  We all know well that worked out last time Biden got his way and did what he could in the Obama administration to put coal miners out of business.

Bloomberg calls for closing all coal-fired power plants to combat climate change.  Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg is calling for a 50 percent reduction in carbon emissions over the next 10 years to battle climate change.  To achieve that goal, the former New York City mayor and multi-billionaire business and media mogul on Friday [12/13/2019] unveiled a plan that would shutter all 251 remaining coal plants across the country by 2030 and replace them all with clean energy.  He would also phase out gas-fired power plants.

The Editor says...
Follow-up question:  Mr. Bloomberg wants to "replace them all with clean energy" — from what source?  Is Mr. Bloomberg promoting nuclear energy?

Fossil fuel production on track for double the safe climate limit.  The world's nations are on track to produce more than twice as much coal, oil and gas as can be burned in 2030 while restricting rise in the global temperature to 1.5C, analysis shows.  The report is the first to compare countries' stated plans for fossil fuel extraction with the goals of the Paris climate agreement, which is to keep global heating well below 2C above pre-industrial levels, and to aim for 1.5C.  It exposes a huge gap, with fossil fuel production in 2030 heading for 50% more than is consistent with 2C, and 120% more than that for 1.5C.  Scientists have warned that even the difference between 1.5C and 2C of heating will expose hundreds of millions of people to significantly higher risks of extreme heatwaves, drought, floods and poverty.

The Editor says...
[#1] One-half degree of temperature change is literally imperceptible.  If the temperature changes one-half degree in the next 60 seconds, right where you are sitting now, you won't notice it.  One-half degree is not enough to "expose hundreds of millions of people" to anything at all, let alone the laundry list of drought, floods (concurrent with the drought?), poverty, famine, pestilence, stratospheric ozone depletion, or anything else.  [#2] The mining, sale, and combustion of coal is not the only factor at work in the climate.  There are many other natural sources of heat and carbon dioxide.  [#3] The self-important pencil pushers in Paris do not have the magic formula for a Goldilocks temperature that must never be exceeded.  [#4] Any news outlet that prints "1.5C" when they mean "1.5°C." or "1½ degrees Celsius," is a news outlet with lazy writers.  In the age of electronic publishing, punctuation costs nothing, and it is omitted or misused only by incompetent journalists.

Feeding the Fat Green Pigs.  In the era before coal, oil and electricity, the environment suffered greatly.  Whales were slaughtered for lamp oil; forests were cleared for firewood, mine props, building materials, roofing shingles and sailing masts; London ("The Big Smoke") and Pittsburgh ("The Smoky City") were smothered in smog from open fires, charcoal kilns and iron smelters; horses powered public and military transport and city streets were layered with horse manure.  Then came the hydro-carbon revolution.  Kerosene lamps saved the whales and coal-powered steam engines delivered electricity (clean-coal-by-wire) to the cities — and much of the sulphurous smogs disappeared.  Coke from coal replaced wood charcoal to make iron and steel.  Steel and concrete saved the forests and trucks and railways allowed the farmland, which once fed millions of horses, to produce food for humans.

Coal is Still King and Growing.  China publicly demands the USA fulfill Obama's Paris Agreement pledges, and makes a big deal of their conversion to green energy.  However, behind the scenes the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative is starting to look like a gigantic coal plant construction exercise.  China is the world's largest producer and user of coal.  It's helping to pay for and build power plants in at least a dozen countries, and though many are solar, wind, natural gas, and hydro projects, the bulk of the Chinese investment is in coal. [...] China burns more coal that the rest of the world combined.

67 protesters arrested for demonstration at coal power plant.  Scores of climate change protesters were arrested outside a coal power plant in New Hampshire on Saturday [9/28/2019] as they staged a demonstration calling for the facility to be shut down.  About 120 people gathered outside Merrimack Station in Bow, New Hampshire, on Saturday afternoon, with 67 people being arrested, according to the Bow Police Department.

Amy McGrath Accused of Using Coal Miners as 'Political Pawns'.  Randy Robbins and Albrow Hall are both coal miners suffering from black lung who traveled to Washington, D.C., earlier this summer to raise awareness about the disease.  They were asked after the trip to participate in a reenactment of their bus ride to Washington that they believed was going to be used for a documentary for the Black Lung Association.  It came as a shock, then, when footage of their bus ride appeared on the airwaves as the centerpiece of a McGrath attack ad against Republican senator Mitch McConnell (Ky.).  Now, their lawyer is asking the McGrath campaign to pull the ad from the air.

Vistra to shutter 40 percent of its coal plants, in central, southern Illinois.  Illinois will become less reliant on coal-fired power plants by the end of the year.  Under an arrangement with the state, Vistra Energy soon will shut down 40 percent of its eight-facility fleet in central and southern Illinois.  Phil Gonet, president of the Illinois Coal Association, said that could cause problems.  "We think it's very dangerous to embark on a policy to replace baseload power, which operates all the time and is available all the time, with unreliable energy from renewables," Gonet said.

Trump's EPA Finalizes Plan To Repeal And Replace Obama-Era Coal Plant Regulations.  The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized its plan to repeal and replace an Obama-era regulation that critics said would cost thousands of coal industry jobs.  The Clean Power Plan never went into effect.  The U.S. Supreme Court issued a stay on its implementation in 2016.  EPA's replacement plan, called the Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule, asks states to improve coal plant efficiency.  "ACE is an important step towards realigning EPA actions so they are consistent with the rule of law and the original mission of the agency," Mandy Gunasekara, a former Trump EPA official who worked on ACE, told The Daily Caller News Foundation.

Trump administration finishes off Obama-era anti-coal Clean Power Plan.  The Trump administration on Wednesday [6/20/2019] finished its repeal of the Clean Power Plan, the heart of the Obama-era climate legacy, and replaced it with a rule that extends a lifeline to the coal industry by giving states more leeway on reducing power plant emissions.  The replacement, the Affordable Clean Energy rule, places the focus on improving efficiency in the U.S. electricity grid.  It puts states in charge of developing plans to lower greenhouse gases and allows flexibility to upgrade coal-fired generation.

Bias alert!
That's just water vapor rising into the air, not soot, not CO2.

The World Returns to Coal.  A major report by energy giant BP said the world was returning to coal, and without shale gas from the US and LNG exports from Australia the emissions reduction picture would be much worse.  Massive investments in renewable energy were needed but would not be enough to satisfy increasing demands for power, most notably in China and India.  BP said global emissions overall were up 2 percent last year as the unexpected return to coal gathered pace.

Energy and Geopolitics Are under Attack.  Fossil fuels — particularly natural gas — will be the leader for decades ahead when it comes to soft power, national security, and robust economic growth for mature and emerging markets.  Political moves, similar to Michael Bloomberg donating $500 million to kill coal use in the U.S., could slow natural gas's growth, but if they do, they will also devastate the country and its Western allies geopolitically.

Coal plant closure to cost Navajos tens of millions and 900 good jobs.  Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez and Vice President Myron Lizer outlined their vision for addressing declining revenues while maintaining direct services for the Navajo people in the upcoming budget process for the Navajo Nation.  President Nez presented a budget message to the members of the 24th Navajo Nation Council's Budget and Finance Committee on Tuesday [5/28/2019].  For the upcoming new fiscal year that begins on Oct. 1, the current revenue projection is approximately $158 million, which is a $14 million decrease from the current fiscal year budget of $172 million.  For fiscal year 2021, the Nation's revenue projection is expected to drop significantly to $132 million due to the closure of the Navajo Generating Station and Kayenta Mine.

Mike Bloomberg Devotes $500 Million To Kill Coal Jobs, Influence 2020 Elections.  Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg will spend $500 million to close every remaining U.S. coal-fired power plant and stop the expansion of natural gas.  Bloomberg will fund environmental activist lobbying campaigns in state legislatures, city councils and public utility commissions.  Activists will demand officials replace coal plants with renewable energy, not natural gas.  "We're in a race against time with climate change, and yet there is virtually no hope of bold federal action on this issue for at least another two years," Bloomberg said in a statement Thursday [6/6/2019].

The Editor says...
We are NOT "in a race against time" to stop global warming.  There is no abnormal global warming.  Any time you hear a politician push for immediate action, it is almost always for the purpose of deception.

Michael Bloomberg pledges $500M to shutter U.S. coal plants.  Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Friday will launch what he calls the largest ever coordinated campaign to beat climate change, which will close all U.S. coal plants by 2030.  Bloomberg said the $500 million program, Beyond Carbon, will put the United States on track toward a 100 percent clean energy economy by working with advocates to "build on leadership and climate progress already underway."

Australian Politics, Upside-Down.  The Liberal/National Party's election victory in Australia on May 18 was the latest electoral result to shock the punditry.  Like Brexit and Donald Trump, it was a conservative victory that few expected.  Voters in Queensland, Australia's agricultural and industrial power center, turned to the LNP in support of the proposed Carmichael coal mine that would provide up to 5,000 jobs to the local economy — but which the Labor Party and Green Party opposed.  Labor's supposedly unlosable "climate change election" proved a debacle, as exit polls predicting that the party would gain up to 18 seats turned out to be wildly inaccurate.

How to lose the unloseable election: be anti-coal.  The climate vote evaporated.  Australians want the Adani coal mine built and running.  They also aren't willing to vote for climate change action, even in some of the wealthiest inner city seats.  All the badly designed polls supporting "climate action" [misled] the pundits.  If only they had read skeptical blogs, they'd have known that people can tick the believer box free of charge, but when it costs, climate action always ranks at the bottom, and no one wants to pay for it themselves, not even $10 a month.  If people don't even pay for carbon flight offsets or donate to environmental causes, they certainly won't consciously vote to lose jobs and spend billions.  Ultimately, even in 2019, more than half of all Australians don't buy the UN climate scare.  It was only 2017 when 60% of Australians said they were OK with dumping Paris if they could cut their electricity bills.

The "limitless" Geothermal from old UK coal mines.  The Earth gets hotter by 2.5[°]C to 3.5[°]C with each 100m depth.  It's what makes geothermal energy possible, anywhere.  In the UK geothermal could meet the nation's heat demands for at least 100 years, say Jon Gluyas, Andrew Crossland and Charlotte Adams of the Durham Energy Institute.  Properly managed it could last indefinitely.  Given that heat does not travel well, geothermal must be developed locally.  Fortunately, accessible heat lies beneath or adjacent to most major UK population centres.  It has around 23,000 abandoned coal mines, all deep heat sources, surrounded by the towns and cities built to serve them, amounting to 40% of UK housing stock.

Current list of all 5615 coal-fired plants.  Power plants are running all over the world.  Notice how many in England have been shut down or demolished.

Obama-Era Judge Slams the Brakes on Trump Order to Open Fed Lands to Coal Mining.  A federal judge in Montana delayed a Trump administration attempt to open up more federal lands to coal mining Friday [4/19/2019], The New York Times reported.  U.S. District Court Judge Brian Morris ruled that the Trump administration illegally overturned a moratorium placed on coal mining on federal lands by former President Barack Obama.  Obama instated the policy in 2016 as part of his administration's environmental agenda to cut coal usage.

EPA seeks to fire up coal industry by rolling back Obama-era standards.  The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday proposed rolling back the Obama-era rules on coal-fired power plants, a key element of the previous administration's so-called "war on coal" that President Trump has vowed to end.  The agency moved to scale back the Obama administration's 2015 Clean Air Act performance standards on greenhouse gases from new, modified and reconstructed coal-powered utility stations, regulations that have been denounced as all but impossible to meet.

Trump Has Another Plan Up His Sleeve To Rescue Ailing Coal Plants.  The Trump administration is reportedly preparing to give the coal industry a boost by rolling back another Obama-era environmental regulation.  The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Thursday is expected to rescind a rule that requires new coal plants to be fitted with carbon capture technology, according to several officials who spoke with The New York Times.  Under the Obama-era mandate, new coal plants were not allowed to emit more than 1,400 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt-hour.  The Trump administration is due to raise this limit to 1,900 pounds.  "It's fantastic that the Trump EPA is repealing the Obama EPA's ban on new coal-fired power plants," Junkscience.com publisher Steve Milloy said in May when The Daily Caller News Foundation exclusively reported the administration's mumblings of the rule rescission.

Green Energy is the Perfect Scam.  [Scroll down]  The public has been exposed to relentless propaganda promoting green energy as beneficial and less expensive.  The public is the greatest victim, but most people don't know that they are being victimized, so there is little incentive to organize against the scam.  There are certain other victims such as the coal industry and coal miners.  But these groups mostly don't understand that they are victimized by a scam.  Due to the propaganda they may actually believe that burning coal is undesirable and dangerous.  Thus, they lack a clear mandate to organize against the scam.  (Modern coal generating plants are environmentally clean.)

Are Existing Coal-Fired Power Plants Less Expensive Than New Gas, Wind or Solar?  Almost 40 percent of the nation's coal fleet has retired or announced plans to retire.  Does it make sense to continue retiring even more coal-fired power plants?  There are different ways to answer this question.  One way is to consider the dispatch cost ($/MWh) that dictates the order in which plants are dispatched at any given moment.  A higher dispatch cost means a plant operates less and, therefore, its revenues are less.  However, the dispatch cost includes only variable costs, such as fuel; it does not include other costs, such as maintenance and capital expenditures, which are an important consideration over a longer period of time.  A better way to answer this question is to consider the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE), which captures all of the costs (variable, fixed, capital and financing) of an electricity resource over its lifetime.

The Chinese coal fired steam engine from hell.  While Elon is charging up the EV to save the world, in China somewhere coal-fired steam trains live on, burning coal, hauling coal, spewing coal up in the air.  Get a load of this industrial marvel.  This is the Fossil Fuel Nightmare Express.  Raining live climate destruction at 6pm.  [Video clip]

The New Age of Coal.  No matter how hard environmental do-gooders are trying to kill coal, they're clearly not succeeding.  According to a new report by the Energy Information Administration, despite the ongoing fear-mongering from the left, coal continues to be a major source of power generation in both developed and emerging nations, accounting for as much of the world's electricity today as it did in the 1990s.  As it turns out, coal has proven to be incredibly resilient in Asia and Africa, where it has been pushed up by rising demand.

Pelosi renews Obama's 'war on coal,' backs group looking to shut down coal plants.  House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is renewing President Barack Obama's so-called "war on coal" by backing a radical initiative to shut down more than a third of U.S. coal plants by 2020 — a line of attack that spectacularly backfired for Hillary Clinton in 2016. [...] The "Beyond Coal" website describes coal as "an outdated, backward, and dirty 19th-century technology."  "The Beyond Coal campaign's main objective is to replace dirty coal with clean energy by mobilizing grassroots activists in local communities to advocate for the retirement of old and outdated coal plants and to prevent new coal plants from being built," the website says.  It advocates retiring a third of the nation's coal plants by 2020, replacing most retired coal plants with "clean energy solutions such as wind, solar, and geothermal" and "keeping coal in the ground in places like Appalachia and Wyoming's Powder River Basin."

Coal hits the political fan in Germany.  Germany's "climate chancellor" Angela Merkel has shocked the climate alarmist world by declining to support tighter Paris Agreement emission targets for the European Union.  Her place as the leading EU alarmist was already threatened when Germany admitted that they could not meet their 2020 target and now it is probably gone for good.  France, which does not have the problem of coal fired electricity, will no doubt become the new leader.  That its juice comes mostly from green-hated nuclear power apparently does not count against it.  At least it is not the even more hated coal, right?  Reducing, or even eliminating, the use of coal is becoming a very big political issue in the EU.

Don't subsidize coal; just stop trying to kill it off.  When President Trump speaks Tuesday [8/21/2018] on energy policy, he is speaking on an industry utterly changed in the past 20 years.  At the turn of the century, Americans fretted over how much we depended on foreign oil.  We worried so much about running out of gas that import terminals were built so that foreign firms could ship liquefied natural gas for use in our pipelines.  How things have changed.  U.S. dependency on foreign oil isn't even an issue anymore, as the U.S. approaches its new role as a net exporter.  And natural gas has proven to be so abundant, thanks to fracking, that prices have plummeted.  Not only are those import terminals being refitted to serve as export terminals, but gas has also overtaken coal as the largest source of electrical generation in the U.S.

EPA: Trump's easing of coal rules could kill 1,400 people per year.  The Trump administration announced plans on Tuesday [8/21/2018] to ease Obama-era restrictions on coal-fired power plants, but an Environmental Protection Agency analysis of the new rules said they would increase carbon emissions and could cause up to 1,400 premature deaths each year.

The Editor says...
[#1] Carbon dioxide is not carbon.  [#2] Show me the death certificate of any person whose death was caused by carbon dioxide emissions from a power plant.  It doesn't happen.

Total Failure of the climate crusade.  A couple of days ago, we noted that this year's edition of BP's annual Statistical Review of World Energy report on global energy use is out, and it contains one of the most telling charts about the failure of the climate crusade's "war on coal" ever presented.  Most of the lamestream media coverage has focused on this particular chart from the BP report, which shows coal having a small uptick in 2017 after several years of decline.  Doesn't look like much, does it?  Just a blip.  Nothing for the enviro-faithful to worry about, the net trend is still down, right?  They are blaming president Trump for it.

Trump administration floats plan to save coal plants.  The Trump administration may soon take action to try to save the nation's struggling coal and nuclear plants.  The White House is considering a measure that would require electrical grid operators to purchase electricity from coal and nuclear plants that are at risk of going offline, according to a draft memo circulated before the Department of Energy, viewed by Bloomberg.  Under the proposal, the president would exercise emergency authority to carry out the directive, which the memo reportedly says is necessary to preserve national security.

Burn coal not wood if you care about the climate.  It's all very well thinking about how long it takes one year's wood-pellet electricity to become neutral, but power stations need more fuel every year and if we keep razing more land, the carbon debt keeps growing.  In the two scenarios below the biomass industry keeps growing linearly every year.  But [eventually] people settle down on the whole biomass idea and stop razing extra forest in 2050.  Even so, the total industry carbon debt keeps accruing for another 56 years until presumably the regrowth reaches a point where it is pulling in more carbon [than] the yearly raze produces.  It takes 144 years after the industry stops expanding before the net carbon debt is back to zero.

Time to Dismiss the Nanny State.  The Canadian government makes an excellent example of an over-zealous nanny that perceives itself as all-knowing and sees its role as the protector of citizens against all (government-defined) problems.  The most fundamental of these, from the government's perspective, are (catastrophic man-made) climate change and inequality.  The government considers these the source of a myriad of other problems that it wants to solve, such as carbon "pollution," poverty, and unemployment, to name just a few.  And lucky (some seem to think) for Canadians, the government has enacted a solution for everything.  The government's plan is to slay climate change by mandating a carbon tax on the provinces and by subsidizing companies to develop uneconomical renewable energy sources (solar and wind).  Some provinces are eager helpers in these efforts.  Ontario, for example, has forced the shut-down of coal-generated power and subsidizes unreliable, expensive wind energy.  This has resulted in the electricity prices up to four times higher in Ontario than in coal-burning Alberta.

House Votes to Modify Emissions Limits for Some Coal-Fired Power Plants.  The U.S. House of Representatives approved legislation modifying Obama-era air pollution rules for certain types of coal-fired power plants.  The House passed the Satisfying Energy Needs and Saving the Environment Act, sponsored by Rep. Keith Rothfus (R-PA), by a vote of 215 [to] 189 on March 8.  The bill would set less stringent standards for hydrogen chloride and nitrogen dioxide emissions from power plants that burn coal refuse, a waste byproduct of coal mining, to produce electricity.  Such plants are found predominantly in Pennsylvania.

EPA's Pruitt Declares End to Obama's 'War on Coal'.  Sunday [4/22/2018], Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt stated there was an end to the "war on coal" in America.  Pruitt told New York AM 970 "The Cats Roundtable" host that the EPA is not in the business of picking of winners and losers in the energy industry, chastising former President Barack Obama's administration for declaring war on coal.

Love those 30 year old coal and nuclear plants — nothing gives cheaper electricity.  A US report shows how fantastically cheap and bountiful old coal and nuclear plants are.  The LCOE or the Levelized Cost of Electricity includes the costs of the concrete, turbines, car parks and coal, plus the maintenance and salaries.  It reveals that thirty year old, and even fifty year old coal plants, are the gift from past generations — enormous infrastructure, built and paid for, and ready to churn out bargain electrons.  Or in crazy-land, ready to be blown up.

America Is Finally Catching Up on Clean Coal.  When Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Paris climate agreement last June, France, Germany, and Italy were quick to subject Washington to a never-ending barrage of criticism.  But in what can be described only as the height of hypocrisy, these same countries have been more than happy to keep their power plants running using American coal.  As so often when coal is involved, the gap between their rhetoric and action exposes the painful dishonesty infecting the debate.

Europeans rip Trump on climate change, import record amounts of U.S. coal.  As France, Germany and Italy chastised President Trump for rejecting the Paris climate accord in June and mocked the U.S. for turning its back on the environment, their nations were busy importing record amounts of American coal.  The U.S., federal data show, is seeing something of a coal renaissance, but the boom — partly the result of Mr. Trump's aggressive policies to roll back Obama-era regulations on the fuel — largely has benefited foreign markets.  Some of the biggest buyers are also the biggest critics of the Trump administration's climate policy, including China and leading European nations that now claim to be the world's leaders on fighting global warming.

California Will Block Oil And Coal Shipments, Risks Constitutional Battle.  California officials plan on preventing the federal government from transporting oil and gas using existing pipelines in the state, according to a report Wednesday [2/7/2018] from The San Francisco Chronicle.  Officials on the California Coastal Commission are urging the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to rescind plans allowing companies to drill for oil off the coast.  They are still hoping for an exemption from the oil drilling plan, that Florida has received.

A Fire That Never Dies.  Centralia's day of disaster came on May 27, 1962, when local firefighters, sent to clear out a landfill site, set the garbage on fire.  Now, the landfill was on an abandoned strip-mining pit.  As the fire heated up, it spread downward, into the mine shafts beneath the town, and ignited the seam of coal upon which Centralia was built.  All attempts to extinguish the underground fire failed, and then things began to get really ugly in Centralia[.]

When clean, affordable fuel isn't good enough for Gore.  One of the most damaging legacies of the Obama administration's "war on coal" was the creation of a 2015 rule that limits carbon-dioxide emissions on new coal-fired stations to 1,400 pounds per megawatt-hour of electricity generated. [...] This makes no sense.  Besides the fact that carbon dioxide is plant food and so the very opposite of pollution, the technology of carbon-dioxide capture on a full-scale power plant is still a technological fantasy.  In fact, the agency was banning even the most modern, very efficient, supercritical coal-fired stations because their carbon-dioxide emissions are at least 20 percent above the EPA limit.  Considering that America has 22.1 percent of the world's proven coal reserves, the greatest of any country and enough to last for 381 years at current consumption rates, it is a tragedy that the U.S. can no longer build new, clean, coal-fired power stations to replace its aging fleet of coal plants.

Trump's Energy Success.  One of the president's major successes is in the area of energy policy.  Along with energy secretary Rick Perry, the president is overseeing the recovery of the American energy sector from the low point it hit under the Obama administration.  By a combination of executive orders totally restrictiong drilling on federal lands and EPA assaults on fracking and coal-mining, including a total ban on mountaintop-mining, Obama prosecuted a "war" not just on coal, but on fossil fuels generally.  Now America has become the largest producer of oil and gas and a major exporter of natural gas.  The U.S. now produces significantly more hydrocarbons than second-place Russia and twice as much as Saudi Arabia.  As coal-mining is restored, pipelines are laid, and new wells are drilled, hundreds of thousands of jobs are being created across the economy, not just in drilling and mining, but in support services.  The effect on the economy is already being felt.

End the 'war on coal'.  At last week's Environmental Protection Agency public hearing on the withdrawal of the Clean Power Plan in Charleston, anti-coal activists were out in force.  The meeting was swamped with activists — Climate Justice Alliance, Sierra Club, Citizens Climate Lobby, Natural Resources Defense Council, etc.  Several groups also met at the University of Charleston, to discuss, according to the New York Times, the "environmental, health and climate benefits of reducing coal consumption."  They apparently do not understand that the abundant, low-cost energy provided by coal laid the foundations of the industrial revolution and modern society.  Low-cost energy provided continuous power for factories and trains that transported goods and raw materials.  In the 20th century coal-fired power stations provided the reliable, inexpensive supply of electricity that is the lifeblood of our economy.  The world still has huge resources of coal (the U.S. has a 381-year reserve at current usage rates) that could be burned in modern clean power stations.  Sadly, in the Western world, environmentalists are working to shut down existing coal-fired stations, and prevent new ones from being built.  Yet, hundreds of new coal-fired stations are being built in the rest of the world to power expanding economies.

