09Feb

Federal Regulators Now Feeling Pain of their War on Coal

Via The Charleston Gazette-Mail: The major business news stories of 2015 all featured the decline of the coal industry, as if we didn’t know. Along with the falling fortunes of the oil and gas industry, there have been few glad tidings this holiday season for anyone in the fossil energy sector, least of all for […]
09Feb

Clean Power Plan All Pain, No Gain

Via MySanAntonio.com: Imagine that your employer informs you that a 25 percent tax will be withheld from your paycheck, with that money going to help achieve world peace. While the sacrifice will be difficult, the cause is just and something you support, so you agree. You find out later, however, that yours is the only […]
08Feb

Montana Poised to Maintain Coal Production, Export

Via The Billings Gazette: Thirty million dollars a year in lost royalties, hundreds of direct jobs lost, thousands of families out of work and out of options, entire towns destroyed, statewide economic ripples, and over $1 trillion dollars in stranded assets, not necessarily because of market forces, but directly attributable to a political agenda. That […]
08Feb

Co-ops: EPA’s Clean Power Plan Math is Wrong

Via ect.coop: The Environmental Protection Agency has miscalculated the cost of its Clean Power Plan by ignoring its effect on electric cooperatives that own a minority share of power plants, among other mistakes, an NRECA analysis says. NRECA says EPA’s Clean Power Plan contains oversights that will cost co-ops millions of dollars more in compliance. […]
06Feb

There Is a Big Free-Market Demand for Coal

Via The Wall Street Journal: I disagree with the letter writers of Jan. 20 and Feb. 1 who say that coal is dying and that the free market killed it. The International Energy Agency predicts coal usage will increase world-wide at least through 2035 and that coal will surpass oil as the world’s leading energy […]
06Feb

ND Files Lawsuit Against EPA Regarding Clean Power Plan

Via KFYR 5:  Coal has been referred to as North Dakota’s “old faithful,” Coal produces 80 percent of the state’s electricity, and since it’s an inexpensive way to produce energy, it keeps power costs low. However, the Obama Administration wants to cut down on greenhouse carbon emissions through the EPA’s Clean Power Plan. Last week […]
05Feb

Why the CPP Is so Bad for Rural America

Via EnergyBiz.com: IN AUGUST, THE U.S. Environmental Protection Agency unveiled the final version of a plan to reduce carbon dioxide emissions 32% by 2030. Dubbed the Clean Power Plan, EPA’s blueprint is one of those ambitious initiatives — a big overreach, some say — that will have extensive and long-term consequences, some of which we […]
05Feb

Parties Clash Over How to Allocate Carbon Allowances in MO.

Via E&E News: JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — No matter the politics or point of view on U.S. EPA’s Clean Power Plan, utilities and other parties in Missouri working on a state compliance strategy unanimously favor a “mass-based” plan to cap power plant carbon dioxide emissions and trading of emissions allowances. But there is far less […]
05Feb

Views on Coal Mining Clash in Senate Hearing on Stream Protection Rule

Via Kentucky.com: An ongoing cultural battle between coal mining and environmental groups played out in a Senate hearing Wednesday over an Obama administration proposal to mitigate the impacts of coal mining activity on streams. The hearing, in the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, afforded an opportunity for mining interests and their mostly Republican supporters […]
04Feb

Senators Say Coal Rules are Illegal ‘Power Grab’

Via The Bluefield Daily Telegraph: WASHINGTON – Sen. James Inhofe, R-Oklahoma, calls tougher rules on the coal industry a “power grab” by federal mining regulators who want more leverage over states. He and other senators grilled the director of the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement for more than an hour Wednesday over a […]