Why Is Asia Returning to Coal?  Just a few short years ago, few would have dared to predict that coal could have a future in the energy policies of emerging and developed countries alike.  Yet the fossil fuel is undergoing an unexpected renaissance in Asia, buoyed by technical breakthroughs and looming questions about squaring development with energy security.  For Japan, coal has emerged as the best alternative to replacing its 54 nuclear reactors, which are deeply unpopular with the population and seen as symbols of devastation after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster six years ago.  Mindful of the public mood, the government of Shinzo Abe has completely given up on the country's dream of nuclear self-sufficiency, and pulled the plug in December on the $8.5 billion experimental reactor project at Monju.  On February 1, the government pledged to decommission all reactors and replace them with 45 new coal-fired power plants equipped with the latest clean coal technology.

Everyone cutting coal use except for most of the world and most of the banks.  Australia's big four banks are fighting over themselves to turn down the chance to profit from coal loans and tell the world.  Months ago, Westpac went on a low-coal diet, declaring like a kind of vegan-keto-banker that they won't consider a loan unless the coal mined has at least 6,300 kilocalories per kilogram.  Presumably they will lose weight, or at least lighten up by a few shareholders.  Last week our National Australia Bank announced they are waiting for the carbon capture fairy to conquer some laws of chemistry and economics before they finance coal mines again.

Mining up 28.6 percent — in a single quarter.  Those jobs aren't coming back the liberal liars scolded us.  Hillary and Obama wanted tor retrain coal miners as computer programmers.  We elected Trump, and in April, May and June alone, mining increased 28.6 percent.

IEA Says Southeast Asia Will Keep Coal Demand High.  The International Energy Agency (IEA) says the need for cheap electricity in Southeast Asia will drive global demand for coal for power generation through 2040, even as many countries continue to retire coal-fired plants and cancel projects for new coal facilities.  IEA, which is set to release its World Energy Outlook 2017 on November 14, this week said India and Southeast Asia will account for the majority of the use of coal in the coming years, as those areas' economies continue to grow and demand for electricity rises.

Clean Power Plan Repeal Will Save $33 Billion in Compliance Costs.  Repealing the Clean Power Plan will save $33 billion in costs passed onto energy consumers, according to senior Trump administration officials.  The Environmental Protection Agency formally began the process of repealing the Obama era rules on limiting carbon emissions of power plants on Tuesday [10/10/2017], with Administrator Scott Pruitt declaring the "war on coal is over."  The EPA entered a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking into the Federal Register and will be open 60 days for public comment.  White House officials said repealing the regulations, which set strict emission standards for coal-burning power plants, was following through on President Donald Trump's promises to protect the coal industry.

Trump is overwriting Obama's unlawful green schemes.  The first year of Donald Trump's presidency has been characterized — despite his bumptiousness — not by executive overreach, but executive retrenchment.  The populist Trump has operated within constitutional lines better than his technocratic predecessor, who used tendentious readings of the law and sweeping bureaucratic actions to impose his policies on immigration, health care, college campuses and the environment.  The Clean Power Plan, which sought to reduce US carbon emissions to 32 percent below 2005 levels by 2030, was government by the administrative state on a scale that has never been attempted before.

Trump's EPA Officially Ends Obama's War On Coal (America Won).  In a major boost to jobs and the economy, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt announced Monday [10/9/2017] that the administration is moving to officially scrap the Clean Power Plan, President Obama's signature regulatory program to kill the coal industry by curbing emissions from coal-fired power plants[.]

EPA Set To Repeal Obama's Clean Power Plan On Coal Regulations.  The Trump administration continues to rollback failed Obama-era policies with a measure to remove coal regulations.  On Monday [10/9/2017], EPA Chief Scott Pruitt announced the president will scrap the Clean Power Plan.  The plan, which Pruitt called "unfair," would have imposed stringent emissions standards on coal-fired power plants.  Critics claimed it would kill thousands of jobs, but it was put on hold by the Supreme Court over a year ago and has never taken effect.

The Editor says...
The article above includes the photo (left) with the caption,"In this Sept. 4, 2011 file photo, smoke rises from the stacks of the main plant facility at the Navajo Generating Station, as seen from Lake Powell in Page, Ariz."  But this is a canard.  Smoke does not emanate from a power plant and then disappear into the atmosphere in a few seconds.  That is the behavior of water vapor, especially in the dry Arizona air.

E.P.A. Announces Repeal of Major Obama-Era Carbon Emissions Rule.  The Trump administration announced Monday [10/9/2017] that it would take formal steps to repeal President Barack Obama's signature policy to curb greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, setting up a bitter fight over the future of America's efforts to tackle global warming.  At an event in eastern Kentucky, Scott Pruitt, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, said that his predecessors had departed from regulatory norms in crafting the Clean Power Plan, which was finalized in 2015 and would have pushed states to move away from coal in favor of sources of electricity that produce fewer carbon emissions.  "The war on coal is over," Mr. Pruitt said.  "Tomorrow in Washington, D.C., I will be signing a proposed rule to roll back the Clean Power Plan.  No better place to make that announcement than Hazard, Kentucky."

The Editor says...
Carbon dioxide is not carbon.  Please don't write about "carbon emissions" when you mean "carbon dioxide emissions."

Inconvenient energy fact:  It takes 79 solar workers to produce same amount of electric power as one coal worker.  In an April 25 New York Times article ("Today's Energy Jobs Are in Solar, Not Coal") reporter Nadja Popovich wrote that "Last year, the solar industry employed many more Americans [373,807] than coal [160,119], while wind power topped 100,000 jobs."  Those energy employment figures are based on a Department of Energy report released earlier this year that provides the most complete analysis available of employment in the energy economy.  But simply reporting rather enthusiastically (see the NYT headline again) that the solar industry employs lots of Americans, more than twice as many as the number of coal miners and utility workers at electric power plants using coal, is only telling a small part of the story.

The Future of Energy Is Still Coal.  First, in 1990, 88 percent of the world's energy came from fossil fuels.  After more than 25 years and over a trillion dollars in subsidies for "renewable" energy, in 2015 the world's share of energy from fossil fuels was ... 86 percent.  At this rate, it will take 150 years to get fossil fuel energy down to 75 percent of the world's total energy supply.

Coal Boom: 1600 new plants in 62 countries around the world — increasing 43%.  "End-Coal" Global Coal Tracker does a magnificent job of showing how essential coal is around the world, and which countries are pathetically backwards in developing new coal plants.  It's probably not what the "CoalSwarm" team was hoping to achieve, but this map is a real asset to those of us who want to show how tiny Australia's coal fired assets are compared to the rest of the world.  The site itself is a fancy-pants high gloss major database and website that also shows how much money is in the "anti-coal" movement.

WV governor pitches coal plant subsidies to Trump.  President Trump is "really interested" in an idea to pay power plants to buy Appalachian coal, West Virginia's governor said.  Gov. Jim Justice, who was elected last year as a Democrat but switched to the Republican Party last week at a Trump rally, told Bloomberg News that he pitched a $15 per ton federal subsidy for coal-fired power plants to use eastern United States coal.  Justice recently spent some time with Trump and made the proposal before his public switch to the GOP, he said.

EPA official won't be missed.  Elizabeth Southerland [...] spent 30 years at the EPA, most recently as director of the Office of Science and Technology for the agency's Water Office. [...] She flat-out lied when she said there is no war on coal.

The news the media buries.  The media moguls think if they report only the bad that the good news will cease to exist.  But the good news is out there.  U.S. exports of coal rose 60%, Reuters reported.  The big increases are by England and other European countries.  It is part of the plan to make money, and to weaken Russia by making America the chief source for energy in that market.

They signed the Paris agreement, then bought our coal.  Don't worry, Europe.  We'll keep secret your need for coal as a backup to all that wind and solar energy you pretend are all you need.  Don't forget, West Virginia coal is the best.  Doesn't pollute like that brown coal the Germans and the Poles have.

Coal Is Number One.  According to the EIA's July report, "EIA estimates that the share of total U.S. generation fueled by natural gas during the first half of this year averaged 29%...  In contrast, coal's share of generation rose from 28% in the first half of 2016 to 30% in first half of 2017."  For the full year 2017, EIA estimates that coal will generate 3.453 million kilowatts per day, while natural gas, because of a rise in its retail price this year, will generate a hair less, or 3.432 million kilowatts.  Wind and solar remain niche sources of energy providing about one-seventh as much power as coal and gas.

U.S. Coal Exports Soar — Over 60 Percent Increase in 2017.  Interestingly at the same time as a massive natural gas investment by Petronas collapses in Canada due to energy policy and economic conditions surrounding weak LNG prices, the U.S. Energy Information Administration highlights that U.S. coal exports are roaring back.  Yes, elections have real economic consequences.  U.S. EIA data shows a gain of 60.3% so far this year in exports of both steam coal (used to generate electricity) and coking coal (metallurgical coal used for steel manufacturing) as a direct consequence of President Trump's common sense energy policy.

Listen To Trump's Energy Secretary Slap Down New York Times Reporter On Coal.  Energy Secretary Rick Perry slapped down a question from a New York Times reporter on clean coal technology while touring an advanced coal-fired power plant Thursday [7/6/2017].  New York Times reporter Carol Davenport asked Perry a question about exporting U.S. clean coal technology.

Coal Boom: 1600 new plants in 62 countries around the world — increasing 43%.  "End-Coal" Global Coal Tracker does a magnificent job of showing how essential coal is around the world, and which countries are pathetically backwards in developing new coal plants.  It's probably not what the "CoalSwarm" team was hoping to achieve, but this map is a real asset to those of us who want to show how tiny Australia's coal fired assets are compared to the rest of the world.  The site itself is a fancy-pants high gloss major database and website that also shows how much money is in the "anti-coal" movement.  Oh, that skeptics should have even 2% of these funds.  Heffa Schücking, the director of Urgewald, which created the maps, calls it a "cycle of coal dependency". Normal people call it "freedom and wealth".

US coal mining surges in 2017 following last year's record decline.  The United States, China and India, the world's largest coal users, have increased coal mining this year by 6 percent following 2016's record global decline.  Among the three counties, production through May is up by at least 121 million tons compared to the same period last year, according to data reviewed by The Associated Press.  The change is most dramatic in the United States where production is up 19 percent within just the first five months of 2017, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

Meet the Face of President Trump's End to Obama's War on Coal:  Third Generation Pennsylvania Miner.  The sun finally came out after a drenching rain storm in Pennsylvania's Alleghany Mountain country on the first day of the work week.  It marked a symbolic development for the coal miners whose future is brighter thanks to President Donald Trump's efforts to revive an industry that the Obama administration had promised to all but abolish.  For Joey Kostya, that means he can continue a family tradition.

Getting more coal and nuclear power on the grid should be a priority.  Nearly 100 people are back to work in Pennsylvania, where the newly opened Corsa Coal Corporation's Acosta Mine in Somerset County, Pa. will produce 400,000 tons of coal annually for 15 years.  President Trump vowed to end the war on coal and prioritize job growth, this mine opening shows he is already on his way to making this dream a reality.  Trump praised the mine's opening in the Rose Garden while he announced the United States withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord, the gesture was meant to highlight Trump's focus on returning jobs and stable energy to the nation over environmental policy.  President Trump could not have selected a more pressing time to make this announcement, as weakening infrastructure in our nations power grid has halted economic growth and placed our entire country at greater risk for rolling blackouts.

Trump: Opening of New Pennsylvania Coal Mine Is Due to "Less Regulation".  In a videotaped message played during the opening ceremony of a new coal mine in Friedens, Pennsylvania, on June 1 President Trump celebrated the opening as an example of what can be accomplished when government eliminates the regulations that have stifled the coal industry.  "One by one, we're eliminating the regulations that threaten your jobs, and that's one of the big reasons you're opening today:  Less regulation," Trump said.  "We have withdrawn the United States from the horrendous Paris Climate Accord, something that would have put our country back decades and decades; we would have never allowed ourselves to be great again."

As the World Cuts Back on Coal, a Growing Appetite in Africa.  According to data compiled by CoalSwarm, an industry watchdog, more than 100 coal-generating units with a combined capacity of 42.5 gigawatts are in various stages of planning or development in 11 African countries outside of South Africa — more than eight times the region's existing coal capacity.  Nearly all are fueled by foreign investment, and roughly half are being financed by the world's largest coal emitter:  China.

The Editor says...
Irony:  a coal consumer is called a coal emitter.

Greens Forgive China their Coal Plants.  The Center for American Progress, a well connected green left wing Washington Think Tank, has written an article full of glowing praise for China's high efficiency coal plants, and the contribution those plants are making towards reducing global CO2 emissions. [...] The Center for American Progress was founded by John Podesta in 2003, the same John Podesta who later went on to run Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.  Podesta has been associated with the Clintons since at least the mid 90s.  I find it fascinating that such a well connected left wing organisation has made such an effort to sing the praises of Chinese coal.

'Green 20' Attorneys General Sue Trump To Preserve Obama Climate Policies.  Four Democratic attorneys general sued the Trump administration for reversing a moratorium on issuing coal mining leases on federal lands.  Three of the Democratic AGs — California, New York and Washington — come from states that do not produce coal.  Only New Mexico AG Hector Balderas comes from a coal-producing state.

Trump Brings Back Half of Lost Mining Jobs — Already!  Remember when liberals said there was NO WAY Donald Trump could or would ever revive the coal industry?  He was called a liar and a charlatan for going to West Virginia and Pennsylvania and other parts of economically depressed Appalachia promising that he would bring back coal jobs.  "Coal is dead," the Sierra Club declared triumphantly to its donors last year.  The standard refrain from the left was that Trump is "lying" when he said coal jobs will can be resurrected.  Well, coal is back.

Coal's Colossal Comeback.  Liberals have been saying that Donald Trump was lying to the American people when he said that he could bring coal jobs back.  Well, so far, he has delivered on his promise.  There's more good news for the coal industry.  Earlier this month, Peabody Energy — America's largest coal producer — moved out of bankruptcy, and its stock is actively trading again.  Its market cap had sunk by almost 90% during Barack Obama's years in office.  Arch Coal is also out of bankruptcy.  It turns out that, after all, elections do have consequences.  The Obama administration and its allies, such as the Sierra Club, tried to kill coal because of their obsession with global warming.  Regime change in Washington has brought King Coal back to life.

EPA's Pruitt to coal miners: 'Regulatory assault is over'.  The head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) visited a coal mine Thursday [4/13/2017], where he declared that the Trump administration is ending the "regulatory assault" against fossil fuels.  Pruitt spoke briefly at a portal building for the Harvey Mine in southwestern Pennsylvania, owned by Consol Energy Inc., before touring a piece of North America's largest underground coal-mining complex in operation.  He slammed the Obama administration's environmental policies, calling them a "war on coal," and accused President Trump's predecessor of falsely forcing Americans to choose between environmental protection and economic growth, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

Trump's coal push grinds into high gear.  The Trump administration could call Thursday "National Coal Day."  Several Cabinet officials are spreading out to push clean coal, coal power plants and coal mining.  The activities got started Wednesday afternoon [4/12/2017] when Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke met with Native American leaders to brainstorm ways the Trump administration can help prevent one of the largest coal-fired power plants in the country from shutting down in Arizona.

China buys more U.S. coal, sends North Korea packing.  China is banning shipments of coal from North Korea because of last week's missile test and has made up the shortfall by importing more coal from the United States.  The news comes just days after President Trump met with Chinese President Xi Jinping at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, where the administration said North Korea's missile tests would be a top priority in the talks.

EPA Resists Order Requiring Assessment of Job Losses.  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) continues to resist a judge's order requiring the agency to determine how many coal mining and coal power plant jobs its emissions regulations have eliminated.  The ruling by Judge John Preston Bailey of the U.S. District Court in Wheeling, West Virginia was handed down in a case in which coal producer Murray Energy sued EPA in 2014 alleging the agency failed to fulfill its duties for decades and account for the economic impact, including job losses, caused by its rules.  This is the second time Bailey has ruled against EPA in this case.  In October 2016, citing Section 321(a) of the 1970 Clean Air Act, Bailey ruled the Clean Air Act requires EPA, on a continuous basis, to calculate job loses, including coal mine and power plant layoffs, caused by its regulations.  Bailey gave EPA 14 days to submit a plan for assessing job impacts of its regulations on the coal industry.

Now that Obama is out of the way...
Coal boom:  Hiring spikes 'through the roof'.  West Virginia coal industry executive Mike Grose knows fake news when he sees it.  And the headlines claiming that President Trump's new executive order to dismantle clean power rules won't revive mining employment were Exhibit A.  "It's growing, a lot better than it ever was," said Grose, owner of Superior and Elite Coal Services, a mining employment firm.  "Once Trump was elected, I have increased staff 20-fold.  Once he was elected, it went through the roof."  From his office in central West Virginia, where he connects miners to several East Coast companies, Grose said that in anticipation of a Trump victory many mine operators readied for a hiring blitz.

German coal, gas plant output at 5-year high in January.  German coal and gas-fired power plant output in January rose to its highest in almost five years as cold weather boosted demand while below average wind and record-low winter nuclear availability reduced supply, according to power generation data compiled by think-tank Fraunhofer ISE.

The comeback of coal.  America was built on coal.  Fossil fuels, following the demise of windmills and the like as the sources of inefficient production of electricity, provided the spark that ignited American industry and made it the industrial leader of the world, and kept it the leader for more than a century and a half.  "America," said Winston Churchill on the eve of World War II, "is a mighty boiler, and once alight there is no limit on what it can produce."  Coal fired that boiler.  Despite an eight-year assault on coal by fanatics who dream of an America cut down to size, coal is still responsible for almost a third of America's electricity.  Wind and solar power, despite enormous subsidies of more than $100 billion over the last decade, still produce less than 5 percent of America's energy.

More good news for West Virginia coal.  The rescinding this week of an EPA rule on where coal companies can put rocks and dirt in strip mining — falsely called "coal mining waste" by the media — was not the only good news for West Virginia coal miners.  China today [2/18/2017] announced it will not accept any coal from North Korea from now until the end of the year (Western year, not Chinese).  Enter West Virginia coal.  This is a great opportunity to put miners back to work.  One-third of the coal mined in this state is sold overseas.  The No. 10 U.S. export to China is coal.  So the supply line is there, and ready to expand.  West Virginia is the Saudi Arabia of coal.

President Trump Signs Bill Repealing Obama's Lame-Duck Coal Regulation.  Another Campaign Promise Fulfilled — People's President Trump signs a resolution of disapproval bill today eliminating one of President Obama's last minute regulations intended to cripple the coal industry.  Prior to signing the repeal, President Trump held a brief presser with legislators and some very happy coal miners.

CRAwling from the Obamanation we just suffered.  Liberals say coal is losing to its nemesis natural gas in the free market.  What they leave out is that EPA regulations unnecessarily increase coal costs.  If you really want a free market, dump the taxpayer subsidies for alt-energy such as windmills.

Demon Coal.  Coal is a gift that we have in abundance.  The vast reserves of coal guarantee the United States energy for hundreds of years.  Coal is efficient.  No fuel, other than uranium, is cheaper.  Coal burns clean in modern plants.  Strip-mining coal in the modern way improves the landscape.  According to the Energy Information Administration, the U.S. demonstrated coal reserve base is 477 billion 2,000-pound tons, enough for more than 500 years at current consumption rates.  In the eyes of the diminishing crowd of believers in catastrophic global warming, coal is evil, a demon.  Why?  Because it is mostly carbon, and when coal is burned, carbon dioxide (CO2) is created.  CO2 is supposed to create a disaster.  As the predicted disaster (global warming) fails to materialize, a new disaster (extreme weather) is invented.  The disasters that never materialize are blamed on CO2 and indirectly on coal.

Balkan push for new coal-fired plants raises environmental concerns.  A Chinese company began work on Monday on a $715 million (£573 million) expansion of a Serbian coal mine and a new power plant, part of a wave of investment in new coal-fired plants in the Balkans that is at odds with EU policy of reducing coal use.

Shutdown of coal plants raised electricity rates, failed to reduce pollution:  Report.  Ontario's hell-bent determination to phase out coal-fired generation raised electricity rates without significantly improving air pollution levels, a new Fraser Institute report says.  Report co-author Ross McKitrick, an economics professor at the University of Guelph, said the findings should act as a cautionary tale for Alberta and Ottawa currently going down the same road.  Even though there was reliable information available at the time that showed Ontario coal was not a big player in common air pollution ingredients, the political agenda made it impossible to discuss less expensive options to full closure, he said.

Japan plans to build 45 new coal power plants in next decade:  EIA.  Japanese companies are planning to develop about 45 additional coal power plants in the next decade, as the country gradually ramps up its nuclear power generation following the Fukushima disaster in 2011, the US Energy Information Administration said Thursday [2/2/2017]. [...] While no significant coal-fired capacity is expected to come online before 2020, the 45 new coal power plants are expected to add more than 20 GW of capacity in the next decade, it said.

Senate votes to kill Obama coal rules.  The Senate passed a resolution Thursday [2/2/2017] repealing regulations on the coal industry that were issued by the Obama administration in its eleventh hour.  The resolution passed, 54-45, one day after the House approved its own resolution of disapproval.  The measure now will be sent to President Trump, who is expected to sign it.  The resolution helps to fulfill part of Trump's pledge to help coal miners get out from under the weight of increased regulation on their industry.

US EPA Backs Off Haze Rule for Texas Power Plants.  Texas has more than a dozen coal-fired power plants in the state, with the capacity to generate 19,000 megawatts of electricity.  In March Texas sued the EPA to block a regional haze plan it implemented in January that was expected to result in the closure of seven coal fired power plants in the state.  Under the 1999 Regional Haze Rule the federal government and states governments were supposed to work together to improve visibility in the U.S.'s 156 national parks and wilderness areas.  The January rule offered by EPA was intended to improve visibility in Texas's Big Bend National Park and Guadalupe Mountains National Park.  The power plants targeted by EPA's haze plan were located hundreds of miles from the parks in question.

Utah Counties Sue Federal Government to Halt 'Illegal' Coal Leasing Moratorium.  Six Utah counties, comprising the Rural Utah Alliance, are suing the U.S. Department of Interior (DOI) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in Federal District Court to overturn a moratorium on federal coal leases the secretary of the interior issued in January 2016.  The lawsuit, filed in late November, argues the moratorium was an "unwarranted agency overkill" that will decimate rural Utah counties.

Mitch McConnell is getting ready to unravel Obama's coal rules.  As part of the President's eleventh hour surge of new rules which are intended to hamstring any reforms sought by the Trump administration, the Interior Department recently rolled out a new "stream protection" order.  This move would once again vastly expand the definition of open waters and restrict industrial activity which might, in theory, impact them under the Clean Water Act.  The long and the short of it was yet another barrier to any sort of coal mining in the country.

Obama rushes out 11th-hour regulations targeting beleaguered coal industry.  At the eleventh hour, the Obama administration on Monday rolled out regulations to crack down on coal mining across the country, a parting shot against the beleaguered industry as the president leaves office.  The regulations, designed to protect America's streams and waterways from pollution produced during mining operations, will add significant costs to coal mining companies, many of which are struggling to operate.  The Interior Department estimates that it will cost the coal industry about $81 million each year to comply with the rule.  The agency stressed that figure is just 0.1 percent of the coal industry's "aggregate annual revenues."

The Matter with Coal Country.  George W. Bush won 60 percent of the Harlan County [Kentucky] vote in 2000.  John McCain won 70 percent in 2008, and Mitt Romney won 80 percent in 2012.  Trump came in at just under 85 percent.  Which is to say, Trump is about as popular in Harlan County as Clinton is in Philadelphia.

How American Coal Could Come Back Leaner and Cleaner.  When the Paris climate agreement entered into effect on November 5, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton both thought they had signed the death warrant of the American coal industry.  Just over two weeks later, the new president-elect has promised to undo the Obama era's "job-killing restrictions on the production of American energy."  All of a sudden, coal has gone from black sheep to DC darling.  Had Clinton won the White House, the Paris deal would have given her and her environmentalist backers the cover they needed to put every coal worker in the country out of business.

The Editor says...
If you are a unionized coal miner, you must ask yourself why you still support a union that sends your money to the Democratic Party.

Trump announces plan to kill regulations, spark coal production.  President-elect Donald Trump on Monday presented his plan to build a wall against new regulations and kill many of President Obama's energy-stifling rules.  In a video statement he said that a Trump administration would eliminate two regulations for every new one.  [Video clip]

What a Trump Presidency Might Mean for Your Electric Bill.  "Regulations that shut down hundreds of coal-fired power plants and block the construction of new ones — how stupid is that?" The words are Trump's, yet arguably the marketplace has exacted more of a toll on coal than President Obama's antipathy toward it.  Market forces will lead to an uptick in coal generation and production next year, as generators turn to coal in the face of slightly higher gas prices.  Yet the marketplace — and a near-universal antipathy among the nation's regulators and utility companies toward coal-fired power — will severely hinder new coal plant construction.  Altering power plants' new-source pollution rules is a likely quiver in President Trump's arsenal of options for boosting coal.  Trump's pledge to revive the coal industry will prove an uphill climb, and he is better off slowing its death than trying to reverse it.

Trump's Plan For Coal Country Is To Hollow Out The EPA.  President-elect Donald Trump's campaign to jump-start the coal industry is predicated on hollowing out the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), according to members of his transition team.  The EPA will be dialed back to focus solely on pollutants posing harm to public health and will cease its present extracurricular focus on agenda-centered pollutants supposedly causing man-made global warming, Kathleen Hartnett-White, a member of Trump's transition team, told reporters Monday [11/14/2016].  "He's very much for clean air and clean water," she said.  "But the better home for considering this discussion about carbon dioxide and climate is in the Department of Energy."

Hillary Hates "Coal People", They're Deplorables Too.  Former president Bill Clinton has referred to workers in coal country as "coal people" and the "most anti-immigrant" of people.  Hillary promised to put them all out of business, but don't worry she's going to conjure up some jobs for them doing something.  It won't be in alternative energy since that kills jobs.  The Clintons appear to have put "coal people" in one of the deplorable baskets because bill singled out people in Kentucky and West Virginia to an audience of snooty Democrats in November 2015 and the speech was leaked.

Kerry Praises Obama: 'He Has Been Able to Circumvent Congress' on Climate Change.  In between waxing poetic about the coming climate apocalypse and exchanging no less than two dozen self-congratulatory praises for being such an awesome guardian of Planet Earth, Secretary of State John Kerry rejoiced during a panel discussion on climate change that a great American industry responsible for supporting hundreds of thousands of blue-collar jobs is "now bankrupt."  At a screening of Leonardo diCaprio's new global warming film, "Before the Flood," Kerry lamented that it took this long for coal companies to go out of business — a fate brought on largely by President Obama's aggressive environmental regulations — saying that it would have happened earlier if "big coal" hadn't been so busy buying political support during Kerry's time in the Senate.

Democrats Leaving Their Party In Massive Numbers.  In this election nothing would cease to amaze me.  We have the state of Utah, a completely red state, polling closer than ever between the two parties.  And now we have a state as blue as the come, Pennsylvania, with a new emergence of red votes.  The state is as solid blue as they come, but Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton, has done quite a lot to offend the state.  Starting with her declaration to put coal miners out of business. [...] And with Pennsylvania, that will make a difference.  Also, in the number of new young voters identifying as Republican is growing.  Not only that, but over 100,000 individuals have changed parties.  Leaving the democratic party they are now identifying as Republican in this election.

Hillary Clinton might lose Ohio because she badmouthed coal.  Ohio has voted for the winner of every presidential race since Lyndon Johnson in 1964.  It's the reason people say, "As goes Ohio, so goes the nation."  The usual voting blocs in Ohio are muddled this year.  Union and coal voters like Saltkield are crossing party lines to vote for Trump.  Meanwhile, some Republicans, including Governor John Kasich, just can't stomach Trump.  On top of that, basketball star LeBron James, a hero in Ohio after winning the 2016 NBA championship, has endorsed Clinton.  Political pundits don't talk about coal much.  But in southern Ohio, it's on everyone's minds.  Trains rumble by hourly, often loaded with coal.  More than Benghazi, or deleted emails, what people in this part of America remember about Clinton is what she said about coal.

China Stokes Global Coal Growth.  China won praise for promising to peak its greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 at the UN climate summit in Paris in 2015 — and trying to wean itself slowly off coal.  Chinese manufacturers are now major suppliers of cheap solar and wind parts worldwide.  However, these efforts are being undercut by Chinese backed coal power plants planned and under construction from Indonesia to Pakistan, Turkey to the Balkans — as well as in Africa and Latin America.  These could boost global emissions and lock developing countries into fossil fuel intensive energy systems for decades.

Hillary's In League With Groups To Destroy Energy Independence.  This week, Politico reported that Hillary Clinton is aligned with the same groups who are pushing to end the use of coal and shale energy in the United States.  These policies will be destructive to states like Pennsylvania, Ohio and Colorado and severely impact energy rates and jobs across the country.

Green Pixie Dust Energy Policies.  The Democrat policies are green pixie dust.  They will never generate the energy and revenues required to put America back to work and rebuild our aging, broken infrastructure.  And they ignore what developing countries are doing at a feverish pace:  producing, buying and burning coal, oil and natural gas, to lift billions out of poverty and bring them modern living standards.

Bill Clinton Mocks 'The Coal People' In West Virginia, Kentucky For Supporting Trump.  Speaking in Homewood, PA on Friday [9/9/2016], Bill Clinton criticized the "coal people" in West Virginia for supporting Donald Trump.  "We all know how [Hillary's] opponent has done well down in West Virginia and eastern Kentucky," the former president told the crowd at the Greater Pittsburgh Coliseum.  "The coal people don't like any of us [Democrats] anymore."

Bill Clinton:  You Know, Those 'Coal People' Don't Like Us Anymore For Some Reason.  In 2008, then-Sen.  Obama said, "If someone wants to build a new coal-fired power plant they can, but it will bankrupt them because they will be charged a huge sum for all the greenhouse gas that's being emitted."  Now, the president's war on coal has led to world's largest private sector coal producer to declare bankruptcy.  We have plant closures occurring across the country, as the EPA continues in their "constitutionally reckless mission" to gut Americans of reliable sources of energy and jobs.  The EPA's regulations could cost us at least $3 trillion.  In all, if Obama is successful in his war on coal, the butcher's bill could be at least 125,000 jobs (some estimates are as high as a 1 million+), with a loss of $650 billion in GDP over a ten-year period.

Here's One Promise President Obama Has Kept.  During the 2008 campaign, Barack Obama promised to "bankrupt" the coal industry.  Since April of 2105, six major U.S. coal companies have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy with the subsequent loss of more than 80,000 jobs.

Obama Kept His Promise, 83,000 Coal Jobs Lost And 400 Mines Shuttered.  This Labor Day, America has 83,000 fewer coal jobs and 400 coal mines than it did when Barack Obama was elected in 2008, showing that the president has followed through on his pledge to "bankrupt" the coal industry.  A 2015 study found the coal industry lost 50,000 jobs from 2008 to 2012 during Obama's first term.  During Obama's second term, the industry employment in coal mining has fallen by another 33,300 jobs, 10,900 of which occurred in the last year alone, according to federal data.

Toxicologist on cancer warnings:  NC acted despite science.  Officials in North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory's administration are telling a string of misleading half-truths about the safety of well water near Duke Energy coal ash pits containing a cancer-causing chemical and are responsible for any resulting fear and confusion, a state toxicologist said after being attacked by state officials.

Coal Country Is Wary of Hillary Clinton's Pledge to Help.  [Scroll down]  Now Washington is gunning for the second pillar of the Appalachian economy, coal, and again a politician, Hillary Clinton, is promising to help — with $30 billion over 10 years to revitalize coal country.  As in the case of tobacco, the idea is not to save the old economy, but to create a new one by retraining miners, investing in infrastructure and technology, and luring new industries.  Residents here are skeptical, and with good reason, some economists say.  Much of the tobacco rescue came from a 1998 settlement between tobacco companies and more than 40 states, requiring the companies to pay more than $200 billion over 25 years to help the victims of tobacco — both those afflicted by cancer and lung disease, and those hurt economically by the decline of the industry.

Warnings of rate hikes as Oregon becomes 1st state to kill coal.  The massive coal-fired plant in Boardman, Ore., is just four years away from being shut down for good — at that point, Oregon coal production will be no more, after the state became the first in the nation to completely ban coal power.  The mandate, signed into law earlier this year, was the result of an environmentalist-fueled push by the Democrat-controlled legislature.  Under the plan, coal production will end once the Boardman plant shutters in 2020 — utilities would still be able to buy coal power from out of state for another 10 years, until a 2030 deadline to end coal use entirely.  But the phase-out already has groups warning that residents are headed for big rate increases and brownouts.

Oregon Outlaws Coal.  Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (D) on March 11 signed into law a controversial bill that will ban the use of coal to generate electricity, beginning in 2030, making Oregon the first state in the nation to adopt legislation that would outlaw using coal to produce electricity.  The law also mandates 50 percent of Oregon's electricity come from renewables by 2040.  Opponents of the sweeping legislation, from policy experts to the state's own Public Utility Commission, say the new law will raise rates for Oregon customers without reducing carbon emissions.  One-third of Oregon's electricity comes from coal, primarily from out-of-state coal plants, which will continue to operate despite no longer being able to sell power to Oregon utilities.

Germany waters down climate protection plan.  Germany has abandoned plans to set out a timetable to exit coal-fired power production and scrapped C02 emissions reduction goals for individual sectors, according to the latest draft of an environment ministry document seen by Reuters on Wednesday [6/29/2016].  An earlier version of the draft document that was leaked in May had suggested that Germany should phase out coal-fired power production "well before 2050" as part of a package of measures to help Berlin achieve its climate goals.

U.S., Canada, Mexico pledge to generate 50 percent of energy from clean sources.  The United States, Canada and Mexico have agreed to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the oil and gas industry by increasing clean energy generation to 50 percent by 2025.  The North American Climate, Clean Energy and Environment Partnership will impose new restrictions on some industries to reduce emissions following last year's United Nations climate change agreement in Paris that sought a global reduction in emissions.

The Editor says...
The article immediately above reflects an interesting increment in the media's handling of the Global Warming Hoax.  Energy sources that produce carbon dioxide when they are consumed — which would include coal, petroleum, biofuel, and natural gas — are not considered clean any more.  But there is nothing dirty about carbon dioxide.

White House eyes higher costs for coal mining.  The White House issued a study critical of the federal coal-leasing program Wednesday [6/22/2016], which the industry blasted as more of the same from an administration bent on curtailing coal production by raising prices for consumers.  The report says taxpayers are being shortchanged by lax oversight and permissive royalty rules, blaming coal companies for gaming the system to enhance profits, according to the study from the White House Council of Economic Advisers.

Westmoreland Coal lays off 85 at San Juan Mine.  Eighty-five hourly and salaried underground mine workers were laid off at the San Juan Mine today [6/16/2016] because of a drop in demand for coal, according to Westmoreland Coal Co. officials.  Joe Micheletti — executive vice president of operations for Colorado-based Westmoreland, the new owners of the underground longwall mine — said in a phone interview this morning that there was a workforce reduction because of production cuts related to stricter environmental regulations.  Nine more positions were eliminated through attrition or retirement earlier this year, Micheletti said.  But Barry Dixon — Kirtland district office business manager for the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 953 — said this afternoon that union representatives understood 88 workers would be impacted.  Union representatives counted 52 miners who were laid off today.  Dixon said 36 workers' jobs were lost to attrition or retirement.  The union represents all coal miners at the San Juan Mine.

Coal Production Hits 35-Year Low.  Coal production in the first three months of 2016 was 173 million short tons, the lowest quarterly level in the United States since a major coal strike in the second quarter of 1981. Among the regions tracked by the EIA, the Powder River Basin (PBR) in Montana and Wyoming saw the largest decline both in terms of absolute tonnage and as a percentage of the previous quarter.  Demand for coal has dropped off steeply as natural gas becomes the primary fuel source for electrical generation.  Electricity generation accounts for more than 90% of domestic coal use, but environmental regulations have caused the fuel source to fall out of favor.

The Red Guards Are Green.  In Venezuela, which is admittedly ruled by a socialist regime, an iconic firm called Empresas Polar, which provides everything from pasta to beer, is suffering under government price controls and regulations, and has been declared an enemy of the state.  The Wall Street Journal has been covering the fate of this firm in detail in a dramatic series of articles.  Here, the problem is actually worse.  Rather than targeting just one firm, the Obama administration has been seeking to destroy the entire coal industry, along with the jobs of tens of thousands of workers that the old-style Marxists used to claim to represent.  In their latest move, "the Obama Administration is giving the industry its last rites by halting new coal leases on federal lands where mining is still profitable," the Journal noted.  This is not just Obama's policy.  Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that if she became president, "we're going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business."

The next "green" plan:  Have the feds seize coal plants and shut them down.  You can almost smell the excitement in the air around the green energy warrior community.  The Washington Post ran an op-ed this week from "environmental attorney" Stephen Kass in which he puts forth a bold plan for dealing with climate change and the nation's stubborn refusal to let go of proven, reliable energy generation via fossil fuels.  The big target in Kass' sights is the coal industry and the nation's remaining coal fired power plants.  With resistance growing to the Obama administration's deceptively named Clean Power Plan, the author comes up with a more, shall we say... direct plan of action.  Just have Washington take over the coal plants and close them.

Hillary Clinton Says She'll Put A Tax-Cutting Deregulator In Charge Of Economic Policy.  Hillary Clinton made a big announcement Sunday [5/15/2016], saying she'd put her husband "in charge of economic revitalization."  Only problem is that she's already forsworn all the policies Bill enacted while he was in office that led to the 1990s boom.  "My husband, who I'm going to put in charge of revitalizing the economy, 'cause you know he knows how to do it," Hillary Clinton said at a rally.  "And especially in places like coal country and inner cities and other parts of our country that have really been left out."

The Editor says...
"Coal country" wasn't left out, it was cut out by left-wing politicians like Clinton and Obama, and earth-worshiping tree-hugging Democrat environmentalists.

Shocker! WV voters don't embrace Hillary's pledge to bankrupt coal industry.  Clinton and Sanders both want to recycle the coal industry into Solyndra reboots, but one difference is that Bernie didn't say so out loud at a nationally televised debate:  [Video clip]

U.S. Has Lost 191,000 Mining Industry Jobs Since September 2014.  The United States has lost approximately 191,000 jobs in the mining industry since September 2014 including approximately 7,000 that were lost in April, according to data published today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  The coal mining industry alone has lost approximately 10,900 jobs since April of last year.  "Mining employment continued to decline in April (-7,000)," the Bureau of Labor Statistics said in its employment release this morning.  "Since reaching a peak in September 2014, employment in mining has decreased by 191,000, with more than three-quarters of the loss in support activities for mining."

Hillary Clinton's coal flip-flop could prove costly in general election.  Hillary Clinton's pitch to voters in Appalachia fell flat this week, and she is in real danger of losing the West Virginia primary to Sen. Bernard Sanders next week — but analysts say the former first lady has deeper problems in coal country that could spill into the general election.  Mrs. Clinton has shifted positions on coal over the past eight years, moving from high praise for clean-coal technology and the fuel's role in U.S. energy production in 2008 to guaranteeing miners will be out of work and coal mines shut down if she is elected to the White House in November.  Although she has tried to distance herself from those inflammatory statements and salvage her campaign in the pro-coal territory of West Virginia, Kentucky and elsewhere, political analysts say there is little Mrs. Clinton can do to repair the damage.  Attempts to appeal to blue-collar workers in Appalachia and possibly snatch those states from the Republican column in November look futile.

"Climate Hustle" demolishes climate alarmism.  Without presenting it to the US Senate, as required by the Constitution, President Obama has signed the Paris climate treaty.  He is already using it to further obligate the United States to slash its fossil fuel use, carbon dioxide emissions and economic growth[,] control our lives, livelihoods, living standards and liberties[,] and redistribute our wealth.  Poor, minority and working class families will suffer most.  China, India and other developing economies are under no such obligation, unless and until it is in their interest to do so. [...] That's why these countries have built over 1,000 coal-fired power plants and are planning to build 2,300 more — while unaccountable EPA bureaucrats are shutting down US coal-fired generators, and getting ready to block natural gas production and use.

Once A Clinton Stronghold, Appalachia Now Trump Country.  Hillary Clinton was met in Ashland [Kentucky] on Monday [5/2/2016] by just a handful of supporters and a lone heckler, who shouted:  "Go home, Hillary!"

Even Hillary Clinton's pals can't pretend to believe her lies.  Figuring she has the Democratic nomination sewn up, Hillary Clinton this week headed to swing state West Virginia, aiming to "feel the pain" of coal country.  But then she ran into Bo Copley, a recently laid-off miner.  He hit her with her comments from last month, explaining her clean-energy program:  "We're going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business," she'd said.  Bo didn't like that much:  "I just want to know how you can say you're going to put a lot of coal miners out of, out of jobs, and then come in here and tell us how you're going to be our friend."

Clinton Flip-Flops on Coal, Now Wants Coal to Prosper.  Hillary Clinton has a very complicated opinion of coal.  In March, she proudly declared, "we are going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business."  Now, she says she wants to see coal "continued to be sold and continued to be mined."  Which is it?

Tearful unemployed father who lost his job as a coal worker confronts Hillary Clinton.  A tearful unemployed father who recently lost his job as a coal worker has confronted Hillary Clinton about her plan to 'put the coal industry out of business'.  At an event in West Virginia on Monday, Bo Copley asked Clinton why voters should believe her pledge to help revitalize the region's economy with initiatives including renewable energy.  He was referencing Clinton's remarks to a CNN town hall event in March, when Clinton talked about her plan for renewable energy, the economy and how she would help America's coal country recover from an increasing switch to renewable energy.

Hillary Clinton apologizes for saying she'd put coal "out of business".  Hillary Clinton apologized on Monday [5/2/2016] for saying she would put coal miners and companies "out of business" as president, calling her comment a "misstatement."  "What I said was totally out of context from what I meant," Clinton said.  "It was a misstatement, because what I was saying is that the way things are going now, we will continue to lose jobs."  Clinton said during a town hall on CNN in March that she is the "only candidate which has a policy about how to bring economic opportunity using clean renewable energy as the key into coal country."

The Editor says...
The parts of the country where coal can be found are not going to produce "clean renewable energy" — whatever that means — just as easily.  The only objection the Left has to the use of coal is the eventual production of carbon dioxide when that coal is burned at a power plant.  Carbon dioxide isn't nearly the problem that unemployment is.  In fact, carbon dioxide is not a problem at all.  The Democrats oppose coal because they hate capitalism.

Hillary to tour Appalachian coal country, but one West Virginia town says she's not welcome.  Hillary Clinton kicks off a two-day tour through struggling Appalachia Monday [5/2/2016], and her first task will be trying to clean up her own comment about putting coal companies 'out of business.'  Clinton has pledged to plow more than $30 billion to help the region, but she's been trying to dig out of a mess she made with her coal country comment in March.  After Clinton said during a CNN town hall in Ohio that, "We're going to put a lot of coal companies and coal miners out of business,' she immediately wrote West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democratic supporter, to try to walk back the comment.

Wyoming Gov. Mead Opposes Legislation Meant to Help Depressed Coal.  Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead (R) says he is strongly opposed to legislation proposed in Congress that would shift money from a federal fund established to reclaim and clean up thousands of abandoned mines to jobs programs in coal-mining communities that have been hit hard as a result of the Obama administration's energy policies and restrictions on coal mining.  The push in favor of the legislation is being led by U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers (R-KY).  House Appropriations Chair Rogers introduced the Revitalizing the Economy of Coal Communities by Leveraging Local Activities and Investing More Act, or RECLAIM Act, on February 3, 2016.  Rogers' bill largely mirrors a budget request the Obama administration made in 2015, shifting $1 billion in currently unused funds from the Abandoned Mine Lands (AML) program to provide economic redevelopment aid to coal communities now facing hard economic times, according to a letter sent by Mead to his state's congressional delegation.

Tyranny: Obama uses executive overreach to DECIMATE his latest target.  Back when he was a senator running for president, Barack Obama stated he would bankrupt the American coal industry.  As president, he used the regulatory agency order and extended the definition of the Clean Air Act of 1970.  The U.S. Supreme Court did grant a request to temporarily block the Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Power Plan as a lawsuit moves forward.  It was the first time the Supreme Court had ever halted federal regulations during a legal challenge.  However, it may have truly come too late.

Promise Kept:  Barack Obama Breaks the Coal Industry.  President Obama's war on coal has bagged its biggest trophy to date:  the bankruptcy filing by the largest U.S. coal company, Peabody Energy.  Make no mistake about it, though, Peabody's management and that of the rest of coal industry bears much of the blame for its own demise.  It ought to serve as a lesson for everyone else targeted by take-no-prisoners progressives.

King Coal Is Losing His Throne.  Peabody Energy, the world's biggest privately owned coal mining company, filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States on Wednesday.  The company becomes the latest casualty of a coal-market bloodbath that has already pushed other big U.S. miners into insolvency in recent months.  Peabody said in its bankruptcy filing that the challenges facing the coal sector are "unprecedented" and include a slowdown in China, cheap natural gas, and new environmental regulations.

Oregon Outlaws Coal.  Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (D) signed into law a controversial bill on March 11 that will ban the use of coal to generate electricity, beginning in 2030, making Oregon the first state in nation to outlaw using coal to produce electricity.  The law also mandates 50 percent of Oregon's electricity come from renewables by 2040.  Opponents of the sweeping legislation, from policy experts to the state's own Public Utility Commission, say the new law will raise rates for Oregon customers without reducing carbon emissions.  One-third of Oregon's electricity comes from coal, primarily from out-of-state coal plants, which will continue to operate, although they will no longer sell their power to Oregon utilities.

With collapse of coal industry, central Appalachian towns struggle to survive.  Coal jobs in Kentucky and West Virginia have been on the decline for decades — long before President Obama took office.  According to data from the Mine Safety and Health Administration, the two states together have lost 38,000 coal jobs since 1983.  But job losses in recent years have been especially staggering, the result of tighter regulatory policies and cheaper power plant fuels, like natural gas.  In Letcher County, the unemployment rate stands at 13.4 percent — the fifth-highest county in the state.  The highest unemployment rate is in Magoffin County, at 21.6 percent, followed by Leslie County, with 13.7 percent.

Media Silent as America's Largest Coal Mines Begin Mass Layoffs.  America's two largest coal mines each laid off 15 percent of their workforce — 465 employees — in one day.  Not one national news outlet ran the story.  This travesty deserves national attention.  Barack Obama and his EPA are continuing their War on Coal and War on Jobs... and no one in America — except the miners, their families, and their communities — seems to care.  Coal miners make an average of $80,000 a year.  That's $37,200,000 of taxable income gone.  The local and state economy, which was already struggling because of oil and gas layoffs, is collapsing and not one person outside of the state of Wyoming has spoken a word about it.

Also posted under suppressed news.

Peabody And Arch Lay Off Employees At Wyoming Mines.  The country's two largest coal mines are each laying off roughly 15 percent of their employees.  Peabody Energy and Arch Coal both announced the layoffs Thursday morning.  The cuts will affect roughly 235 workers at Peabody's North Antelope Rochelle mine and 230 at Arch's Black Thunder mine.  The layoffs are the first major cuts in Wyoming, which had, until now, avoided the job losses that have affected Appalachia.  In statements, both companies said the layoffs are in response to weak market conditions for coal.  Low natural gas prices, a warm winter and new environmental regulations have all contributed to declining demand for coal.

EPA Boss: Coal Regulations Are About the Politics of Power.  In a classic case of exercising power for the sake of power, Gina McCarthy (shown), administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), admitted that the real reason for EPA regulations is "showing sort of domestic leadership as well as garnering support around the country for the agreement we reached in Paris."  Her admission against interest was made during testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Tuesday [3/29/2016].  When grilled by Representative David McKinley (R-W.V.), about EPA regulations that are crippling the coal industry, McCarthy did not dispute the charge that the regulations will have no measurable effect on "global warming."  Instead, she said that the "benefit" of the regulations is in flexing federal muscle over industry.

Wyoming's two largest coal mines announce layoffs.  The two largest coal mines in America announced massive layoffs Thursday morning [3/31/2016].  Peabody Energy cut 235 people at North Antelope Rochelle, or 15 percent of the workforce at America's largest mine.  Arch Coal said it was cutting 15 percent, or 230 people, at its Black Thunder Mine near Wright.  The news comes in the face of an extended downturn in the coal market and amid a rising tide of environmental regulations.  It also marks a new chapter for Wyoming's coal industry, which has largely avoided the massive cutbacks seen in Appalachia and elsewhere.

Coal Industry Decline, Lives Destroyed.  As Peabody Energy (BTU), the nation's largest coal mining company, teeters on the brink of bankruptcy, it is a harsh reminder of the reality hitting a corner of the energy industry.  Other large coal mining companies have already collapsed and have destroyed the livelihoods of thousands of Americans who once made good livings tied to coal.  The US Labor Department says more than 27,000 coal miners have lost their jobs since 2009 along with thousands of others whose jobs were tied to the coal industry.  Hazard Kentucky, in the heart of the eastern Kentucky coal country, has been hit especially hard.  Unemployment in the surrounding area tops nine percent and young people say they have no future.

Natural Gas to Overtake Coal in 2016.  Natural gas is on pace to overtake coal as the most popular fuel for electricity generation, another sign of coal's struggles.  The U.S. Energy Information Administration believes natural gas will provide 33% of generation in 2016, while coal's share will likely fall to 32%.  That would be the first time that natural gas beats coal on an annual basis.  The EIA says natural gas and coal each contributed one-third of all electricity generation in 2015.

The Editor says...
"[C]oal's struggles" are completely artificial and entirely reversible.

Hillary Clinton to Miners: Let Them Eat Coal.  By now, most people probably know about one of Secretary Hillary Clinton's biggest campaign gaffes to date:  "we're going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business."  As soon as I heard it, I tweeted:  "Imagine a presidential candidate running for office based on putting people out of work?"  I wasn't the only one shocked by the uncharacteristic clarity of her statement.

GOP's message to voters should be this: Supreme Court fight is about Obama's abuse of power.  This isn't about Judge Robert Bork, or the "Biden Rule" — this is a fight about President Obama undermining the checks and balances established in the Constitution.  For instance, President Obama has tried to essentially shut down our coal industry through new EPA regulations limiting carbon emissions.  These rules would create a massive dislocation to our economy, which has long benefited from cheap energy, including abundant coal.  That there is a significant cost to the economy is clear; Hillary Clinton recently said "We're going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business."  How right, and how cruelly nonchalant that statement is.

Clinton: 'We're Going to Put a Lot of Coal Miners and Coal Companies Out of Business'.  Hillary Clinton said that her policies would "put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business" during Sunday night's Ohio town hall on CNN.  Clinton was asked by TVOne's Roland Martin about her Democratic primary success in states that tend to vote Republican in general elections, and he wondered how she could carry such states once matched up with a Republican rather than a far-left candidate like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.).  Clinton has struggled against Sanders in states that voted for Barack Obama in 2012, losing such contests as Michigan, New Hampshire, Colorado, Minnesota and Maine.

Hillary's vow to kill coal miners' jobs finishes a vast Democratic betrayal.  "We're going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business," Clinton said Sunday night [3/13/2016] while boasting about her clean-energy program — and with a big smile on her face.  In fact, this is standard Democratic policy:  President Obama's been throwing coal miners out of work for seven years now, aiming to deliver on his 2008 pledge to "bankrupt" the coal industry.

Clean power, dirty results.  If President Obama were to demand that more than two-thirds of U.S. thread and cloth manufacturing be replaced by massing together spinning wheels and hand looms, most Americans would openly mock it.  Yet, he is doing just that with electricity production.  The U.S. Supreme Court recently placed Obama's Clean Power Plan (CPP) on hold while 27 states challenge it through the federal courts to better evaluate the plan's potential economic and social damage.  However much the plan might reduce potential dangers of climate change, it will cause much more harm to middle-class and poor Americans if it is implemented.

Obama Halts New Coal Mining Leases on Federal Land.  In a move seen by many critics of President Barack Obama as a continuation of his administration's "war on coal," Interior Secretary Sally Jewell ordered a three-year moratorium on new coal leases on federal land.  Existing coal leases on public land would not be affected by the rule.  In her January 17 announcement of the rule, Jewell cited concerns over coal's supposed contribution to climate change as the reason for the moratorium, saying the Interior Department will conduct a new analysis of how the extraction and burning of coal could make global climate change more likely.

Oregon Bill Proposes Ban on Coal-Generated Electricity by 2035.  In a vote that could have far-reaching implications for Oregon's residential and commercial electricity users, the state's legislature will soon consider a bill sponsored by state Rep. Jeff Barker (D-Aloha) and state Rep. Brian Clem (D-Salem) that would eliminate electricity generated by coal-fired power plants from the state's power grid by 2035.  The Portland Tribune reports Oregon's two investor-owned utilities, Pacific Power and Portland General Electric (PGE), both of which own out-of-state coal facilities, support the bill.  The utilities agreed to back the legislation in exchange for environmentalists withdrawing a November ballot initiative that, if approved by voters, would impose an even more rapid phase-out.  PGE and Pacific Power agreed to phase out coal by 2035 and pledged, rather than replacing coal with natural-gas-fired electricity, half the electricity they sell in Oregon by 2040 will come from non-hydro renewable sources.

Oregon Bill Proposes Ban on Coal-Generated Electricity by 2035.  In a vote that could have far-reaching implications for Oregon's residential and commercial electricity users, the state's legislature will soon consider a bill sponsored by state Rep. Jeff Barker (D-Aloha) and state Rep. Brian Clem (D-Salem) that would eliminate electricity generated by coal-fired power plants from the state's power grid by 2035.  The Portland Tribune reports Oregon's two investor-owned utilities, Pacific Power and Portland General Electric (PGE), both of which own out-of-state coal facilities, support the bill.  The utilities agreed to back the legislation in exchange for environmentalists withdrawing a November ballot initiative that, if approved by voters, would impose an even more rapid phase-out.

The Enemy Within.  [Scroll down]  One of the best examples of this is the proposed Clean Power Plan (CPP) that's being pushed by the Obama administration.  Overseen by the Environmental Protection Agency, CPP aims to reduce carbon emissions by at least 30 percent by 2030 from 2005 levels.  It will grossly impact fixed-income seniors, potentially gut millions of jobs from black and Hispanic communities, and has coal-producing states scratching their heads, as the new regulations would devastate their local economies.  It's part of another area of Washington overreach — Obama's war on coal — which if successful, would kill over 125,000 jobs, along with a net loss of $650 billion in GDP over the next decade.

SCOTUS Stops Obama's Clean Power Plan.  Yet another Obama administration initiative was halted by the U.S. Supreme Court this week.  The Clean Power Plan (CPP) was a far-reaching effort by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to control greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants under the Clean Air Act (CAA).  If implemented, the CPP would have closed hundreds of coal-fired plants across the country and increased the production of wind and solar power, which are significantly more expensive to produce.  The CPP was challenged in court by energy companies, industry groups, and a coalition of 29 states, led by West Virginia.

The EPA's Lawless Land Grab.  Today there is no greater threat to the rule of law and the right to the peaceful enjoyment of property than the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in the course of prosecuting its ostensible mission to clean the air and the water.  Under the guise of the Clean Air Act, the agency's Clean Power Plan will take control of America's electrical-power infrastructure.  Yet Congress did not envisage that the 1970 legislation would be used to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions.  To get around the inconveniently precise wording Congress provided in the statute, EPA resorted to rewriting the provision of the Clean Air Act that didn't fit with its regulatory plans — a gambit that has had ups and downs in the Supreme Court, which will soon address the legality of the Clean Power Plan.

Private Interests and Public Money.  [Scroll down]  Or take the coal industry.  In June 2015 coal lobbyists made a last-ditch appeal to the Obama administration to loosen its strict proposed limits on greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants.  Is this a case of a greedy industry using money to distort the wise Obama decision to cut down on greenhouse gases before global warming spins out of control?  Or is a case of a beleaguered industry that provides a necessary product, fighting for the jobs of its workers, and only trying to defend itself from draconian rules based on iffy computer models that will destroy it and in the process drive up the costs of energy for those least able to afford it?  In this case a special interest may be in the public interest.

Coal-Killing Job Killers.  Since moving into the White House, Obama has used bureaucratic weapons and administrative agencies to assault America's coal industry.  Between 2008 and 2012, the Wall Street Journal reports, 50,000 coal jobs were lost — that number would certainly be much greater today.  West Virginia has been hit particularly hard with unemployment rates in double digits.  Addressing the job losses, the Charleston Gazette-Mail blames the "liberal environmental policies that have accelerated coal's decline" — which it says have left "hard working men and women" jobless.  In addition to the job losses, Obama's policies — such as the Regional Haze rule, the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) rule, and the Clean Power Plan — have "helped spur the closing of dozens of coal plants across the country," according to Politico.  The November 2015 report states:  "More than one in five coal-related jobs have disappeared during Obama's presidency, and several major U.S. coal mining companies have announced this year that they would or may soon seek bankruptcy protection."

Environmental group appeals PRC decision.  A Santa-Fe based environmental group that intervened in the two-year power replacement case over the San Juan Generating Station has appealed a decision by state regulators that will allow the plant to continue to operate.  New Energy Economy appealed to the state Supreme Court Thursday, challenging the 4-1 vote by the state Public Regulation Commission on Dec. 16 that will keep the coal-fired power plant open.  The group cites the failure of the Public Service Company of New Mexico, which operates the plant, to fully investigate alternative sources of power generation like wind and solar.

Republicans furious over Obama move on coal leases.  Congressional Republicans are slamming the Obama administration's decision to halt new coal mining leases on federal land.  Administration officials said Friday [1/15/2016] they would hold off on new lease sales while overhauling the coal leasing program to account for climate change costs.  Republicans, who have badgered Obama for energy and environment policies they say constitute a "war on coal," let loose on the decision Friday.

Obama halts new federal coal mining.  The Obama administration is halting major new leases to mine coal on federal land for about three years as it works to reform the controversial program.  Obama officials want to hold off on the new sales while they figure out how to account for climate change caused when the coal mined on federal land is burned, which could include higher fees and royalties for the private companies that extract the coal.

In Climate Move, Obama to Halt New Coal Mining Leases on Public Lands.  The Obama administration will announce on Friday [1/15/2016] a halt to new coal mining leases on public lands as it considers an overhaul of the program that could lead to increased costs for energy companies and a slowdown in extraction, according to an administration official.  The move would represent a significant setback for the coal industry, effectively freezing new coal production on federal lands and sending a signal to energy markets that could turn investors away from an already flailing industry.

Chinese Coal Is Wrecking Obama's Global Warming Plans.  "No matter how the Obama administration or the United Nations tries to spin it, there is nothing historic or monumental about the Paris climate agreement.  It is non-binding, underfunded, and unenforceable," Chris Warren, a spokesperson for the Institute for Energy Research, told The Daily Caller News Foundation.  "Developing nations like China and India will continue to increase their coal use because they recognize that it is the best generation source to help grow their economies and lift people out of poverty.  Wind and solar just don't cut it."  Over 2,400 coal-fired power plants are under construction or being planned around the world, 1,171 of which will be built in China.  India is building 297 and planning another 149 coal plants.  Even the close American ally of Japan is building 45 new coal plants.

EPA: Coal [is] Not Marketable.  Coal, oil and natural gas are unpopular at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Paris -- so much so that Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy said she and her associates are "pumped up about the work we're doing."  Answering questions Thursday [12/10/2015] while in Paris, McCarthy said the EPA is doing as much as it can to limit not just CO2 and mercury pollution from power plants that burn coal, but also methane emissions associated with the oil and natural gas industries.  "The Clean Power Plan is one of the keystones of President Obama's Climate Action Plan.  It has changed everything in the U.S.," McCarthy said.  "It is riding the wave of new solutions and technologies.  We are going to show that utilities can do it.  We don't need to make a choice between the environment and the economy.  We can build a growing economy, as we have in the U.S., by actually focusing on green, clean solutions."

The Paris agreement is another false 'turning point' on the climate.  History, on the "right side" of which Barack Obama endeavors to keep us, has a sense of whimsy.  Proof of which is something happening this week:  Britain's last deep-pit coal mine is closing, a small event pertinent to an enormous event, the Industrial Revolution, which was ignited by British coal.  The mine closure should not, however, occasion cartwheels by the climate's saviors, fresh from their Paris achievement.  The mine is primarily a casualty of declining coal prices, a result of burgeoning world energy supplies.  Thanks largely to the developing world, demand for coal is expected to increase for at least another quarter-century.

Kerry: 'Our Coal-Fired Power Plants Have to Begin to Phase Out'.  Secretary of State John Kerry told a Paris audience that "our coal-fired power plants have to begin to phase out."  At an event hosted by the tech site Mashable along with the U.N. Foundation on Monday [12/7/2015], Kerry said:  "President Obama has put in place one of the most ambitious national climate action plans in the world.  We've doubled our car efficiency and truck — We're requiring our coal-fired power plants have to begin to phase out."  Kerry made the statements while discussing the impact the private sector and the marketplace will have on carbon [dioxide] emissions.

Money and Power Drive Obama's Climate Agenda.  Obama's green energy plan put the coal industry on life-support, targeted oil and gas as the enemy and sought to impose restrictions on power plants that generate electricity to homes and businesses.  What the president reportedly hides behind the curtain is his alliances with international green elites, a select group of political and Wall Street cronies, and energy regulatory czars who have orchestrated a CO2 carbon-taxing scheme that would put billions of dollars into their own pockets. [...] The media neglect the real reason Barack Obama wants your hard-earned dollars to flow into a global green machine.  Barack Obama continues to push, at the expense of America and beyond all logic and recent scientific data, for a long-term and massive financial commitment to global warming.<>/p>

Washington Coal Export Project in Jeopardy.  Montana congressmen are urging the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to disregard a request from the Lummi Tribe to abandon an environmental review of the proposed Gateway Pacific coal export terminal at Cherry Point in Bellingham, Washington.  The Lummi fish next to Cherry Point and argue the terminal would violate their treaty fishing rights.  Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) and Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT) led a bipartisan group of federal legislators who urged USACE to complete the environmental impact statement (EIS).  If USACE dismisses the review process before completion, the project will be effectively shut down.

Obama's war on coal is projected to cost us 125,800 jobs and $650 billion.  Obama's war on coal has hit communities hard.  We all know that.  In fact, there is "visceral disgust" for Obama's environmental policies in the Appalachian counties that have long-supported Democrats since the New Deal. [...] West Virginia, another coal-producing state, has also gone solidly Republican after decades of being a Democratic bastion.  Their energy costs are expected to go up 40 percent under Obama's Clean Power Plan (CPP), which sets to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 32 percent by 2030 from 2005 levels.  It's a regulatory nightmare, a job killer, and a policy that Hillary Clinton plans to continue if she's elected.  But have no fear coal counties; she plans to set aside $30 billion to help these people after she supported polices that have killed off the means in which they make a living.

Four Dirty Secrets about Clean Energy.  For years, the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has demanded that the U.S. and other industrialized countries cut carbon emissions to 20% of 1990 levels by 2050.  While most countries claim to support huge carbon caps, in practice they have resisted implementing them.  The reason is simple:  fossil fuels provide nearly 90% of the energy we use — the cheap, abundant fuel that powers modern farming, manufacturing, construction, transportation, and hospitals.  The use of fossil fuels is directly correlated to quality and quantity of life, particularly through the generation of electricity; in the past two decades, hundreds of millions of people have risen out of poverty because energy production has tripled in India and quadrupled in China, almost exclusively from carbon-based fuels.  To drastically restrict carbon-based fuels, countries have conceded in practice, would be an economic disaster.

Electric cars and the coal that runs them.  As the world tries to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and combat climate change, policymakers have pinned hopes on electric cars, whose range and convenience are quickly improving.  Alongside the boom has come a surging demand for power to charge the vehicles, which can consume as much electricity in a single charge as the average refrigerator does in a month and a half.

The Environmentalist Crusade Against Progress and Technology Aims at Making Man's Life a Hell on Earth.  Environmentalists are against burning coal and oil to generate electricity or to power our transportation.  They claim it causes too much pollution and contributes to an alleged global warming.  Though there is no scientific consensus that the latter is true, or even that it would be harmful if it were true, environmentalists are demanding that fossil fuels' use be stopped or severely reduced.

Coal communities see bleak future as Obama agenda speeds industry decline.  Frank Stupak got his start in the coal business just as it was beginning its steep decline, and while there's little chance the industry will ever return to its glory days, the 27-year-old safety manager isn't giving up hope.  "We know what our industry did for this country.  Hopefully someday we'll get back there," he said while deep inside an Ohio County Coal Company mine along the Ohio-West Virginia border, coal dust filling the air around him and the sound of machinery nearly drowning out his voice.

Are Stringent Vehicle Emissions Standards Driving a Surge in Coal?  While the rise in coal generated electricity to smelt Aluminium is dramatic, Aluminium smelting is only one of a range of factors driving the rise in global coal usage.  The 400 TwH used in Aluminium production is only a portion of the rapidly growing multi-terawatt hours of electricity produced every year (40% of which is generated from coal, according to World Coal).  But the rise in Aluminium car components, largely driven by stringent emission regulations, and pressure to improve fuel efficiency, is making a significant and increasing impact on global CO2 emissions.

Senate deals a blow to Obama climate rules.  The Senate approved two resolutions Tuesday evening [11/17/2015] that would repeal the Obama administration's climate change rules for power plants.  The vote is meant to send a strong message to President Obama that a majority of Congress disapprove of the regulations.  The first resolution approved, 52-46, would nullify the Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Power Plan, which requires states to reduce emissions a third by 2030.  The second resolution, approved by the same vote count, would repeal separate but related rules effectively banning new coal plants.

China Burns 17% More Coal Than Reported.  China has been burning up to 17% more coal per year than previously reported, according to new data released by the Chinese government.  New York's Times announced this news in a top-left, front-page story on 4th November.  According to reporter Chris Buckley, "The sharp upward revision in official figures means that China has released much more carbon dioxide — almost a billion more tons a year according to initial calculations — than previously estimated.  The increase alone is greater than the whole German economy emits annually from fossil fuels."

Congress Must Stop Obama's Global Climate Change Agenda.  The U.S. and China agreement is a horrible deal for Americans.  Not only does the agreement allow China to run its fossil fuel carbon dioxide emitting economy for more than a decade while the U.S. is forced to cut its emissions, China is now balking at verifying adherence to its plans.  Most disturbingly, Obama can achieve his climate change goals including U.N. targets without Congress.  The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued rules targeting coal powered power plants including two proposed rules to force power plants to cut carbon dioxide emissions.  Obama's actions targeting coal-fired power plants is forcing hundreds of units to close and as a consequence, reduces carbon dioxide emissions.

There Are Gigawatts of Good Reasons to Still Mine Coal.  According to the World Coal Association, there are more than 2,300 coal fired power plants planned or under construction worldwide.  They will provide electricity access to millions of people, greatly improving their lives.  These plants will be built and burn coal no matter what coal opponents do.

India leads Asia's dash for coal as emissions blow east.  India is opening [one coal] mine a month as it races to double coal output by 2020, putting the world's third-largest polluter at the forefront of a pan-Asian dash to burn more of the dirty fossil fuel that environmentalists fear will upend international efforts to contain global warming.

Obama's Disastrous Clean Power Plan.  Harry Alford is right.  The president of the National Black Chamber of Commerce lately has taken heat from liberals for opposing Obama's Clean Power Plan.  The Left finds it inappropriate that a black man, who represents 2.4 million black-owned businesses, would dare to criticize Obama's latest bid to foil so-called "global warming."  This regulation spans 1,560 confounding pages and gargles 76 different acronyms.  "The proposed Clean Power Plan would impose severe and disproportionate economic burdens on poor families, especially minorities," Alford told the Senate Judiciary Committee's Oversight Subcommittee on Tuesday [10/27/2015].  "The EPA's regressive energy tax threatens to push minorities and low-income Americans even further into poverty."

States sue over new EPA air regulations.  States and industry groups dependent on fossil fuels began filing court challenges Friday [10/23/2015] to President Barack Obama's Clean Power Plan, which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  Opponents of the plan were expected to file a flurry of lawsuits at the U.S. Court of Appeals as the Environmental Protection Agency published its final version of the new regulations.  All but two of the 24 states filing challenges are led by Republicans.  They deride the plan as an "unlawful power grab by Washington bureaucrats" that will kill coal mining jobs and drive up electricity costs.

Dem senator blames Obama's 'War on Coal' for rising drug overdose deaths.  A Democratic senator is arguing Appalachia coal workers who lost their jobs because of Obama administration regulations are overdosing on prescription painkillers.  Painkiller abuse has ravaged Appalachia for years, and has gotten worse under President Barack Obama.  The White House is expected to clamp down on prescription drug practices, but West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin says Obama's own policies are, in part, to blame for overdose deaths spiking.

Smart Coal: Putting People Ahead of Climate Hysteria.  Between 2007 and 2012, Japan provided more than $20 billion in financial support to build new advanced coal-fired power generation capacity in developing countries.  This country's Ultra-Supercritical coal-fired plants can be found in such places as Chile, Vietnam and India.  Japan is currently replacing many of its old coal plants with new advanced-design units and plans to build more than 40 new such facilities.  In short, Japan is placing the interests of its people ahead of climate change hysteria.  Compare this to Obama administration's war on coal whereby regulations are issued to prevent the use of coal and building new coal plants, even new, highly efficient Ultra-supercritical plants.

Washington Coal Export Project in Jeopardy.  Montana congressmen are urging the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to disregard a request from the Lummi Tribe to abandon an environmental review of the proposed Gateway Pacific coal export terminal at Cherry Point in Bellingham, Washington.  The Lummi fish next to Cherry Point and argue the terminal would violate their treaty fishing rights.  Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) and Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT) led a bipartisan group of federal legislators who urged USACE to complete the environmental impact statement (EIS).  If USACE dismisses the review process before completion, the project will be effectively shut down.

NYC mayor to urge city pension funds to divest from coal.  New York City's five public employee pension funds' assets total more than $160 billion, with at least $33 million of exposure to thermal coal in the public markets.

Obama's House of Cards.  Remember Obama's campaign promises: to make electricity prices "skyrocket," and to bankrupt constructors of coal plants?  He is keeping these promises, but not ones like "you can keep your doctor" and "lower cost of healthcare."  And note that the "clean" in [Clean Power Plan] refers to less CO2 — and not to ordinary health-damaging pollution; yet another example of WH spin.  And if you thought that CO2 can be captured and sequestered underground, that was last year's story.  Just another few billions wasted on impractical schemes.  Console yourself; there are much worse schemes.  EPA's approach to CPP is threefold:  (i) Misuse of the Clean Air Act (CAA) for purposes unintended by Congress.  (ii) Requiring emission levels for mercury that cannot be justified scientifically.  And (iii): Unreasonably tightening the ambient ozone standard — yet again — by inventing new health hazards based on unverified studies.

The president's decarbonization fantasy.  Last month, President Obama and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administered what they hope will be the coup de grace to America's coal industry.  They unveiled a new "Clean Power Plan" (CPP) with much fanfare and red-hot rhetoric, most of it faithfully echoed by the Washington press corps and the world's news media.  National Public Radio, CNN, Al Jazeera, the BBC and German television believe our grandchildren are likely to perish unless we reduce global temperatures in 2030 by 0.02 percent — the goal of EPA's misaligned plan to shut down more U.S. fossil fuel-powered plants.

Obama's energy plan — It's all about power.  [I]t is difficult not to notice that most of the negative parts of Obamacare are not slated to go into effect until after Obama leaves office.  This is not an insular event.  Just this week, President Obama revealed a plan to reduce power plant emissions that will largely not go into effect until 2017.  Let's hope that all the presidential candidates are familiar with his policies, because whoever wins will be left to deal with the consequences.  Major coal companies saw their stocks plummet after the announcement, but the timeline of implementation makes it clear that this is all about power and elections.

Billionaire George Soros warms up to coal as stock prices hit bottom.  Billionaire investor George Soros, who has demonized fossil fuels for years through his think tanks and political contributions, seems to have warmed up to Big Coal now that stocks are dirt cheap.  The left-wing hedge fund legend has raised eyebrows with major purchases of stock in two large coal companies, firms his critics say he helped bring to their knees. While buying low is the hallmark of any shrewd investor, buying coal goes against the political and environmental ideology Soros has long espoused.

You shouldn't have voted for Democrats if you didn't want rabid job-killing environmentalism.
In coal-mining Kentucky, shock and dismay over Clean Power Plan's new targets.  It is a tense time in Kentucky.  The Environmental Protection Agency has just come out with its final rule on reducing carbon emissions — the strongest step ever taken to counter climate change in the United States — and this coal state is reeling.  Kentucky's energy secretary was in talks with EPA officials all afternoon on Tuesday [8/4/2015], trying to figure out what the rule means — and trying to understand how it was that the agency boosted the target that it had proposed for Kentucky last year.  A target that the state was on track to meet.

Report: Obama's Climate Plan Will Shrink Coal Industry By 48 Percent.  President Barack Obama's plan targeting coal-burning power plants will cost a quarter of a million jobs and shrink the coal industry by nearly half, according to a new report by the American Action Forum (AAF).  The president released final regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Monday, which require every state to meet strict emission standards for coal-burning power plants in the next 15 years.  The so-called "Clean Power Plan" will cost the industry $8.4 billion, nearly 10 times more expensive than the most burdensome regulation released this year, according to AAF, a center-right think tank led by Douglas Holtz-Eakin, former director of the Congressional Budget Office.

Obama Kills Another Industry: A $600 million coal mine just sold for less than $1.  I have just found a weapon of mass destruction inside the borders of the United States.  No, it is not a dirty bomb owned by the terrorists, a nuke controlled by Iran or an ISIS affiliated murderer.  Nope, it is in Washington, D.C. — and the name is Barack Obama.  He has killed hundreds of thousands of jobs in just one industry — plus been able to significantly raise the cost of energy for all Americans, costing us tens of billions of dollars MORE to heat our homes.

There are 2,100 new coal plants being planned worldwide.  There's a large amount of coal capacity being planned worldwide, some 2,177 plants in all.  Not all of these coal plants will actually get finished — many are getting sunk by local opposition or economic headwinds.  But if even one-third of these planned plants get built, we run a high risk of busting through the 2°C global warming threshold.

The Editor offers two remarks:
(1) Global warming stopped almost 20 years ago, even though the CO2 content of the atmosphere has steadily increased in that same period.  This proves CO2 does not cause global warming.  (2) Who decided that the current worldwide temperature is ideal, and that an increase of two degrees would be catastrophic?

Making environmentalism divisive.  In May, Murray Energy, which sits along the old National Pike here in eastern Ohio, told nearly 1,500 workers at five of its West Virginia mines that their jobs were eliminated.  In Ohio, 249 Murray jobs were gone; nearly 170 employees were out of work in Illinois.  The announcement wasn't an isolated one.  Mines are being boarded up and thousands of coal jobs are vanishing across America, in part because of competition from abundant natural gas but in larger part because of new federal regulations limiting carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants.  One month later, Murray filed two lawsuits against the U.S. EPA to halt its rewriting and expanding of the definition of "waters of the United States."

Barack Obama's green plans could cripple America's economy.  Cheap energy isn't just the result of the shale-gas boom.  In much of the US, the power industry continues to rely on coal.  Consumers in Kentucky, where over 90% of electricity is generated from coal, enjoy electricity prices roughly 50% lower than in the UK — an indication of the huge potential cost of Obama's plans.  Indeed much higher bills are almost inevitable now that the US is adopting EU-style policies.  Carbon emissions from the power sector will be cut by an ambitious 32% by 2030 (compared to 2005 levels).  Worse still, the 'Clean Power Plan' will favour expensive renewable energy over the relatively low-cost option of cutting emissions by switching from coal to natural gas.

Which is worse, Obama's plan to shut down coal plants, or McConnell's 'plan' to fight it?  President Obama is about to release a plan to fight imaginary global warming by shutting down many coal fired power plants.  Coal fired power plants produce a lot of carbon dioxide, which is a key element in the imaginary theory that CO2 causes global warming.  I say imaginary because (1) there hasn't been any global warming in 18 years, (2) man-made CO2 accounts for only about 3% of global CO2, which is mostly natural, and (3) CO2 is a tiny percentage of the upper atmosphere, and is not present in enough volume to be substantially trapping heat.  But Obama's plan to shut power plants is very real.

Obama to Require Steeper Emissions Cuts From Power Plants.  President Barack Obama will impose even steeper cuts on greenhouse gas emissions from U.S. power plants than previously expected, senior administration officials said Sunday [8/2/2015], in what the president called the most significant step the U.S. has ever taken to fight global warming.

Electricity from New Wind is Four Times More Costly than Existing Nuclear.  Today [6/30/2015], the Institute for Energy Research released a first-of-its-kind study calculating the levelized cost of electricity from existing generation sources.  Our study shows that on average, electricity from new wind resources is nearly four times more expensive than from existing nuclear and nearly three times more expensive than from existing coal.  These are dramatic increases in the cost of generating electricity.  This means that the premature closures of existing plants will unavoidably increase electricity rates for American families.

Global Coal Use Growing Faster Than Any Other Energy.  Over the last decade, global coal use grew by 968 million tonnes of oil equivalent.  That is 4 times faster than renewables, 2.8 times faster than oil and 50 per cent faster than gas.

Japan Defies Obama — Plans On Building 43 Coal Plants.  As Japan promises the United Nations it will cut carbon dioxide emissions, the country simultaneously plans on building 43 coal-fired power projects to make up for shuttered nuclear power.  Japan told the reporters it would cut carbon dioxide emissions 20 percent below 2013 levels by 2030, reports AFP.  It joined a U.S.-led effort to build support for a global warming treaty to be approved this December in Paris.

Green groups' deceptive con game.  Recently, investigative journalists at the Asheville Citizen-Times and National Review revealed that the Sierra Club had allegedly added signatories to a petition demanding that Duke Energy cease the operations of one of its coal-fired power plants in Asheville, North Carolina.  Of the 80 businesses listed on the petition, at least six had never agreed to lend their support to the Sierra Club at all, several claimed to be victims of bait-and-switch, strong-arming tactics and one didn't even exist.

Foes poised to declare victory in 'war on coal' as investors, utilities flee energy source.  The war has been waged on several fronts for nearly a decade, and the aggressors are poised to declare victory over the wounded U.S. coal industry.  After powering the Industrial Revolution and helping to turn the U.S. into the world's top economic power, coal now seems to be drowning in what environmentalists call a "deadly cocktail" — a rabid, politically potent anti-fossil fuels movement, the rise of cheap, abundant, relatively clean domestic natural gas and an Obama administration that freely admits it wants to decrease coal use in America through a host of new rules.  That near-perfect storm is taking its toll.

Inside the war on coal.  The war on coal is not just political rhetoric, or a paranoid fantasy concocted by rapacious polluters.  It's real and it's relentless.  Over the past five years, it has killed a coal-fired power plant every 10 days.  It has quietly transformed the U.S. electric grid and the global climate debate.  The industry and its supporters use "war on coal" as shorthand for a ferocious assault by a hostile White House, but the real war on coal is not primarily an Obama war, or even a Washington war.  It's a guerrilla war.  The front lines are not at the Environmental Protection Agency or the Supreme Court.

Feds: Coal power plant closures would double under EPA rule.  A proposed rule to limit carbon emissions from power plants would shutter twice as many coal-fired power plants than if the regulation were never implemented, according to a federal analysis.  More than 90 gigawatts of coal plant retirements would occur between this year and 2040, with most occurring before 2020, under the Environmental Protection Agency proposal.  Without the emissions limits, 40 gigawatts would come offline, said the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the Energy Department's independent statistics arm.

Kerry Tells China: 'Because of Climate Change in U.S. We Are Ending Any Funding' of 'Coal-Fired Power'.  At a joint press conference in Beijing yesterday [5/16/2015] with People's Republic of China Foreign Minister Wang Yi, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said that the Obama administration intends to cooperate closely with the PRC leading into a U.N. climate conference in Paris in December and that the U.S. is "ending any funding" of coal-fired power projects.  President Barack Obama's fiscal 2016 budget proposal calls for increasing taxes on the coal industry by $4.252 billion from 2016-2025 while providing "refundable" tax credits to "renewable" energy projects such as solar and wind power facilities.

Africa needs to be rich — rather than green.  Cheap, coal-fired energy will help the developing world to become healthier, happier and afford to fight climate change.

Sierra Club Caught in Anti-Coal Fakery.  A leading national watchdog group monitoring nonprofits has put the Sierra Club on its watch list after reports that three western North Carolina businesses accused the green group of listing them without permission as co-signatories on a "businesses beyond coal" campaign letter.  The Sierra Club listed 80 businesses as co-signatories last October in a letter it widely publicized, calling for Duke Energy to retire its coal plant in Asheville.  But as veteran investigative reporter Michael Cronin reported in the Asheville Citizen-Times, out of 19 businesses contacted, three said they had not authorized the Sierra Club to use their name on the letter.

EPA Plan for 'Clean Power' Could Jeopardize Safety of U.S. Electrical Grid.  For those worried about "climate change," coal is a convenient target. Unfortunately, a plan by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to shutter hundreds of domestic, coal-fired power plants has been hastily thrown together, with no confirmed alternatives for steady, reliable power generation.  What's at stake is "grid reliability," whether supply exists to meet the current, massive U.S. demand for electricity.  For much of the country, the EPA's mandate is troubling because, right now, roughly 40 percent of electricity in the United States comes from coal-fired generation.  Under new EPA regulations, many of these plants would be effectively forced out of operation.  And to date, no one is saying how that power will be otherwise produced.

Coal company lays off hundreds, blames Obama policies.  A major Appalachian coal mining company is laying off hundreds of workers in West Virginia and blaming the lost jobs on President Obama's environmental policies.  Murray Energy Corp. will lay off the 214 workers at three mines in Marion and Marshall counties.

Progressives Spend $60 Million To Force Half Of U.S. Coal Plants To Close In 2 Years.  The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is President Obama's weapon of choice for his continued War On Coal.  While the EPA is the publicly funded branch of the attack, Progressive groups are not shy from adding millions of private money to the fray.  The Huffington reports that The Sierra Club and Michael Bloomberg are adding another $60 million in an effort to close half of all U.S. Coal plants by 2017.

The Unlikely Defection of Laurence Tribe.  Yesterday [4/6/2015], the New York Times published a profile on Professor Tribe and his unlikely legal alliance with Peabody Energy.  Peabody is a coal company that is working overtime to shoot down a controversial EPA regulation that would place a limit on CO2 emissions from coal-fired power plants.  For environmentalists, the regulation is important because it forms the backbone of President Obama's climate change agenda; if they lose this regulation, the plan loses its teeth.  Peabody retained Professor Tribe to argue their case against the EPA in federal court, and the reaction from the legal community has bordered on apoplectic.

Laurence Tribe Fights Climate Case Against Star Pupil From Harvard, President Obama.  [Scroll down]  Which is why so many in the Obama administration and at Harvard are bewildered and angry that Mr. Tribe, who argued on behalf of Al Gore in the 2000 Bush v. Gore Supreme Court case, has emerged as the leading legal opponent of Mr. Obama's ambitious efforts to fight global warming.  Mr. Tribe, 73, has been retained to represent Peabody Energy, the nation's largest coal company, in its legal quest to block an Environmental Protection Agency regulation that would cut carbon dioxide emissions from the nation's coal-fired power plants — the heart of Mr. Obama's climate change agenda.  Next week Mr. Tribe is to deliver oral arguments for Peabody in the first federal court case about Mr. Obama's climate change rules.

Nevada's Caesar.  In the summer of 2007, Nevada Power, the state's utility monopoly, was ramping up plans to build a $5 billion coal plant in the rural community of Ely.  Then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, coming down with the green fever that would animate him for the rest of his career, was not pleased.  The Ely Energy Center, Reid asserted to me during an August television interview, "will never be built."  A month later, Nevada Power CEO Michael Yackira came on the program and pushed back against Reid's anti-coal crusade.

McConnell Urges States to Help Thwart Obama's 'War on Coal'.  Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has begun an aggressive campaign to block President Obama's climate change agenda in statehouses and courtrooms across the country, arenas far beyond Mr. McConnell's official reach and authority. [...] Once enacted, the rules could shutter hundreds of coal-fired plants in what Mr. Obama has promoted as a transformation of the nation's energy economy away from fossil fuels and toward sources like wind and solar power.  Mr. McConnell, whose home state is one of the nation's largest coal producers, has vowed to fight the rules.

King Barry.  Obama is a lawless leader, choosing to rule by memorandum, regulation and executive order — he is not a president; he is a king. [...] The EPA is now putting the finishing touches on the plan to save the world from global warming by tripling Americans' electric bills and throttling business by raising the cost of energy.  Barry does not like coal and the EPA, ever obsequious to Barry's wants, wants to shut down all coal-powered electrical generation in America.  Coal-fired plants produce almost 40% of the nation's electricity, and Barry... er, I meant the EPA, wants to shut them down.  Not to worry, the plan is to replace all that electricity with... well, nothing.  (Fracking?  The same crowd has plans for that too.)

EPA CO2 Regs 'The Most Fundamental Transformation' Of US Power.  The head of a major U.S. utility said EPA rules to fight global warming will fundamentally transform the way America generates and delivers electricity to millions of residents.  Gerry Anderson, Chairman and CEO of the utility DTE Energy, told the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that the EPA's Clean Power Plan "is the most fundamental transformation of our bulk power system that we've ever undertaken."  FERC held a hearing Thursday on the EPA's plan to cut carbon dioxide emissions from power plants 30 percent below 2005 levels by 2030.  The plan is the keystone of the Obama administration's climate agenda as power plants emit one-third of the country's carbon dioxide emissions.

How High Costs Killed This Clean Coal Power Plant Project.  The Department of Energy pulled the plug on [a] $1.1 billion project in Illinois:  a "clean coal" power plant that would capture carbon dioxide and store it underground.  President George W. Bush proposed the carbon-free power plant in 2003 but shelved the project five years later because of cost overruns.  President Obama's Energy Department revived the plant in 2010.  Now, five years and $200 million later, the financing is being terminated because the project can't be completed by its September deadline.

The Editor says...
If it must be done at all, the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere can be done anywhere in the world.  This operation doesn't have to be performed in the power plant that generated CO2.  The idea of a CO2-scrubbing power plant is foolish from the outset.  Every blade of grass and every tree in the world is performing the same function at no cost.

Montana coal-fired power plant is latest to shut down.  The J.E. Corette coal-fired power plant in Billings will shut down in August, its owner said Tuesday [2/10/2015], making it the latest casualty in a wave of closures across the country that have left the coal industry reeling.

Obama pulls the plug on $1.1 billion 'clean coal' project.  The Obama administration is pulling the plug on a stimulus-backed "clean coal" power plant in central Illinois that was supposed to play a key support role for a proposed regulation to mandate carbon capture technology for coal plants.  The Energy Department announced it was pulling funding for the FutureGen 2.0 power plant after awarding project developers $1.1 billion as part of the 2009 stimulus package — most of the awarded funds were never spent.

Debunking Obama's Methane Deceptions.  First, they came for the coal mining and power plant industry; and most people did not speak out because they didn't rely on coal, accepted Environmental Protection Agency justifications at face value, or thought the EPA's war on coal would benefit them. [...] Now, the Obama EPA is coming after the natural gas industry.  Hopefully, many will speak out this time, before more costly rules kill more jobs and damage the health and welfare of more middle class Americans.  The war on coal, after all, is really a war on fossil fuels and affordable energy, and an integral component of President Obama's determination to "fundamentally transform" the United States.

EPA sets first national standard for coal waste.  The Obama administration on Friday [12/19/2014] set the first national standards for waste generated from coal burned for electricity, treating it more like household garbage rather than a hazardous material.

Where will you be when the lights go out?  Discussion of the Obama Administration's proposal for reducing carbon emissions from power plants has mostly focused on the staggering cost of this unprecedented regulation.  But a pair of reports out this month paint an even more frightening picture.  Not only will your electricity cost more, you might not be able to get it when you need it.  The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) conducted an assessment of the U.S. grid's current reliability and concluded that parts of the country are already slipping into the danger zone.  Because of rapid shifts to renewable and natural gas generation, combined with closures of coal-fueled power plants due to Environmental Protection Agency regulations, the Midwest, New York and Texas are already reaching dangerous levels of "reserve margins" — generating capacity called upon when electricity demand is high.

The Rule of Law's Abusers and Enablers.  Supporters and opponents both argue that the proposed regulations will have a major impact.  This plan will prevent thousands of premature deaths, will provide a safe and healthy future for our kids, will create jobs, and will shrink electric bills by 8 per cent.  Or, this plan will raise energy costs by $680 per household, will threaten the reliability of our electric supply, will drive out energy intensive industries, will kill tens of thousands of jobs, and, will have a negligible impact on the climate.  "All pain, no gain," so wrote Edwin Hill, president of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.  This is a big deal and responsible people differ about what it will or won't do.

Coal Provocateur Sees Profits in Coal's Long, Slow Death.  [Robert] Murray, 74, pauses for effect and then lowers his voice.  "We have the absolute destruction of the United States coal industry.  It isn't coming back.  It's permanent.  Virtually all of it is permanent.  And if you think it's coming back, you don't understand the business.  Or you're smoking dope."  This is vintage Murray, America's pro-coal provocateur-in-chief, a coal miner's son and a former miner himself, a man whose anti-regulation record is so unwavering that he once dismissed acid rain as a hoax, never mind climate change.

The Editor says...
Yes, acid rain was a hoax, just like global warming is a hoax.  If acid rain was not a hoax, why did it stop?  If it hasn't stopped, why hasn't it been in the news for the last 20 years?

Report: EPA Regulations To Raise Power Costs 37 Percent By 2020.  A report by Energy Ventures Analysis found that the EPA underestimates how much its power plant regulatory regime will raise electricity and natural gas prices by imposing new regulations on power plants, most recently being the agency's rules to cut carbon dioxide emissions from new and existing power plants.  These new rules to tackle global warming, combined with other rules to reduce more traditional air pollutants, will dramatically increase Americans' utility bills by 2020, according to EVA's report which was sponsored by the coal company Peabody Energy.  "Annual power and gas costs for residential, commercial and industrial customers in America would be $284 billion higher ($173 billion in real terms) in 2020 compared to 2012 — a 60% (37%) increase," the EVA report found.

China 'Swindles' Obama's War on Coal.  China's agreement to reduce coal emissions isn't worth the paper it was printed on, an energy research group says.  Noting that Beijing made no binding promises, the Institute for Energy Research said President Obama "got swindled" during his appearance with Chinese leaders Wednesday [11/12/2014].  The swindle ultimately hits the American taxpayer.  "The president is making costly promises that will hurt Americans in the long run," said Chris Warren, communications director for IER in Washington, D.C.

EPA chief denies McConnell's 'war on coal'.  The Obama administration's top environmental official on Monday [11/17/2014] defended the new climate agreement with China as a significant achievement and insisted that, contrary to Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell's charges, the coal industry is not being targeted.  But Gina McCarthy, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, defended her agency's work.  "I feel very confident that the American people understand the value of the EPA," she told reporters at a breakfast hosted by The Christian Science Monitor.

Bias alert:
Senator McConnell is not declaring a war on coal:  It is Obama's EPA that is effectively strangling the coal industry.

Dems may face long exile from coal country.  The Republicans' romp this week may have permanently turned coal country from blue to red.  Coal-heavy districts in West Virginia, Kentucky and Illinois that had been steadily moving away from Democrats in recent elections appear to have completed that shift Tuesday, when they overwhelmingly backed Republicans who vowed to oppose what they call President Barack Obama's "war on coal."

NERA Report on EPA Power Plant Rules.  [Scroll down]  Figure 18 shows changes in annual average (2017 through 2031) delivered electricity prices (averaged over all sectors) for the State Constrained (BB1-2) scenario by state.

The Editor says...
Notice that electricity rates will "necessarily skyrocket" a lot more in Texas than in California or New York.

Backlash After Australian Climate Change Group Compares Coal Mining to Paedophilia.  This is not the first time that environmental lobbyists have stooped to smearing their opponents as degenerates. In 2010, climate lobby group 10:10 commissioned film maker Richard Curtis to make a short video.  The film manages to be both violent towards climate change 'deniers' and snobbish:  it features the middle class Jemima and her school friends who doing their bit to cut carbon emissions, whilst fellow working class students Philip and Tracey refuse.  Tracey and Philip then get blown up.  Unsurprisingly the video drew sharp criticism, but 10:10's founder Franny Armstrong couldn't see what the problem was.

Obama-Style Climate Programs Have Failed Everywhere They've Been Tried.  The deputy leader of the German Green Party in the Bundestag, Oliver Krischer, summed up the dangers of relying on green power when he said, "A few years ago the renewable sector was the job miracle in Germany; now nothing is left of all of that."  Every European economy that followed the green agenda has faltered badly.  Consequently, Germany is building coal plants to replace both failed wind power sources and even clean nuclear plants that are a casualty of irrational phobia after the Fukushima nuclear accident.  In 2013 alone, Germany built six more coal plants.  China and India build four new ones every week, rendering Ontario's coal shutdown, as well as those planned for the United States, completely irrelevant from a climate perspective no matter what one believes about the science.

19 Times the Government Withheld Documents It Didn't Want You to See.  [#19] Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency said it didn't save text messages at issue in a Freedom of Information case seeking records about the agency's plans to crack down on coal power plants.  An EPA spokesman contends that federal law doesn't require the messages to be retained.

Australian PM: 'Coal is good for humanity'.  Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said "coal is good for humanity" during the opening of a coal mine on Monday [10/134/2014].  Abbott, who recently worked to repeal a carbon tax on Australia's industrial sources, said coal demand will continue grow in the coming decades.

Obama "Clean Power" plan seen to hit seniors, minorities hardest.  In June, as you may recall, the EPA announced their new "Clean Power Plan" which was, for all intents and purposes, another shot across the bow in the war on coal.  In their mission statement, while paying lip service to the fact that the needs and resources of each of the states are different, they also cite "the important role of states as full partners with the federal government in cutting pollution."  This is matched with the built in assumption of the need to "address the risks of climate change."  (Apparently nobody bothered to ask the states exactly how much of an "equal partnership" they were interested in.)

Grimes Staff Caught on Hidden Camera: She's Lying About Support for Coal Industry.  U.S. Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes is lying about her support for the state's coal industry according to Kentucky Democrats, including members of her campaign team, who were captured on a hidden camera video.  The video, produced by conservative filmmaker James O'Keefe, shows five employees of the Grimes campaign and local Democratic Party affiliates speculating that the Democratic challenger to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) is only professing her support for the industry out of political expediency.

This is an opposing viewpoint... I think.
4 Pinocchios for a misguided 'big money' coal attack by Alison Grimes.  In their nasty Senate battle, Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell (R) and challenger Alison Lundergan Grimes have frequently traded charges over who is a bigger supporter of Kentucky's beleaguered coal industry.  This particular ad starts as a response to a McConnell ad, which claimed that Grimes "takes money from people who want to destroy coal."  That ad did not provide any sources but, as a Democrat, Grimes did attend fundraisers and accept money from some people associated with environmental causes, according to campaign finance records and news accounts.  No surprise there, but those activists would probably object to the idea that they seek to "destroy" coal.

The societal cost of coal is wildly exaggerated.  [The] reputed annual $4.4 billion cost to our health and environmental systems due to "climate change" have been held up numerous times by Liberal politicians as the reason we needed to shut down the coal plants.  The dollar value was the lead-in to the creation of the Green Energy and Green Economy Act and the commitment to plant industrial wind turbines wherever the developers could find a few open acres and a gullible land owner, or two, willing to lease their land for a few dollars.  As a result, Ontario has the highest industrial electricity prices for electricity in North America and is vying to have the highest residential rates.

Obama Pursuing Environmental Virtue?  There are studies showing that the climate is warming, and others that show it hasn't done so for a couple of decades.  There are studies showing that solar and wind power are now competitive with fossil fuels even in the absence of subsidies, and others showing that replacing fossil fuels with greater reliance on renewables that are not available when the wind doesn't blow and the sun doesn't shine can drive up energy costs and reduce a nation's competitiveness, as has happened in Germany, in the end forcing greater reliance on coal than at any time since 2007.

DA drops charges in case of blocked coal shipment.  Two environmental activists, who had planned to use the necessity defense against charges of blocking a shipment of coal to a Massachusetts power plant, walked out of court this morning after prosecutors abruptly dropped all charges against them.  Ken Ward and Jay O'Hara planned to use the unusual defense — arguing that they were acting to prevent harm from global warming to the planet — in a trial slated to start today that would have featured high-profile witnesses, including NASA climate scientist Jim Hansen and environmental activist and author Bill McKibben.

Greens are the enemies of energy.  America could literally become energy independent given its vast reserves of energy sources.  In the case of coal, the federal government owns 957 billion short tons of coal in the lower 48 States, of which about 550 billion short tons — about 57 percent — are available in the Powder River Basin.  It is estimated to be worth $22.5 trillion to the U.S. economy, but as the IER notes, it "remains unrealized due to government barriers on coal production."  It would last 250 years, greater than Russia and China. When you add in Alaska, the U.S. has enough coal to last 9,000 years at today's consumption rates!  In 2013 the IER estimated the worth of the government's oil and coal technically recoverable resources to the economy to be $128 trillion, about eight times our national debt at the time.  There isn't a day that goes by that environmental groups such as Friends of the Earth and the Sierra Club, Greenpeace, the National Resources Defense Council, and the Union of Concerned Scientists, along with dozens of others, do not speak out against the extracting and use of all forms of energy, calling coal "dirty" and claiming Big Oil is the enemy.

McConnell's wife sits on board that opposes coal.  Sen. Mitch McConnell's wife, former Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, sits on the board of an organization that has been part of a campaign against the coal industry and against tobacco use.  The anti-coal news, first reported by Yahoo News, comes as McConnell campaigns for re-election, in part by trying to tie his opponent, Alison Lundergan Grimes, to President Barack Obama and his so-called "war on coal."  The Senate minority leader is the top recipient of coal industry campaign contributions, which total more than $179,000, according to Federal Election Commission data compiled by the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics.

Marine Veteran Slams Obama's War on Coal.  Marine veteran Shawn Adkins says he's ready to fight back against Obama's so-called "war on coal" as it tears through West Virginia.  [Video clip]

Obama Promise Kept: Record Price for Electricity.  Remember when Obama promised that he would make the price we pay for electricity skyrocket?  That was before he was elected.  Rising electricity prices raise all other prices, in addition to lowering employment by increasing the price of doing business.  As energy prices rice, our standard of living declines.  Yet people voted for Obama anyway, possibly out of ignorance, possibly out of disbelief that he could really be as hostile to this country as he seemed.  They are paying a price for their foolishness — and so are the rest of us.

Average Price of Electricity Climbs to All-Time Record.  For the first time ever, the average price for a kilowatthour (KWH) of electricity in the United States has broken through the 14-cent mark, climbing to a record 14.3 cents in June, according to data released last week by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  Before this June, the highest the average price for a KWH had ever gone was 13.7 cents, the level it hit in June, July, August and September of last year.  The 14.3-cents average price for a KWH recorded this June is about 4.4 percent higher than that previous record.

Alabama leaders blast Obama administration over Alabama Power's coal closures.  Alabama Power's announcement that it would shutter several coal units in the state is tangible evidence that President Barack Obama's "war on coal" is having negative consequences, critics said Friday [8/1/2014].  The company announced Friday [8/1/2014] that it would reduce the amount of coal it burns to comply with new Environmental Protection Agency regulations governing emissions.  The changes, which the company said it would phase in the changes by 2016, will affect seven small power plants.

The Editor says...
There is no such thing as a small coal-fired power plant.

Obama-Style Climate Programs Have Failed Everywhere They've Been Tried.  President Obama's recently announced energy and environment policies have been tried in many countries, always with the same result: abject failure. [...] Ontario's economy continues to decline today, largely due to the government's decision to turn off the province's cheapest form of electricity — coal.  In 2003, coal provided 25 percent of Ontario's power.  By mid-April 2014, coal had been completely phased out.  Replacing hydrocarbon fuel energies with alternate energies drove Ontario's costs through the roof and created a multitude of other problems.  This is precisely where the United States is now headed, only it will be worse since Ontario still benefits from Canada's policy of financial equalization between provinces, whereas there is no one who will bail out the United States.

Coal poised for rare win over Obama.  The coal industry is poised to score a rare victory over the Obama administration in the fight over the Export-Import Bank.  Both of the working proposals in the House and Senate to renew the bank's charter would reverse Ex-Im guidelines that prevent financing for overseas power plants that decline to adopt greener technology.  Bank officials adopted the policies, which included exemptions for the world's poorest nations, in December amid the Obama administration's broader push to address climate change.

Lawsuits seek to stop work at coal mines in 3 Western states until more reviews done.  Coal industry representatives say lawsuits against mines in three Western states could have consequences across the U.S. as environmentalists seek changes in how mining is approved on federally owned reserves.

Obama pleas to China, India to forgo use of coal falls on deaf ears.  Coal may have played an integral role in turning the U.S. into the world's top economic superpower, but President Obama is actively pushing China, India and other emerging economies to ignore the fuel that powered the Industrial Revolution and instead embrace renewable sources favored by those on the political left.  As part of his passionate push on climate change, the president recently implored developing countries to "leapfrog" old energy sources, which are the primary drivers of carbon emissions.  So far, however, there's little evidence those countries intend to listen to Mr. Obama, with China's coal consumption, for example, skyrocketing and projected to keep growing for the foreseeable future.  The country now accounts for nearly 50 percent of all global coal consumption, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA).

The Editor says...
Mr. Obama is either deliberately destroying the coal industry in the U.S. or deliberately depriving billions of people around the world of adequate electric power.  Or both.  This is either because he is a sadistic anti-capitalist, or because he's an idiot.  Or both.

Murray Energy CEO Says EPA Rules Will Harm Coal Industry, Consumers.  The Obama administration's latest proposal to curb carbon emissions at existing power plants threatens to drive up energy costs, Murray Energy chief executive Robert Murray tells FOX Business Network's Neil Cavuto.  Murray and the company he founded have filed four lawsuits against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over regulations that target the coal industry.  Four state attorneys general have joined those efforts.  Earlier this week, Murray Energy sued the EPA over a new set of rules that aim to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions by 30% from 2005 levels.  The proposed regulations raised more questions over the future of the coal industry and electricity rates.  Coal, already under pressure from low natural gas prices, accounts for 40% of electricity generation in the U.S., down from 45% in 2009.

Lost Jobs 'Collateral Damage' To Environmentalists.  Writing in the Huffington Post, William Becker of the Climate Action Project praised the new Environmental Protection Agency regulations to stop climate change, and wrote that "there is nothing explicit in the (Obama) plan to mitigate or adapt to the economic disruption the clean energy transition will cause for coal and oil-country families." [...] The Obama administration fantasizes that this knife to the throat of our domestic energy industry will somehow create "green" jobs.  On the contrary.  A study by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce finds that the new EPA regulations will destroy 200,000 mostly blue-collar energy jobs, reduce the U.S. GDP by about $50 billion a year and cost families thousands of dollars over the next decade in higher energy costs.

Krugman's Misleading Post on Coal.  A reader reading quickly might think that it's no big deal for Obama to restrict coal-fired utilities because there are so few jobs at stake in coal mining.  But Krugman has covered himself by pointing out that there is capital invested in coal and owners of capital have a stake in producing coal.  But wait.  Isn't there another important player in the coal market, namely utilities that buy coal and will now need to turn to a more-expensive fuel?  Don't they stand to lose and lose big time?

Obama's war on electricity.  The directive, outlined over 645 pages, empowers the EPA to enforce extreme and radical regulations in each state in pursuit of reducing carbon-dioxide emissions from fossil fuel-burning power plants by "approximately 30 percent from CO2 emission levels in 2005."  The administration regulates carbon dioxide as an "air pollutant," but carbon dioxide is not all bad.  One of the largest sources of carbon dioxide is exhaling by humans, and that's always a good thing.  Without carbon dioxide, plants would wither and man (and woman, too) would suffocate.  Like most government schemes, the new EPA rule employs extreme measures that won't be effective, at great expense to taxpayers and to the economy, with methods based in flawed science and bad math.  It addresses a problem that exists in the fertile imagination of the foolishly frightened.  What is real is that hundreds of coal-fueled power plants will close for the states to meet the new requirements.  Since more than one-third of America's power comes from coal, and coal is the largest source of electricity for half the states, shuttering coal-fired plants will create a dramatic shortage of energy.

States Can Stop EPA's War on Coal.  [O]n Monday the administration violated the law by announcing stringent carbon dioxide emission targets for power plants that will effectively kill the coal industry.  The new regulation calls for a 30 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions from power plants by 2030. Congress failed to pass so-called "cap and trade" legislation that would enable such a move, so Obama is using the regulatory authority he claims the EPA already has to regulate carbon.  But the president cannot just ignore the will of Congress.  To do so assumes that Congress is irrelevant.  Apparently this is what President Obama believes.

EPA To Unilaterally Push Cap And Trade On Carbon Emissions.  Despite being soundly rejected a few years ago, cap-and-trade will soon get its U.S. encore — but not in Congress.  The Obama administration will likely use its executive power to unilaterally impose carbon dioxide emissions trading systems.  The Environmental Protection Agency will unveil regulations for existing U.S. power plants early next month.  For months, onlookers have been speculating about what could be included in the EPA's rule for existing power plants.  But over the past few days it has become clear that the Obama administration will use the EPA to push cap-and-trade systems and other anti-fossil fuel policies on U.S. states.  Administration insiders have told news outlets that cap-and-trade will likely be one of the options the EPA gives states to cut their carbon dioxide emissions.

More about cap-and-trade.

Obama suggests his upcoming rule on coal plants will avert long-term health crisis.  President Obama on Saturday [5/31/2014] tried to bolster public support for new rules his administration will announce next week on coal-firing [sic] power plants, arguing their carbon emissions are a national health crisis — beyond hurting the economy and causing global warming.  "We don't have to choose between the health of our economy and the health of our children," Obama said in his weekly address.  "As president and as a parent, I refuse to condemn our children to a planet that's beyond fixing."  The cost of carbon pollution "can be measured in lost lives" and roughly "100,000 asthma attacks and 2,100 heart attacks will be avoided" in just the first year that the standards go into effect, Obama said in the address [...]

The Editor says...
Name one person who has had a heart attack this year because he or she lives near a coal-fired power plant.

Obama to claim credit for economy-killing EPA plan.  President Obama will personally drive the next nail into the coffin of America's economy next week, proudly announcing harsh new Environmental Protection Agency restrictions on energy.  It won't just be power plants that feel the new Clean Air Act restrictions expected Monday.  Expect the president to brag about "flexibility," which is a bureaucratic way of spreading the burdens so they will fall on consumers all across the country. [...] Why?  For the salvation of mankind.  On something simpler, like deciding if there's wrongdoing within the Veterans Administration, Mr. Obama insists on more study.  But on supposed man-made climate destruction of Planet Earth a hundred years from now, he claims the debate is over:  New regulations must dictate that we kill America's economy now, lest our economy kill the planet in a century or so.

Lawmakers and interest groups clash as Obama prepares to announce performance standard for power plants.  Lawmakers and Washington interest groups are engaged in a battle over whether looming EPA rules will help or hurt as President Obama prepares to announce a highly anticipated performance standard for power plants June 2.  The proposed standard will require existing natural gas and coal-fired power plants to release no more than 1,000 pounds of CO2 per megawatt-hour of electricity — easily done with natural gas but unobtainable by present day coal plants.  Although coal still provides almost 40 percent of U.S. electricity, the White House's new point man on energy, John Podesta, said Wednesday that climate change necessitates coal's demise.  "President Obama believes we have a moral obligation to act now to curb climate change," he said.

Your electric bill will skyrocket with new energy regulation.  Electricity prices are probably on their way up across much of the US as coal-fired plants, the dominant source of cheap power, shut down in response to environmental regulations and economic forces.  New and tighter pollution rules and tough competition from cleaner sources such as natural gas, wind and solar will lead to the closings of dozens of coal-burning plants across 20 states over the next three years.  And many of those that stay open will need expensive retrofits.  Because of these and other factors, the Energy Department predicts retail power prices will rise 4 percent on average this year, the biggest increase since 2008.  By 2020, prices are expected to climb an additional 13 percent, a forecast that does not include the costs of coming environmental rules.

Harry Reid speaks with Jon Stewart.  "Billionaire Tom Steyer has rapidly become one of America's most visible environmental advocates, vowing to punish lawmakers who oppose climate change action and pledging to spend up to $100 million to put the issue center stage in the November 4 elections."  (Reuters)  "Fortune built on Asian coal: It turns out that much of Steyer's wealth is the fruit of immensely profitable investments in development of Indonesian and Australian coal."  (Washington Examiner)  "Forbes estimates the former hedge fund manager is worth $1.5 billion.  He has used that fortune to advance his anti-oil, anti-coal, and climate-concerned political agenda."  (Washington Free Beacon)

The coal-state Democrat may be climate casualty.  President Obama's aggressive focus on climate change is intended to fire up Democrats' environmentalist base, but it's burning some of the party's most endangered incumbents.  Nobody has felt the burn more than Rep. Nick J. Rahall II, West Virginia Democrat, who is in one of the toughest races of his nearly 40-year career and is struggling to distance himself from Obama energy policies that Republicans have labeled a "war on coal."

Barbarians at the Power Plant Gate.  Although it hasn't attracted much attention outside the business pages, Energy Future Holdings, the largest utility in Texas, is going through the biggest bankruptcy proceeding since the collapse of Chrysler five years ago.  The story does not bode well for the future of American utilities.  Instead it sheds light President Obama's bizarre notion that the nation can shut down coal plants and replace them with "energy from sun, wind and soil" without suffering the kind of brutal economic consequences now being experienced in Japan and German.

Coal Increasingly Seen As Option For European Energy Security.  The crisis in Ukraine has thrust energy security to the top of the agenda in European capitals.  With Russia accounting for almost one-third of Europe's natural gas, the prospect of the conflict escalating has stoked fears of a supply disruption. [...] Ukraine is at the crossroads for a significant portion of European energy flows — Europe gets 16 percent of its natural gas from pipelines that pass through Ukraine.

Washington Governor Imposes Cap-and-Trade Through Executive Order.  Washington Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee is not waiting for the state legislature to regulate carbon dioxide emissions, but instead has issued an executive order to implement a cap-and-trade program, eliminate coal power and fund green energy projects.

More about Cap and Trade.

Wyoming gov accuses White House of using new EPA regs to wage 'war on coal'.  The American coal industry is accusing the Obama administration of using the Environmental Protection Agency to end the use of coal despite the president's claim of having an "all of the above" energy policy.  Earlier this year, the EPA issued its Mercury Air Toxics Standards (MATS), which the agency said will eliminate 90 percent of mercury and acid gas released into the air by coal-fired power plants.  "I would say this administration is certainly unfriendly towards coal," Wyo. Governor Matt Mead said.  "And in my view it is a war on coal."

Kentucky coal group targets California billionaire, climate-protection efforts.  Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes' meeting with California billionaire Tom Steyer has prompted the Kentucky Coal Association to warn her not to accept donations from him or his climate-protection group.

Largest coal producing state slams administration over EPA rules.  The American coal industry is accusing the Obama administration of using the Environmental Protection Agency to end the use of coal despite the president's claim of having an "all of the above" energy policy.  Earlier this year, the EPA issued its Mercury Air Toxics Standards (MATS), which the agency said will eliminate 90 percent of mercury and acid gas released into the air by coal-fired power plants.  "I would say this administration is certainly unfriendly towards coal," Wyo. Governor Matt Mead said.  "And in my view it is a war on coal."

America's power grid at the limit: The road to electrical blackouts.  Americans take electricity for granted.  It powers our lights, our computers, our offices, and our industries.  But misguided environmental policies are eroding the reliability of our power system.  Last winter, bitterly cold weather placed massive stress on the US electrical system — and the system almost broke. [...] Eight of the top ten of PJM's all-time winter peaks occurred in January 2014.  Heroic efforts by grid operators saved large parts of the nation's heartland from blackouts during record-cold temperature days.

The Editor says...
What would alleviate this problem?  Increased production of electricity, of course, but that is exactly what environmentalists oppose when they campaign against coal, because coal is no longer used to power factories, propel ships and heat large buildings — it is used almost exclusively in the generation of electricity.  When the lights go out on the coldest (or hottest) day of the year, you can blame left-wing tree-hugging environmentalist hippies (and their socialist Democrat congressmen) who think they are "saving the earth" by eliminating the use of coal.

U.S. electricity prices may be going up for good.  As temperatures plunged to 16 below zero in Chicago in early January and set record lows across the eastern U.S., electrical system managers implored the public to turn off stoves, dryers and even lights or risk blackouts.  A fifth of all power-generating capacity in a grid serving 60 million people went suddenly offline, as coal piles froze, sensitive electrical equipment went haywire and utility operators had trouble finding enough natural gas to keep power plants running.  The wholesale price of electricity skyrocketed to nearly $2 per kilowatt hour, more than 40 times the normal rate.

Judge strikes down Minnesota's anti-coal energy law.  A federal judge Friday struck down a landmark 2007 Minnesota law that bans new power generation from coal, saying it regulates business activities of out-of-state utilities in violation of the U.S. Constitution's Commerce Clause.  U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson enjoined the state from enforcing key sections of the law, which North Dakota coal and utility interests said hampered their ability to find buyers for power from existing coal-fired generating plants or to plan for new ones.

EPA coal rules leaving US vulnerable to power blackouts?  Facing the Obama administration's so-called "war on coal," some utility officials are warning that fewer coal-fired power plants could leave the U.S. power system vulnerable to blackouts in the near future.  The officials warn that intense summer heat or extreme winter cold could soon be too much for the system to handle.  "I worry about the potential of brownouts and blackouts if we're ... actually depending on this generation that's going to be retired," Nick Akins, from American Electric Power, told Fox News in an interview.

Progress: Indiana Clean Coal Plant Uses More Energy Than It Produces.  Duke Energy was very proud to discuss their clean coal plant back in 2009.  They replaced a 60 year-old coal plant with clean coal technology.  But it uses more energy to run than it produces.

Job Destroyer.  Does the president have a clue about what creates jobs and what kills jobs?  Based on the evidence from his five years as president, the answer is no, he doesn't. [...] His environmental policies are relentless job killers.  The crackdown on the coal industry has come at the cost of tens of thousands of jobs.  Approval of the Keystone pipeline would lead to thousands of new jobs, but Obama has balked.  So too would the opening of federal lands to natural gas production, just as it has on private lands.

The Editor says...
The writer of the article immediately above seems to presume that Mr. Obama's destruction of the economy is merely the result of his hapless incompetence — ignoring the very real possibility that Obama's actions and their results are intentional and malicious.  Mr. Obama probably knows very well "what creates jobs and what kills jobs," and is doing the opposite, because his goal is to increase and perpetuate dependence on Big Brother.

Obama: the Pen, Phone, and Failure.  [President Obama's] EPA is trying to regulate the coal industry out of business.  Coal provides 37% of our electricity.  Do not be alarmed, he is replacing that generating capacity with... well, nothing.  You see, skyrocketing the price of electricity was an objective not a side effect.  If you can't afford it, you won't use it.  The goal is to push Americans out of single-family homes into high-density cities, where tiny, cubicle-like apartments, clustered around mass transit will become the norm.

Report: Coal Power Plant Shutdowns to Accelerate.  Federal energy regulators are predicting more coal power plant retirements than have yet been announced due to onerous environmental regulations and low natural gas prices.  Scheduled retirements are currently concentrated among smaller, more inefficient coal plants, noted the Energy Information Administration on Friday.  By 2016, larger plants that provide significantly more power will begin shutting down.

Icy blast heats up coal debate.  As another snowstorm socks the East Coast, the coal industry has a message for the nation's electricity customers:  We told you so.  Signs of growing pains have abounded in the past few weeks of frigid weather, which struck a U.S. electrical grid that's in the early stages of a long-term shift away from coal-fired power to natural gas.  Wholesale electricity prices have spiked in regions such as New England, natural gas costs have surged with demand in Boston and Chicago, and power companies in Texas and Eastern states have had to urge residents to cut back.  Some utilities have even been shifting, yes, back to coal.

EPA 'clean coal' rule would increase power prices by 70 or 80 percent.  An Obama administration official has said that the new clean coal rules could increase electricity prices by as much as 80 percent.  Dr. Julio Friedmann, the deputy assistant secretary for clean coal at the Department of Energy, told House lawmakers that the first generation of carbon capture and storage technology would increase wholesale electricity prices by "70 or 80 percent."  The Obama administration's plan to fight global warming includes limiting carbon dioxide from new power plants.

Coal Country Voters Express Economic Pessimism.  The nation's leading coal-producing states are among its most economically pessimistic according to a new Gallup poll, suggesting widespread concern over new environmental restrictions on the industry that could impact Senate elections in November.  Gallup's economic confidence index ranks the 50 states and Washington, D.C., in terms of their views of "current U.S. economic conditions and their perceptions of the economy's direction."  Three of the four least economically confident states — West Virginia, Wyoming, and Kentucky — are also the nation's three largest coal producers.  Two of them will see U.S. Senate races this year that are expected to be close.

Nebraska Sues EPA over Power Plant CO2 Restrictions.  The State of Nebraska has filed a suit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for overreaching restrictions on carbon emissions from coal-power plants.  Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning filed the suit January 15 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Nebraska.  Bruning and Nebraska state officials are challenging an EPA proposed rule that would cap carbon dioxide emissions at new power plants to 1,100 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt-hour of power generation.  Coal power plants would have to cut emissions by approximately 50 percent to meet the standards.  No current or expected technologies could enable coal power plants to meet such a standard and remain economically viable.

Obama's Plan to Bankrupt Coal Continues Without Congress.  Remember back during the 2008 presidential campaign when Barack Obama promised to bankrupt anyone who wanted to build a coal-fired power plant and essentially shut down the coal industry?  For those not paying attention, despite his inability to get cap-and-trade passed, he is still pursuing this plan.  Now, he's doing it via EPA regulations known as New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) — which amount to a "cap" without the "trade." [...] It could also cost over 200,000 jobs if implemented as currently drafted.  And that's all leaving aside the fact that Obama EPA regulations are already responsible for about 130 coal-fired power plants shuttering since 2009 (over 200 more are expected to shutter in coming years).

EPA set to strike key blow against coal?  Stymied by the GOP's long resistance to cap and trade legislation, the EPA this week began public hearings — the next step toward a final rule — to cut carbon dioxide emissions from new coal plants.  The rule would limit emissions to 1100 pounds per Megawatt hour, a level the coal industry says is technologically unattainable.

How Harry Reid Delivered a 235-Mile-Long Power Line to Nevada.  For the better part of the last decade, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has gone out of his way — and dipped into federal funds — to help get a massive, cross-state transmission line built in his home state of Nevada.  On Thursday [1/23/2014] Reid will attend the opening of the 235-mile line, which at the beginning of this year started carrying large amounts of electricity produced from renewable sources rather than coal, just as Reid envisioned seven years ago.

Coal train derails in Wisconsin.  A coal train derailed in Caledonia, Wis., Sunday morning [1/19/2014], overturning 19 cars.  The Caledonia Fire Department said the 19 cars on the Union Pacific train jumped the track around 7:30 a.m.  Lt. Walter Leininger of the Caledonia Fire Department told Fox News that no injuries have been reported and the scene is not hazardous at this time.

The Editor says...
All the recent train derailments have involved bulk shipments of fuel.  Is that just a coincidence?

'Not looking good': Coal workers see future dim amid regulation burden.  Far below the Appalachian Mountains, in a space barely big enough to stand up straight, Bobby Combs works a job his father and his grandfather worked. [...] Coal has come under the crosshairs of the Obama administration in the push to transition to renewable energy sources.  Coal mines are burdened with a never-ending stream of federal regulations.  The owner of the mine where Combs works said the cost of getting coal out of the ground has tripled.  For him, that means job insecurity.

Sierra Club Pressed EPA to Create Impossible Coal Standards.  Emails between the Sierra Club and the EPA produced through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit show the green group and senior officials at the nation's top environmental enforcer met and corresponded frequently about the agency's work on new coal regulations.  The EPA published its long-awaited New Source Performance Standards for new coal-fired plants on Wednesday [1/8/2014], four months after the agency announced their creation.  The EPA has repeatedly said the regulations on coal-fired power plants will not be a death blow to the industry.  However, the agency was working closely behind the scenes with the Sierra Club, an environmental organization that was pushing the agency to adopt standards that would be impossible for power plants to meet.

War on coal, phase two: EPA finally publishes rules for new power plants.  It's already been three months since the Obama administration debuted their draft proposal detailing what is, for all currently practicable purposes, a ban on the construction of coal-fired power plants (and even that reveal was the result of still another months-long delay as the administration struggled to formulate the rules in a way that could both survive the inevitable legal challenges while not restricting greenhouse-gas emissions so stringently as to disqualify even the construction of new natural gas plants [...]).

Obama Winter: The War on Coal.  [T]oday's a good day to delve into the White House global warming agenda and its War on Coal.  Forty-five percent of our electricity comes from coal, which is an abundant domestic energy resource.  Depending on who is doing the counting, anywhere from 207 to 285 coal plants are scheduled to close in the next decade.  Citing climate change and its clean air regulations President Obama's radicalized EPA — not our elected Congress — is behind the shuttering of these plants.  The ripple effects of the War on Coal will be widespread.

Climate to be 2014 battlefield.  Republicans like Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) plan to go on the attack against President Obama's climate action plan, which they have dubbed a "war on coal."  They're backed by conservative groups like the American Energy Alliance, which is already airing campaign ads attacking Democrats such as Rep. Nick Rahall (W.Va.) for supporting a carbon tax.

The Power-Mad EPA.  A federal appeals court recently heard a case about the EPA's interpretation of the 2012 Mercury and Air Toxics Rule, yet another effort in the "war on coal" that would shut down more coal-fired plants that provide the bulk of the electricity the nation requires.  The EPA is asserting that the rule would annually prevent 11,000 premature deaths, nearly 5,000 heart attacks, and 130,000 asthma attacks.  Moreover it asserts that it would help avoid more than 540,000 missed work days, and protect babies and children.  These statistics are plucked from various studies published in journals and are typical of the way the EPA operates to justify its rulings.

Coal Must Embrace All-Out Battle with Eco-Bullies.  [Scroll down]  This insane scenario is analogous to what is happening to one of America's most important industries and the source of 40% of the nation's electricity: coal.  Accused of causing dangerous climate change due to its carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, coal-fired electric power is in the crosshairs of a president anxious to be seen as taking action to stop global warming and extreme weather.  That global warming stopped 17 years ago, and extreme weather has not increased despite an 8% rise in CO2?  This is never referenced by President Barack Obama or his Environmental Protection Agency.

Barack Obama's Presidency Is A Complete Failure By His Own, Self-Imposed Standards.  [Scroll down]  Meanwhile, electricity prices are skyrocketing to all-time highs, according to the government's own official statistics.  The Electricity Price Index of the Bureau of Labor Statistics hit an all-time record in November, 20% higher than 6 years ago.  That is another loss for the middle class, further reducing real incomes.  That is due to Obama's runaway overregulation, pursuing the President's War on Coal, and other manipulative, fairy tale delusions.  New EPA regulations will take out 10% of all electricity produced by plentiful, low cost American coal, according to the Institute for Energy Research.

Report confirms government effort to alter coal job loss estimates.  The Obama administration tried to edit a report on new coal regulations to lower analysts' estimates of serious job losses, an official investigation has found, backing up reports that the Interior Department pressured a private contractor to change information in order to make the data more acceptable.  The Associated Press and Fox News reported in 2011 that a company claimed the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement asked it to change variables in a calculation that showed new environmental regulations would lead to large job losses.

More Than 400 Prominent Democrats Sign Letter Supporting Coal.  More than 400 Democratic public officials and party leaders signed a letter sent to the White House asking President Barack Obama to accelerate rather than stifle coal production and utilization.  The Democratic leaders sent the letter under the auspices of the CoalBlue Project.  CoalBlue is comprised of Democratic Party public officials seeking a "broad, bipartisan, and unwavering commitment to coal as a sustainable fuel" while and advocating "accelerated development and deployment" of coal technologies.

Bringing Abuses By EPA to a Halt.  Among President Barack Obama's first assaults in his war against the coal industry and reasonably priced electricity was an Environmental Protection Agency action that was truly outrageous by almost any measure.  During Obama's first term, the EPA overruled the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' approval of a water discharge permit for a surface mine in West Virginia.  The veto was retroactive, occurring nearly four years after the Corps approved the permit.

Obama's War on America's Energy Needs.  The Obama administration's relentless war on the nation's coal industry and on the electrical power generation plants that depend upon it is one aspect of his war on America that doesn't receive the attention it deserves.  There is literally no basis, no justification for it, and yet the mainstream media tends to take little notice or supports it.  It is far more than a "war on coal".  It is a war on the nation's capacity to meet its ever expanding energy needs.  You can't build a power generation plant overnight.  You can't get the enormous amount of electrical energy the nation needs from wind and solar power.

Obama Is Laying the Groundwork to Move Without, Around, and Outside Congress.  "Climate change" suggests that Obama intends to ramp up his war on coal in the remaining years of his presidency, via the EPA and perhaps executive actions similar to those he has used with regard to Obamacare and immigration.  Obama came into office threatening to bankrupt the coal industry, wanting to impose a cap and trade regime, but could not get one passed by Congress even when Democrats controlled both houses.  Obama is aware that his actions will force energy prices skyward.  His actions come at a time when evidence for global warming has disappeared.  That has not changed his intention to impose cap and trade.

Steag Starts Coal-Fired Power Plant in Germany.  Generating electricity by burning coal currently makes a profit of 9.16 euros a megawatt hour, compared with a loss of 19.31 euros a megawatt hour from gas, according to data compiled by Bloomberg based on next-year German power prices.  This is the widest gap between the two fuels for at least four years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

More than 21,000 attend Berkeley Electric Cooperative annual meeting in Ladson.  More than 5,000 Berkeley Electric Cooperative members took part in a grassroots card-signing campaign to fight for affordable power Saturday during the 73rd Annual Meeting of Members at the Exchange Park in Ladson, the organization reported.  The campaign is part of nationwide effort among electric cooperatives to garner 1 million signatures opposing Environmental Protection Agency regulations that will eliminate coal as a generation fuel and potentially cause a steep increase in electricity rates across the country, the cooperative said.

TVA closing 8 coal units at plants in Alabama and Kentucky.  The nation's largest public utility is shuttering eight coal-fired boilers at plants in Alabama and Kentucky, and more reductions could be in store over the next few years.  The Tennessee Valley Authority relied on coal to generate a majority of its electricity for decades, but at a Thursday board meeting in Oxford, Miss., CEO Bill Johnson said he hopes to reduce coal to just 20 percent of the utility's portfolio over the next decade.  It currently stands at 38 percent.  Johnson said the change is needed because power demand is down and environmental regulations are becoming stricter.

The Unbearable Lightness of the Climate Change Industrial Complex.  [Scroll down]  [A]ttendant upon the policy preferences of the Obama administration are wealth transfers across the current generation of Americans that clearly are the motivating effects of the proposals.  Policies making some energy sources more expensive inexorably will create such redistribution because states and regions differ in the proportions of their energy use derived from alternative technologies.  In particular, the president's proposals will penalize areas and industries disproportionately dependent on coal-fired power.

New EPA Rules Will Kill Clean Coal.  In an astounding paradox of modern politics, the Obama administration continues to promote green-energy technologies while also working hard to kill at least one of them.  The proof lies in the administration's carbon regulations on coal power plants announced on Sept. 20.  The rules would wipe out the development of ecologically important carbon capture and storage technologies.  In announcing the EPA's new carbon regulations, Administrator Gina McCarthy said that new power plants "can minimize their carbon emissions by taking advantage of modern technologies."  The fact is that the coal-based industry cannot realistically follow these rules without putting itself out of business.

SCOTUS Revisits EPA Regulation of CO2.  In 2009, EPA published the required Endangerment Finding, which was subsequently attacked on scientific grounds by a collection of plaintiffs.  However, in June 2012, the Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit ruled against plaintiffs, giving deference on the science to EPA.  EPA had proceeded to institute emission limits for motor vehicles, essentially by setting mileage standards.  EPA is now arguing that, having successfully set CO2 limits for motor vehicles in May 2010, the CAA requires that emission limits be set on all other emitters of CO2.  Using their statutory authority to set New Source Performance Standards (NSPS), EPA has proposed stringent limits on new power plants that will make new coal plants virtually impossible to construct.  The EPA also wants to limit emissions from existing coal plants, arguing that EPA can set guidelines which the states would have to follow in regulating emissions from existing plants.

Coal Miner's Slaughter: Thousands Protest War On Coal.  They were protesting the government shutdown that hasn't ended — that of the coal industry in pursuit of environmental goals that ignore global temperatures that haven't budged in 17 years and greenhouse-gas emission declines that have occurred as a result of energy industry technology and free market decisions.  Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., passionately told the crowd that Obama's coal policies are "immoral" and "outrageous."  When coal plants shut down, he said, communities "have no customers, county governments have no tax revenues to invest in schools or infrastructure.  The unemployment in some counties is in double digits ..."

Expand Jobs Footprint with Coal.  Coal means cheap energy; coal means more jobs; coal means America's energy independence.

The EPA's Carbon-Capture Delusion.  On Friday [9/20/2013], the EPA finally unveiled its long-awaited rules for new coal-fired power plants.  The agency's administrator, Gina McCarthy, has claimed that the new rules "will provide certainty for the future of new coal."  That's true.  The rules mean that no new coal plants will be built in the U.S., because they won't be able to meet the limit of 1,100 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt-hour of electricity produced.

EPA, IPCC Push Ahead Even as Global Warming Theories Crumble.  Ten days ago the Environmental Protection Agency issued its proposed rule for the implementation of regulations of carbon dioxide on utilities' coal-fired power plants.  Last week revealed news that there is no reason for costly government-imposed limits on such emissions, as the global warming they were supposed to cause has been absent for 15 years.  That didn't stop the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change from issuing yet another alarm on Friday, ahead of its official report yesterday [9/30/2013], that said increased carbon dioxide caused by people is negatively affecting the earth's climate.

McAuliffe says for first time that he supports EPA rules on coal-fired plants.  Terry McAuliffe said Tuesday that he supports new Environmental Protection Agency rules on carbon emissions, taking a clear stance for the first time on an issue that has become a key flashpoint in the Virginia governor's race.  The EPA unveiled guidelines two weeks ago that would limit the amount of carbon that future coal- and gas-fired plants can emit into the atmosphere, likely making it difficult for any new coal-powered plants to be built.

Bias alert!
The new EPA rules don't make it difficult to build a new coal-fired power plant, they make it economically infeasible.  Or, to put it more simply, impossible.  No doubt this is one of Barack H. Obama's proudest achievements, as it advances his ultimate goal of collapsing the American economy.

Does McAuliffe Even Understand the EPA's New Rules for Coal Plants?  Lachlan Markay put together this map of where the country's major coal mines are, and where the EPA's "listening sessions" about the rules new were held.  As you'll notice, the sites of the mines and the "listening sessions" weren't near each other.  If you wanted to ensure that no one who actually works in mining weighed in at these "listening sessions," this is pretty much how you would do it.

The Obama administration's unscientific war on carbon.  The environmental community, fearing the planet will be harmed from climate change, has pressured the Obama Administration to issue new standards for greenhouse gas emissions from new and existing power plants.  Propaganda from radical environmental groups have altered the perception of many policymakers and American voters.  The constant drumbeat from these groups has been seized on by the media and is designed to generate incessant media coverage, donations, and grassroots activism despite scientific conclusions that differ from their ideology.

Banning Demon Coal.  The rule does not yet apply to existing coal plants that still provide about 40% of U.S. electricity, though that day will come soon.  The meaning of Friday's rule is that the EPA is banning coal — the second largest source of carbon emissions after petroleum — from the future energy mix.  The EPA admits as much in the 463-page document, noting that "few, if any" plants will be built "in the foreseeable future."

Report from the 'War on Coal'.  A major project has been quietly underway, within the executive branch of the U.S. government, trying to calculate a "social cost of carbon" (SCC) — a so-called "non-market externality". [...] The SCC report was published in May 2013, with little fanfare; public comments had to be submitted by Sept. 16.  But this whole misconceived exercise has no valid scientific basis and can destroy the supply of low-cost, reliable electric power.  It is certain to face legal challenges from industry and informed consumer groups; it should be abandoned.

A War on Coal.  In Washington, there's a very porous line between denying and lying.  The U.S. Energy Information Administration predicts that 175 coal plants, representing 8.5 percent of all of the electricity produced by coal, will close by 2016.  According to the industry group the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, more than 280 coal plants are slated to close, and EPA regulations are largely to blame.  Since coal power plants generate over 40 percent of the nation's electricity, these closures are bound to result in significantly higher electricity bills.  They also raise troubling questions about our ability to reliably supply power in much of the country.

Coal Miners and Mountaintop Strip Mining.  The Daily Caller wrote recently that the James River Coal company is closing several mines in eastern Kentucky and laying off 525 employees.  The GOP blames the EPA regulations.  Rep. Hal Rogers (Kentucky-R) told the Daily Caller, "Deliberate anti-coal energy policies are sending thousands of families in my region to the unemployment line."  Lower priced natural gas is the second culprit as it is fast replacing coal in generating electricity.  Rogers blamed President Obama's "War on Coal" for 6,200 unemployed eastern Kentucky miners and thousands more laboring in mining support businesses.  The Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet (KEEC) reported that a total of 12,342 people are working in Kentucky coal mines, the lowest number on record since statistics were kept in 1927.

Regulations are out of control.  New school lunch regulations have taken away the flexibility of local school districts to provide meals that parents want and students will eat.  The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wants to list the lesser prairie chicken as endangered, even though Kansas has enough birds to still allow them to be hunted.  Sunflower Electric Power Corp. has been unable to bring much-needed new power-generating capacity online in Holcomb because of federal rules.  Now Obama's Environmental Protection Agency is proposing a rule that even the EPA admits would prevent coal-fired plants from being built for nearly two decades.

EPA's Anti-Coal Policies are adverse to human health and welfare.  The myopic EPA approach ignores three fundamental realities:  (1) over 40% of our electricity depends on coal, (2) the U.S. will add 120 million people in the next 35 years, and (3) new supercritical coal plants significantly reduce emissions while providing affordable power.  With the GDP projected to more than double in the next several decades, coal is the only fuel able to meet that scale of demand — natural gas is insufficient, wind is intermittent and nuclear is too expensive.

Mississippi Coal Plant Overruns Show Risks of Carbon Rule.  Coal's future is being built in rural Mississippi, and so far this is what it looks like:  a $1 billion cost overrun, a stew of legal battles, a revolt by ratepayers and a credit downgrade for the local utility.  With all those challenges, Southern Co.'s $4.7 billion project in Kemper County may still be coal's best hope to survive President Barack Obama's limits on greenhouse-gas emissions.

IBEW Criticizes EPA's New Coal Emission Standards.  The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) blasted the Obama administration's new standards for coal plant emissions on Monday [9/23/2013], saying they will hamper job growth and U.S. energy independence and raise electricity prices.  The union's antipathy to the plan underscores a long-running tension between big labor and environmentalists, two key segments of the Democratic Party's political base.

The Editor states the obvious...
The unions brought all this grief upon themselves by funneling millions of dollars into the Democratic Party.

EPA effectively bans coal plants with stifling carbon dioxide limits.  The battle lines have been drawn as 17 states, the coal industry and pro-coal Democrats and Republicans prepare to take on the Environmental Protection Agency's new carbon dioxide emissions limits.  These sweeping new rules effectively ban the construction of new coal-fired power plants.  The EPA's new emissions limits cap carbon emissions for coal plants at 1,100 pounds per megawatt hour, which is an unmeetable standard unless operators install carbon capture and storage technology.  This technology has yet to prove commercially viable.

Obama Begins Carpet Bombing the Coal Industry.  On the eve of this past election, we made a plea to toss-up states that are widely described as residing in coal country to understand that if President Obama were to emerge victorious, the EPA would soon unleash a slew of anti-coal regulations that would absolutely crush the coal industry, and eliminate hundreds of thousands of jobs in those states.  Today [9/20/2013] is the day that this all comes to fruition.  Today is the first strike in the war on coal, the first carpet bombing of the industry, and the beginning of the President's long-sought dream to bankrupt the industry and take out numerous employment and economic casualties with it.

New Rules On Power Plants Will Kill Coal Industry.  The administration finally has released its rules for curbing CO2 emissions from U.S. power plants.  Far from being a plan to clean up the environment, it is in fact a road map to de-industrialization and poverty.

Obama Takes on Coal With First-Ever Carbon Limits.  Linking global warming to public health, disease and extreme weather, the Obama administration pressed ahead Friday [9/20/2013] with tough requirements to limit carbon pollution from new power plants, despite protests from industry and Republicans that it would dim coal's future.

The Editor says...
A rational person acting on facts alone would have a hard time establishing a link between global warming and any kind of disease, public health problem or extreme weather, since global warming stopped in 1998.  But President Obama's actions are not based on anything but politics.  The policies of the Obama administration have two main goals:  the constant expansion of the federal government, and the systematic destruction of capitalism.

EPA moves to limit emissions of future coal- and gas-fired power plants.  The Environmental Protection Agency will move Friday [9/20/2013] to strictly limit the amount of carbon that future coal- and gas-fired power plants can pour into the atmosphere, the first such restrictions on greenhouse gases imposed by the agency.  The limits in the proposed rule will be difficult for any new coal plant to meet without incurring the substantial costs of additional technology to limit carbon dioxide output or developing new methods of cleansing emissions.

Bias alert!
When a power plant is powered by the combustion of coal, oil, natural gas, garbage, switch grass, sludge or anything else, the resulting exhaust gas — usually a harmless mixture of water vapor and CO2 — is sent up a smokestack and discharged into the air. It's the same process that has been employed since the invention of the smokestack. The article immediately above says the power plants pour carbon into the atmosphere. The deceptions here are (1) carbon dioxide is not carbon, (2) the primary "greenhouse gas" is water vapor, which cannot be regulated, and (3) what else are they supposed to do with the exhaust from a power plant?  If your car did not have a tailpipe, and you were expected to drive to work and back before disposing of the exhaust gas in some place other than the atmosphere, would you be able to afford to travel by automobile?  Of course not.  The avoidance of carbon dioxide emissions is utter futility.  CO2 is not a pollutant, and it is not something to be avoided, suppressed, or stashed away in caves.

Remember when Obama promised to bankrupt coal? That's tomorrow.  Tomorrow [9/20/2013], Dear Leader is set to unveil a regulation that forms the centerpiece of his "anti-climate change" policy announced awhile back to much green fawning.  This new regulation will reportedly ban all future coal-fired power plant construction.  Yes, you read that right.  Obama is set to ban all future coal-fired power plant construction tomorrow by regulatory fiat.

Obama White House Rolls Out Tough New Climate-Change Rules.  In his January State of the Union address, President Obama urged Congress to take action to stop global warming.  But he warned, "If Congress won't act soon to protect future generations, I will."  He's following through on that pledge.  Friday morning, the Environmental Protection Agency will release a draft regulation to limit carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants, the nation's chief source of global warming emissions.  The draft regulation is the first of four major regulatory steps the EPA will take to create a significant body of action on climate change before Obama leaves office.

The Editor says...
The article immediately above, as you can plainly see, calls coal-fired power plants "the nation's chief source of global warming emissions."  Really?  The emissions from all the coal-fired power plants in the world (to which China is adding monthly) haven't resulted in any global warming since 1998.  The emissions from coal-fired power plants are not as influential as other factors, like the variable output power of the sun.  President Obama is pretending to take bold action to "stop global warming," which stopped, all by itself, in 1998.  The Democrats hope (and the news media assume) you don't know any of this.

Greens Anti-Coal War Turns Heat on World's Poor.  If ever proof were needed that capitalism works for the interest of the poorest and most vulnerable (and for all of us) while leftist social engineering works against those interests, consider the escalating green war on coal.  It's a war being conducted from the very top.  President Obama, the European Union, even the United Nations are among those doing their level best to prevent the exploitation of one of the most ubiquitous, and thus cheap, energy resource available to us.

Basic Power Gen Cost Information.  Natural gas (NGCC) power plants require the smallest investment, and while natural gas prices are below $4 per million BTU, will generate the least expensive electricity; above $4 per million BTU, coal is likely to generate electricity at lowest cost.

The Editor says...
Natural gas and coal are two energy sources of which we have plenty.  Why then must we waste money on windmills and solar panels?

Manchin: Obama is beating the [daylights] out of coal country.  West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin exploded over the Obama administration's anti-coal policies Tuesday. [...] Manchin voiced his frustrations with rules put forward by Obama's Environmental Protection Agency which have made it more costly and difficult for coal plants and coal mines to operate.  "They just beat the living daylights out of little West Virginia, but they sure like what we produce," Manchin added.  "We could do it a lot better if we had a government working with us as a partner."

The Obama EPA's War on America.  Our coal resources in the lower 48 states are estimated to be worth $22.5 trillion.  On September 10, The Wall Street Journal reported that "The Obama administration plans to block the construction of new coal-fired power plants unless they are built with novel and expensive technology to capture greenhouse-gas emissions, according to people familiar with a draft proposal."  The U.S. has more than 27% of the world's known coal reserves.

Obama's War on Energy.  The EPA is about to release a new draft rule effectively prohibiting new coal-fired power plants.  The rule will undoubtedly face a stiff legal challenge, but that takes time, and in the meantime coal mines and utilities facing the regulatory uncertainty will get squeezed in the marketplace.

Coal Industry Cries Foul Over Obama Emission Rules.  Representatives of coal-intensive utilities and coal-producing regions said that President Barack Obama would effectively outlaw construction of new power plants using the fuel with pending environmental rules.  The Environmental Protection Agency is revising proposed rules from last year in response to opposition by utilities and mining companies.  The new version, under review by White House officials and scheduled for release next week, will be structured differently though it offers little solace to the industry, according to people who have been briefed on the measure and asked not to be identified before its release.

As Coal Plants Shut Down, United Kingdom Faces a Power Crunch.  In June, Ofgem released a capacity assessment warning that "risks to electricity security of supply over the next six winters have increased since our last report in October 2012."  The report warned that Britain's ability to provide spare electric power capacity could plunge to between 2 to 5 percent, about half what it is now.  The main reason for the possible crunch:  Britain is closing a number of aging coal-fired plants — as well as some oil and nuclear ones — to meet European Union environmental laws.

The Editor says...
So?  Drop out of the European Union and start burning coal again.  Two problems solved.

China will soon have 40% more coal than the combined weight of the human population.  Years of excessive investment are catching up with China, and the latest example is coal.  Its reserves now contain 220 million tons (200 million tonnes) of coal, as the Hao Hao Report notes.  That puts China on track to have as much as 440 million tons by the end of 2013, according to the China National Coal Association (CNCA) — around 40% more than the combined weight of the entire human population.

Environmentalism: The Road To A Primitive Existence.  [Scroll down]  National Geographic says "the main reason for the possible crunch" is "closing a number of aging coal-fired plants — as well as some oil and nuclear ones — to meet European Union environmental laws."  What Britain will be left with after its surrender to the "European Union environmental laws" is a reserve electric power capacity of between 2% and 5% — roughly half of what it is now.  It will lose 20% of its power plants over the next decade, and will have no coal-powered facilities, which provided 39% of the country's electricity just last year.  From there, National Geographic's story gets even uglier.

'War on coal': 207 coal plants will close in the next decade.  Whether due to environmental regulations or cheap natural gas (which the Environmental Protection Agency is also eyeing suspiciously via potential fracking regulations), these coal plants will close their doors, resulting in a loss of over 40,000 megawatts of electricity.  That's less than 1 percent of all the electricity used by the country in a year, but because multiple plants are closing in the same location, energy prices for people living within their reach will increase.  Not to mention the job losses from closing those plants.

Old King Coal lives on.  While gas — and particularly shale gas — may be making headlines around the world, a combination of low coal prices and government support for renewables has seen gas being driven out of the electricity market in Europe and Australia.  Only in the US, where gas production has boomed, has it replaced coal — but this too may be about to change.

Coal at Risk as Global Lenders Drop Financing on Climate.  The world's richest nations, moving to combat global warming, are cutting government support for new coal-burning power plants in developing countries, dealing a blow to the world's dominant source of electricity.  First it was President Barack Obama pledging in June that the government would no longer finance overseas coal plants through the U.S. Export-Import Bank.  Next it was the World Bank, then the European Investment Bank, dropping support for coal projects.  Those banks have pumped more than $10 billion into such initiatives in the past five years.

Taking the EPA to Court.  West Virginia is in a battle for its life.  For several years, the ability of the Mountain State and other Appalachian states to mine and use coal has been steadily eroded by the Obama administration and its Environmental Protection Agency.  This is a critical moment for all West Virginians.  Time and again, the executive branch has stepped well beyond its bounds.  We all learned in school that Congress passes bills, which are then signed into law by the president.  But this president and his EPA are bypassing Congress with rules that attempt to change or simply ignore the laws.  That is why our office has focused like a laser beam on everything EPA-related coming out of Washington, D.C.

Federal Court Allows Public Nuisance Lawsuits Even When Power Plants Comply with Air Permits.  In a decision that sets precedent, a federal court last week ruled that residents neighboring a Pennsylvania coal-fired power plant may sue for property damage even though the plant fully complies with state and federal emissions rules.

India Likely to be the Largest Coal Importer in 3-5 Years.  With coal supply issues plaguing the domestic economy, the country is likely to surpass China as the largest importer of coal in the next 3-5 years, an official of Platts McGraw Hill Financial said today [9/2/2013].

King Coal Gets Fatter, While The US Goes on a Diet.  Today's post delves into the global coal picture.  The highlights are:
  •   Global coal consumption reached an all-time high in 2012
  •   China continues to dominate the global supply and demand picture in coal
  •   Outside of China, coal consumption has been on the decline
  •   The US has recently had the largest declines in coal consumption of any country in the world
  •   Many European countries have experienced strong percentage gains in their coal consumption

Energy Secretary Moniz: 'There's no war on coal'.  Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz sought Thursday [8/1/2013] to reaffirm his department's commitment to coal as part of America's future energy mix, countering accusations that the Obama administration is waging a "war" against the fossil fuel out of environmental concerns.  "There's no war on coal," Secretary Moniz said at a Monitor-hosted breakfast in Washington.

No wonder McCarthy wants to ignore job-killing EPA regulations.  Four and five percent growth rates of the Reagan and Clinton recoveries in the 1980s and 1990s aren't likely these days because the EPA regulatory onslaught under Obama is a major cause of stagnant economic activity since 2009.  At least 205 coal-fired generators will soon close due to EPA regulations, with the loss of 17,000 jobs, according to an October 2012 report from the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity.  Then there are the jobs lost from stimulus-backed green energy failures like Solyndra, Abound Solar and Evergreen Energy.

The war on coal.  We've had the war on inflation.  The war on waste.  The war on terror.  There's even a war on women somewhere, though nobody has actually seen it.  Now the World Bank is enlisting in the war on coal, following the White House in opposing the digging of affordable energy out of the earth.  This is bad news for developing nations desperate for the cheap energy they need to climb out of poverty.

Each ton of carbon we use creates thousands of dollars of wealth.
The Cost of Carbon Denial.  For the past several years, those seeking to strangle the world economy by denying it access to carbon have tried to gain support for their initiatives by inventing a concept called "the social cost of carbon."  According to this notion, the use of carbon imposes a cost on society through global warming, and therefore regulations to restrict the use of carbon create benefits that can be measured in dollar terms.  Pursuant to this strategy, the Environmental Protection Agency in 2010 hired a crowd of consultants to generate estimates that would be useful for the cause.

The Age of Hyperbole: How Normal Weather Became 'Extreme'.  Because of President Barack Obama's dangerously misguided "war on coal," America's least expensive and most important source of electric power, electricity costs are rising — making the poor less able to afford air conditioning.  This is especially true of those living in poverty in inner city areas where temperatures are already higher because of the urban heat island effect.  This situation will only worsen as Obama implements his plan to eliminate coal stations and power costs consequently soar.

Coal industry threatened by stringent new EPA standards.  The Obama administration has rejected accusations it has launched a "war on coal."  But it presses ahead with yet more carbon regulation.  In a speech at Georgetown University on June 25, President Obama said, "I am directing the Environmental Protection Agency to put an end to the limitless dumping of carbon pollution from our power plants and complete new pollution standards for both new and existing power plants."  Those new "Source Performance Standards" to further limit greenhouse gases threaten the industry.

China Wants To End Blackouts With Western Help — And American Coal.  China relies largely on coal to power its economy. But domestic and global environmental pressures are forcing it to look at other options that include nuclear energy and hydro-power.  To get there, it needs [...] a lot more foreign participation.

The President's Broken Window Fallacy: Carbon Policies and Jobs.  That there are no free lunches is an eternal truth, notwithstanding the assertions of experts and public officials.  The Obama version of this ancient snake oil is simple:  we can have a stronger economy and more employment if we discard part of the power-generating capital stock. [...] For the economy as a whole, the broken window — or the electric generating capital forced into retirement — is a net loss.  We cannot become richer over time by making ourselves poorer in the here and now.

Global Warming: There's Nothing To Fight Against.  On Tuesday, President Obama will lay out his plan for fighting climate change at a speech at Georgetown University.  He's expected to announce a regime for regulating greenhouse-gas emissions from existing power plants.  This from the same politician who in 2008 as presidential candidate promised that his administration would bankrupt anyone who wanted "to build a coal-powered plant."  So no new coal plants plus new regulatory authority that puts the government boot on existing power plants' necks.  From where does this president think electricity will come?

Obama Launches New Global Warming Video as Phony "Consensus" Crumbles.  The president seems to be unaware that even top climate alarmists have admitted that there has been no evidence of global warming for at least the past 15 years. [...] The president's energy program, outlined in [a] White House Fact Sheet and detailed in "The President's Climate Action Plan," both released today [6/25/2013], would place onerous new restrictions on coal fired power plants and other fossil fuels and would direct billions more dollars into funding "renewable energy" sources, such as solar and wind.

Obama's Climate Plan Has No New Ideas, But Would Make Economy Worse.  Except for resolve to curb carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from existing power plants, this manifesto either doubles down on the subsidized green energy programs of his first term or creates mushy-to-the-point-of-meaningless new programs to weather (extreme) weather.  The president's thinly veiled plans to eliminate coal from our nation's energy supply would undermine the reliability, affordability and adequacy of electricity.  Although natural gas has rapidly gained ground in the power mix, coal still provides 40% of this country's electric power.  Ethanol, wind and any source labeled green already increase the costs of food, fuel and electricity.

NHS hospitals asked to generate their own power amid blackouts fears.  According to one energy company, four hospitals have already signed up to a deal under which they will reduce demand at peak times by using diesel-fired generators.  KiWi Power, which is a commercial partner of National Grid, says it has started to approach every NHS trust in the country about undertaking similar plans after winning a government contract to encourage power saving.

The Editor says...
There is no longer enough centralized generating capacity in England to serve all customers during periods of peak demand.  This is because England's energy policy is dictated by environmentalists who are opposed to the use of coal.  So the hospitals — and presumably any other large consumers of electric power — are being asked to switch to diesel-powered backup systems during peak demand hours.  How big is the "carbon footprint" of a megawatt diesel-powered generator -- or a dozen of them?  What if the generator runs out of diesel fuel, and the (centralized) utility power fails, due to transformer overload, falling trees, lightning, or something else?  What will this increased demand do to the price of diesel fuel?  Any guesses?

Is Climate Change Our No. 1 Crisis, Mr. President?  At the heart of Obama's program are EPA regulations that will make it impossible to open any new coal plant and will systematically shut down existing plants.  "Politically, the White House is hesitant to say they're having a war on coal," explained one of Obama's climate advisers.  "On the other hand, a war on coal is exactly what's needed."  Net effect:  tens of thousands of jobs killed, entire states impoverished.  This at a time of chronically and crushingly high unemployment, slow growth, jittery markets and deep economic uncertainty.

No 'War on Coal' says Energy Secretary.  Oh, really?  That will come as good news to the thousands of coal miners and others who work in the coal industry slated to lose their jobs because of EPA regs and Obama executive orders. [...] Of course there's a war on coal.  The war has been going on for at least 3 years as more than 142 coal fired plants have been shuttered, according to the Sierra Club.  But apparently, that's not considered a war on coal by the administration.

The Grand Prize in Obama's War on Coal™.  It's a bad week for poor people around the planet.  First, and with great fanfare, our President unleashed his patented climate plan, affectionately known as Obama's War on Coal™.  He hasn't said yet how much Obama's War on Coal™ will cost, but we can be sure that it will not be cheap.  And as in any war, it is guaranteed that the poor will suffer the most.  Sadly, this was followed by even worse news.  The World Bank has decided it wants to keep the developing world from having inexpensive electricity.  They will not make any more loans for coal-fired power plants.

Coal-state Dems chisel away at Obama climate plan.  Coal-state Democrats have been as scathing as any Republican in reaction to the president's plan, unveiled Tuesday in a speech at Georgetown University.  The pushback was almost immediate, and a glaring signal of the trouble Obama may encounter as he charges ahead with new restrictions on coal-fired power plants.

In Obama's War On American Coal, China's the Victor.  President Obama's expansion of his war on coal to include existing coal plants may very well put the industry on the path to extinction, costing jobs and economic growth while raising energy prices, a huge tax on the American consumer.  But countries like China and India are increasing their coal consumption, more than outpacing any U.S. reductions in coal use and carbon emissions.  His actions come as news outlets ponder why global temperatures have flat lined for the last 16 years or so — and despite the fact that the U.S. has led the world in carbon reductions for the last two decades.  The increased use of natural gas thanks to a boom in fracking has helped fuel these reductions.  That proves once again that technology fuels both growth and clean air.

Pity the Coal Miners: A Greener Environment's Biggest Losers.  The president ran for reelection on an "all of the above" energy strategy.  "We need an energy strategy ... for the 21st century that develops every source of American-made energy," the president declared on March 15, 2012.  That's when his political team was worried about every vote in states like Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, as well as trying to raise as much money as possible from business interests dependent on reliable, cheap energy.  Those states and those businesses have a vested interest in the energy source right in the bull's eye of the Obama climate-change plan: coal.

Obama Renews His War On Coal.  Don't say he didn't warn us: "Go ahead and build a coal-powered plant — but it will bankrupt you."  Today [6/25/2013] President Obama put those words into action.  With poverty and unemployment at record levels and his foreign policy in tatters, Obama decided to address a more important problem:  Americans aren't paying enough for electricity!  So he mounted a new attack on coal, America's principal source of power.  His speech was the usual combination of the uninformed and the disingenuous.

Obama Adviser: 'A War On Coal Is Exactly What We Need'.  Obama has been waging war on coal from day one of his administration. He has paid no penalty for it.  Mitt Romney even tried pinning that war on him, in coal states, last year.  He campaigned with people whose jobs are directly threatened by Obama's policies.  It made no difference at all.  Too few Americans either work in the coal industry or understand that many of their TVs and smart phones are coal-powered devices to understand that the war on coal — which is coming in earnest, thanks to Obama unilateral seizure of even more power in the name of "climate change" today — is really a war on them, their wallets, their earnings, and ultimately their futures.  It's all an abstraction until those bills in the mail start to look scary, and then — they'll blame it on the energy companies for "gouging."

Obama declares a War on Coal.  World leaders don't seem to be paying much heed to President Obama.  And not just when it comes to domestic spy leaker Edward Snowden's ultimate destination.  Obama today [6/25/2013] will announce what promises to be a hammer blow to cheap, coal-fired electricity as part of his legacy project of curbing global warming.  But as Obama prepares to deliver what U.S. environmentalists hope will be a knockout punch to coal power here, the rest of the world is gobbling up every coal BTU it can get.

WH Climate Adviser: 'A War on Coal Is Exactly What's Needed'.  Daniel P. Schrag, a White House climate adviser and director of the Harvard University Center for the Environment, tells the New York Times "a war on coal is exactly what's needed."  Later today, President Obama will give a major "climate change" address at Georgetown University.  "Everybody is waiting for action," Schrag tells the paper.  "The one thing the president really needs to do now is to begin the process of shutting down the conventional coal plants.  Politically, the White House is hesitant to say they're having a war on coal.  On the other hand, a war on coal is exactly what's needed."
[Emphasis in original.]

Clean Coal Needs Another Look.  The primary reason for building IGCC plants is to capture the CO2 so it can be sequestered underground. [...] Three IGCC plants have been, or are being, built in the United States.  The Southern Company recently announced that the IGCC plant being built in Kemper, Mississippi, is over budget by around $1 billion.  This brings its cost to $5,876 per KW, nearly the same as the cost of a new nuclear power plant.

California's anti-coal agenda is adverse to human health and welfare.  Coal based energy is a key factor in global socio-economic development, transforming agrarian societies to modern industrial ones.  This societal transformation, driven by the accumulation of income and wealth, eliminates many contagious diseases, reduces child mortality, and lengthens adult life expectancy.  Throughout the world, rapid emergence from poverty has proceeded as countries develop electricity networks based on coal.

Lighting Big Green's match to burn King Coal.  Ideological environmentalism has killed many of our most important natural-resources companies.  Millions of jobs and billions of dollars have been lost.  Now that coal, America's leading energy source, is in the cross hairs of climate-change campaigners, the situation will only get worse — much worse.

There is no "renewable" alternative to coal.
Can Coal be Dumped?  While eliminating coal is theoretically possible, the question remains: Why deprive the United States from using coal, a valuable resource, especially since new ultra-supercritical coal-fired power plants are nearly as clean as natural gas power plants, and can meet all EPA emission requirements except for CO2?  Once again, CO2 needlessly affects energy usage.

Federal Kudzu Is Strangling This Great Nation.  A report by the well-respected economic consulting firm National Economic Research Associates found that "seven new EPA regulations are set to cost the electrical sector $16.7 billion per year, cause 887,000 job losses per year and contribute to the shutting down of 69,000 megawatts of coal-fired power."  And it's not just hundreds of coal-fired power plants that are in the agency's crosshairs, for as West Virginia Democrat Rep. Nick Rahall warned, the EPA's permitting power grabs threaten to disrupt coal mining in West Virginia and "upend the traditional balance that has existed between the states and the federal government in the permitting process."  The mostly "red state" coal industry is not the only current victim of regulatory excess.

Texas Commission Approves Coal Mine for Mexican Power Plants.  The Railroad Commission of Texas, which regulates oil, gas, and coal in the state, approved a permit giving a Mexican company the right to start coal mining operations near Eagle Pass, a Texas border town.  Coal from the Eagle Pass mine will be transported to Mexico to fire coal power plants 20 miles from the U.S. border, near Piedras Negras, Mexico.  Mexican company Dos Republicas Coal Partnership will oversee the transportation of coal into Mexico.

Alaska Borough Approves Coal Mine Near Denali.  The Matanuska-Susitna Borough Assembly rejected the arguments of environmental activist groups and approved a proposal for a mine south of Denali National Park in Alaska.  The borough passed a resolution recommending approval of the mine proposal after the Alaska Energy Corporation requested the Alaska Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to open 13,175 acres of land in the Canyon Creek area, south of the Skwentna River, for coal mining operations.

EPA urged to rewrite or ditch CO2 standards for new coal plants.  The state Public Service Commission is urging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to back off on proposed greenhouse-gas rules for new coal-fired power plants — almost one year after the comment period on the rule closed.  In a letter to the EPA signed last week by its five Republican commissioners, the PSC said the proposed emission rules would make it "impracticable" to build new coal-fired power plants in America.

Will Obama Put Coal out of Business?  In 2008, candidate Barack Obama infamously said that as president he would set policy that would bankrupt the coal industry:  "So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can; it's just that it will bankrupt them because they're going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that's being emitted."  Now, according to a new Duke University study, pending regulations by President Obama's Environmental Protection Agency may just accomplish that goal.

A War on Coal?  Some observers have criticized the Obama administration for using the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to install onerous environmental regulations on the coal industry.  For instance, the new rules aimed at cutting emissions will force dozens of coal-fired plants to shut down or convert to natural gas.  However, the rules are not the result of Obama's efforts but of Congress' long-time legislative requirements, says Richard Gordon, professor emeritus of mineral economics at Pennsylvania State University.

An EPA War on Coal?  The Environmental Protection Agency, under the direction of administrator Lisa Jackson, has launched a number of regulatory initiatives that affect the energy industry.  Given President Obama's belief in the need to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and in the ability of renewable energies to help secure those emission reductions, critics argue that the administration is using the EPA to conduct a "war" on coal (along with, to a lesser degree, oil and natural gas).  The objective is to achieve through administrative action what the president could not achieve via cap-and-trade legislation by Congress.  The truth, however, is that the agency is implementing long-delayed legislative mandates dictated by various environmental statutes that well predate the current administration.

Acting EPA boss: We might go after existing coal plants in 2014.  Having practically banned the construction of new coal-fired power plants, Environmental Protection Agency regulators may try to cap emissions at existing coal plants, according to the acting head of the agency.  "[T]hat's certainly something that will be on the table in this next fiscal year," acting EPA Administrator Bob Perciasepe told reporters last week, per Midwest Energy News, after saying that the EPA intends to start "working with states on existing sources, but we're not there yet."

'War on coal' may burn EPA nominee.  With the Environmental Protection Agency set to play the central role in President Obama's second-term climate change agenda, would-be agency chief Gina McCarthy on Thursday 4/11/2013] tried to calm Republican fears that she would continue the perceived "war on coal" and other harsh regulations under her predecessor.

New EPA regs give coal plant just two-week window to begin construction.  Environmental Protection Agency regulations have left one coal company working in Georgia with just a two-week window in which to begin construction before a new rule prevents the plant from being built at all.

Eco madness and how our future is going up in smoke.  There could be no better symbol of the madness of Britain's energy policy than what is happening at the giant Drax power station in Yorkshire, easily the largest in Britain.  Indeed, it is one of the biggest and most efficiently run coal-fired power stations in the world. [...] Every day, Drax burns 36,000 tons of coal, brought to its vast site by 140 coal trains every week — and it supplies seven per cent of all the electricity used in Britain.  That's enough to light up a good many of our major cities.

Court: EPA can stop changes at DTE's Monroe coal plant.  Government regulators can try to halt construction projects at power plants if they think the companies didn't properly calculate whether the changes would increase air pollution, a federal appeals court has ruled, marking the latest twist in a decades-long fight over the Clean Air Act.

Obama's anti-stimulus energy policies take money out of economy.  The Institute for Energy Research predicts that new EPA rules on mercury and cross-state pollution targeting old power plants will shut down 34 gigawatts of coal-fired production capacity, or 10 percent of the U.S. total.  Those burdened most by the energy price increases resulting from these rules — as with the price hikes that result from Obama's more ambitious plans for carbon reduction — will be the poor, who already spend a greater percentage of their income on energy than those who are more affluent.

An obsession with CO2 has left us dangerously short of power as coal-powered stations are forced to close.
It's payback time for our insane energy policy.  The grotesque mishandling of Britain's energy policy by the politicians of all parties, as they chase their childish chimeras of CO2-induced global warming and windmills, has been arguably the greatest act of political irresponsibility in our history.  Three more events last week brought home again just what a mad bubble of make-believe these people are living in.  Under the EU's Large Combustion Plants Directive, we lost two more major coal-fired power stations, Didcot A and Cockenzie, capable of contributing no less than a tenth to our average electricity demands.

The EPA Opens a New Front in the War on Coal.  The rapid pace and severity of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations on the energy sector during the past four years illustrates an ongoing problem — the government's impediment to an economic recovery.  The EPA's mandates have unfairly discriminated against certain sectors of the energy industry, most notably coal, pointlessly killing desperately needed jobs.  On top of the regulations that have questionable benefits at best, the EPA has withheld permits for coal mining that were already approved by other agencies, gratuitously delayed permits, and even rescinded previously issued permits.

Environmental Zealots vs. the Constitution.  The supreme Court granted authority to the EPA to regulate carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gasses.  The EPA is in the midst of writing regulations to govern such emissions from new power plants.  Those rules would essentially bar construction of any new coal-fired power plants unless they include the ability to capture carbon gases — a technology that is not available on a commercial scale.

Ashley Judd's War With Kentucky's Coal Industry Could Doom Candidacy.  Comments Ashley Judd made in 2010 comparing the mining practices of Kentucky's coal industry to rape could sink her much buzzed-about Senate candidacy before it even begins.  In a 2010 speech to the National Press Club in Washington, Judd called mountain top removal — the controversial but principal type of surface mining in Appalachia that involves the removal of mountaintops to extract coal — "the state-sanctioned, federal government-supported, coal industry-operated rape of Appalachia."

One day, turning off the lights won't be up to you.  Readers of this column might have been astonished by the media response last week to that warning by Alistair Buchanan, retiring head of the energy regulator Ofgem, that next month we will see the closure of five major coal-fired power stations that between them contribute nearly a sixth of the UK's average electricity needs.  Over the next few years, Mr Buchanan feared, we will be dangerously close to not having enough power in the grid to keep Britain's lights on.

EPA's Coal Purge Claims Latest Victim.  A planned 1200 megawatt, $3 billion coal-fired power plant in Corpus Christi, Texas, is one of the latest casualties in the war on affordable, reliable energy.  Chase Power, the company behind the Las Brisas power plant, announced last month that it is cancelling the project due to red tape and litigation spawned by the Environmental Protection Agency's regulations on coal plants.

Coal Industry Regulations Were A Laughing Matter to the EPA.  Lisa Jackson recently left her job as EPA administrator amid an investigation into her use of alias email accounts.  She apparently used those secret accounts to shield official agency business from Freedom of Information Act requests.

China burns half of coal consumption worldwide, figures show.  China now burns nearly as much coal as the rest of the world combined.  The country's appetite for the carbon-intensive fuel rose by 9% in 2011, to 3.8 bn tonnes, meaning it now accounts for 47% of worldwide coal consumption.  The growth, revealed by US government figures on Tuesday [1/29/2013], was driven by China's booming economy, which has grown at an average rate of around 10% over the past decade.

Arizona Fights Anti-Coal Regional Haze Rules.  [Scroll down]  In Arizona, it would cost the Apache, Cholla and Coronado coal plants over $1 billion to adhere to EPA's regional haze rules.  That would mean higher electricity costs and possibly higher water costs if the rule is extended to the Navajo Generating Station which powers water delivery in the state.  And since other states like Montana, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Wyoming are also covered by these consent decrees, expect EPA to institute rules on those states that target coal-fired power plants.

The Real Barack Obama.  The country may be catching on:  Barack Obama is our first knee-jerk liberal president.  And now that he will never face the voters again, he doesn't mind showing it. [...] Obama will soon fill key vacant posts at the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy.  Reuters reports that the front runner in the race to become the new head of the EPA is Gina McCarthy, who is now the assistant administrator for the Office of Air and Radiation, which makes her the point person for the administration's "war on coal" campaign.

Coal's share of global energy mix to continue rising.  In fact, the world will burn around 1.2 billion more tonnes of coal per year by 2017 compared to today — equivalent to the current coal consumption of Russia and the United States combined.  Coal's share of the global energy mix continues to grow each year, and if no changes are made to current policies, coal will catch oil within a decade."

Obama EPA kills power plant, 3,900 jobs in Texas.  "Chase Power ... has opted to suspend efforts to further permit the facility and is seeking alternative investors as part of a plan of dissolution for the parent company," Chase CEO Dave Freysinger told the Corpus Christi Caller-Times.  Freysinger made it very clear who was responsible for the projects death.  "The (Las Brisas Energy Center) is a victim of EPA's concerted effort to stifle solid-fuel energy facilities in the U.S., including EPA's carbon-permitting requirements and EPA's New Source Performance Standards for new power plants," he said.

EPA-proposed air pollution clean-up to cost Navajo nation coal plant $500 million.  The Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to cut Grand Canyon air pollution by requiring a coal power plant in Arizona to install pollution control equipment that could cost more than $1 billion, reports the Arizona Republic.  Federal regulators want the plant to install a catalytic converter for approximately $500 million.  However, particles from the catalytic converter could create further pollution problems and necessitate more pollution controls, which the Salt River Project, the coal plant's operator, said could drive the total cost into the billions.

Obama coal regulations crippling communities.  The war on jobs and affordable energy is real and continues to pick up steam with a swarm of new regulations coming out of President Obama's Environmental Protection Agency contributing to more mine closures and plant shutdowns across the country.  Last week, we witnessed the latest round of victims in the war on coal, with Georgia Power Co. announcing its plans to shutter 15 fossil-fuel-fired electric units, impacting nearly 500 jobs in the state.

Under the Green Hammer.  President Obama's reelection has the climate cult chomping at the bit to get a long wish list of policies put in place, from energy taxes to cap-and-trade to a possible blockade on coal and natural-gas exports.  And most of these activists are in no mood to let that messy little obstacle called the democratic process slow the juggernaut.  Some, like the Natural Resources Defense Council, are encouraging the president to bypass Congress and shutter more coal-fired power plants through executive action.

Having killed the coal industry, Obama's next target is steel.
Carmakers Steering Away From Steel in Order to Meet Fuel Economy Standards.  Faced with increasingly stringent benchmarks — the government's new Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards require a passenger vehicle fleet that averages 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025 — carmakers are taking another approach to achieving better fuel mileage: shaving weight off vehicles by experimenting with lighter materials.  Automobiles have long been made from steel — a very strong, but heavy material.  Now manufacturers are experimenting with new materials — ranging from aluminum to carbon fiber composites to metal alloys — to help companies reach the ambitious fuel efficiency standards.

The Regulatory Landscape in America — A Morass Of Red Tape.  Former climate czar Carol Browner was very clear about what's in store when she told several green groups not to worry, because "President Obama has a big green 'to-do' list for 2013 so they'll get what they want.  "On the other hand, if you want to build a coal plant, you've got a big problem.  EPA's proposed coal ash rule could cost $79 to $110 billion over 20 years, destroying 183,900 to 316,000 jobs.  This will have disastrous impacts in states like Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio and Missouri.

Georgia Power to close 15 coal, oil units.  Georgia Power said Monday [1/7/2013] it will shut down 15 coal and oil-fired units, cutting nearly one-sixth of its power grid capacity to comply with federal rules aimed at reducing air pollution.

Obama EPA regulations kill 15 power plants, 480 jobs in Georgia.  Georgia Power asked state regulators for permission to shut down 15 power plants yesterday [1/7/2013], claiming new regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) make the plants too expensive to run.  The 15 coal-, oil- and natural gas-fired power plants currently produce 2,061 megawatts (MW) for Georgia energy consumers.

Harsher energy regulations seen in Obama's second term.  Energy producers braced for tighter regulation in President Barack Obama's second term, with coal companies expecting more emissions restrictions and drillers anticipating less access to federal land even as his platform promotes energy independence.

EPA offers hints on fracking's future.  Fracking is safe until the Obama administration finishes burying the coal industry.  Obama allows fracking to flourish because low gas prices are killing coal.  But when that mission is accomplished, watch out frackers.

Coal to be King Again.  Coal is set to nearly eclipse oil as the world's major energy source by 2017, the International Energy Agency reports.  Global coal use is likely to reach 4.32 billion tonnes of oil equivalent by 2017, compared with 4.4 billion tonnes for oil but growth should be slower than in the past decade, the study said.

New air pollution standards restrict soot particles.  The Obama administration announced a new air pollution standard Friday [12/14/2012] that would bring about a 20% reduction in microscopic particles of soot emitted by coal-fired power plants and diesel vehicles that contribute to haze and respiratory ailments.  The new limit, fought by industry and welcomed by environmentalists, marks the first time the Environmental Protection Agency tightened the soot standard since it was established 15 years ago.

More than 1,000 new coal plants planned worldwide, figures show.  World Resources Institute identifies 1,200 coal plants in planning across 59 countries, with about three-quarters in China and India.

Oil and Gas Jobs Hit 25-year High; Coal Slumps.  The number of oil and gas jobs in the U.S. climbed to 196,300 in November, according to Friday's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) monthly jobs report.  This is their highest level since February 1988.  According to the BLS report, oil and gas jobs rose from 183,200 in November 2011, and grew slightly over October's numbers, continuing a trend of resilient job growth in the oil and gas sector.  Meanwhile, coal job numbers continued to slump down from 81,100 in September to 80,500 in November.  Those numbers are both down from the 87,00 coal jobs reported in November 2011.

Why You Should Care That Courts Overturn EPA's Carbon Pollution Standard.  In August, the U.S. Court of Appeals struck down the EPA's Cross State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR), a regulation chiefly targeting coal-fired power plants.  The Court found that the CSAPR exceeded the agency's statutory authority.  Similarly, in March, the Court ruled that the EPA exceeded its authority when it revoked a Clean Water Act permit for Arch Coal's Spruce Mine No. 1 in Logan Country, West Virginia.

Kentucky Coal Plant's $940M Update to Create 700 jobs.  The upgrades at LG&E's Mill Creek Generating Station in southwestern Jefferson County are expected to add about 700 construction jobs.  They will also allow the 1,400-megawatt plant to continue to burn coal by meeting stricter federal air regulations that go in force in 2016.

Caterpillar downgraded on Obama's energy policy.  Caterpillar Inc.'s stock was downgraded to "Neutral" from "Overweight" by JPMorgan Chase & Co. analyst Ann Duignan Monday [11/12/2012].  Duignan, who had rated Peoria-based Caterpillar "overweight" since April 2009, cited pressures on the sector to reduce costs and the potential negative impact on the U.S. coal and energy sectors following the re-election of President Barack Obama in downgrading the stock.