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WILLISTON, N.D. – The entire U.S. Williston Basin produced more than 1 million barrels of oil per day in September, driven by another record month of North Dakota oil production. North Dakota produced 931,940 barrels per day, a 2 percent increase over August, according to preliminary numbers released Friday by the Department of Mineral Resources. The U.S. Williston Basin also includes portions of South Dakota, which produced 5,017 barrels per day in September, and Montana, which produced 75,460 barrels per day in August. ... Bakken oil production in North Dakota and Montana is projected to top 1 million barrels of...

Back in December, I wrote about the absurdity of the EPA claim that coal-fired power plants produced significant mercury which necessitated drastic reductions at any cost. I was then puzzled that the EPA did not produce maps of the mercury concentrations that would show the mercury was found in higher concentrations downwind of coal-fired power plants. It turns out that maps of the concentrations of mercury do exist and can be examined. The National Atmospheric Deposition Program produces annual maps of the mercury concentrations across the USA here. Note that the mercury high concentration areas changed somewhat between 2009 and...

The federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) appears unmoved by growing calls from Montana officials and political candidates to hold listening sessions on new regulations for coal-fired power plants in Montana. The EPA has planned hearings in 11 large urban centers across the country, but none in places like Montana where jobs are heavily dependent upon coal production. ... Republican Attorney General Tim Fox was officially calling on the EPA to schedule a session in Montana, saying “the EPA shouldn’t be afraid of listening to viewpoints they won’t hear in New York City.” On Monday, Ryan Zinke, the newly-declared GOP candidate...

Virginia gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli joined other top Republicans in taking to the Capitol on Tuesday with thousands of other critics of the Obama administration’s so-called war on coal. Cuccinelli, trailing in the polls just a week before Virginia voters cast ballots, was one of a host of politicians to make appearances at the rally, which was timed to coincide with a day of pro-coal, anti-regulation hearings inside the Capitol. Other speakers included Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Rep. Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.), both facing potentially tough reelection fights in 2014. Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/10/ken-cuccinelli-coal-rally-99059.html#ixzz2jGHFPzak

Regulation: More than 3,500 coal supporters descended on Washington Tuesday to protest environmental rules requiring technology that doesn't exist, designed to turn the Saudi Arabia of coal into the Bangladesh of energy. Members of Congress, union members, miners and their families stormed Capitol Hill to air their grievances about President Obama's policies that make it harder to burn or mine 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...

The Obama administration on Tuesday said it will seek to discourage the construction of coal plants in foreign countries through the World Bank and other multilateral development institutions. The effort marks the latest step in President Obama’s initiative to combat the effects of global warming through executive power in lieu of action from the divided Congress. Under the new policy, the U.S. government will oppose public financing for coal projects in all but the world's poorest countries unless they meet standards on par with tough new proposed regulations for any new coal plants in the United States. Opponents of the...

The Associated Press CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Miners from West Virginia, Virginia and other states are joining 30 members of Congress in Washington, D.C., to rally against regulatory polices they say are killing jobs in coal country. Count on Coal's Rally for American Energy Jobs is Tuesday outside the U.S. Capitol. National Mining Association President Hal Quinn says the administration needs to hear from workers who produce the coal that creates 40 percent of the nation's electricity.

".........Why? “Honestly, because everybody in this county hates Barack Obama. That is the biggest reason,” Mitchell said. Animosity toward President Obama runs high here. He lost Wyoming County by nearly 56 percentage points last year, despite the fact that registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by 3 to 1. But as Mitchell and her friends talked more about it, their conversation turned to fears and anxieties that had little to do with party or politics. They discussed the well-paying jobs that had vanished with the coal industry; the crime and drugs that followed; the changing culture that mocks what they hold sacred....

CONSOL Energy will sell five of its longwall coal mines in West Virginia to a subsidiary of Murray Energy Corporation which is based in St. Clairsville, Ohio.

Within two weeks after nearly 150 workers lost their jobs at the Elk Creek Mine near Somerset at the start of the month, as many as a third of them had filed into the Delta Workforce Center. There, they considered options that are likely to prove difficult not only for them, but the economy of the North Fork Valley. They can try to stay in the area, but very possibly would have to settle for lower-paying work even with new training, or they can leave in pursuit of mining jobs elsewhere. Either way, a lot of lucrative mining jobs, and...

WISE, Va. — Amid the struggling businesses and flattened mountaintops strip-mined decades ago, antipathy toward Democrats and what’s known in this region as their “war on coal” is stronger than just about anywhere else in the country. That has translated naturally into broad opposition to Terry McAuliffe, the Democratic candidate for governor this year. But across the coal fields of far-southwest Virginia, something unusual is also happening: Voters don’t like the Republican candidate, Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II, much better. Cuccinelli’s struggles seem to stem largely from a complex legal case that pits big coal companies against local property owners...

On June 25, Obama proposed a new Climate Action Plan to further the extremist war on coal. Nationwide, Obama’s EPA regulations are contributing to the loss of an estimated 13,000 – 17,000 jobs from the closures announced of 205 coal plants. Because of Obama’s plan, the nation will be losing more than 31,000 megawatts of electrical generating capacity. Here in New Hampshire, our electricity supply and jobs are under attack, as they are nationwide, by Obama’s “yes women” in the U.S. Senate and U.S. House. Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen has proven herself a reliable “me too” vote for Obama, as...

(Reuters) - Japan plans to start up 14 new gas and coal-fired power plants by the end of 2014, allowing a switch away from pricey oil, as Tokyo struggles with a shutdown of nuclear reactors and energy imports drive a record trade deficit. Regional power monopolies will construct 12 gas-fired units next year, while two new coal power plants will be completed by December 2013, according to a Reuters survey of utilities. The new power plants will buy liquefied natural gas (LNG) and coal to scale back on the use of expensive crude and fuel oil plants. They will also...

According to a new study conducted by Texas Tech University Professor Dr. Michael Giberson for the Institute for Energy Research, the government and wind lobby aren't telling taxpayers the whole truth about how much wind energy really costs. The study comes as the wind lobby is set to receive another extension on massive subsidies with little results to show for it. "As Big Wind's lobbyists fight tooth and nail to extend the wind Production Tax Credit, it is important that we look at the true costs of wind power to taxpayers and ratepayers," IER President Thomas Pyle said about...

To judge by the headlines and media chatter, the only important issue involving American Indians in Washington these days has to do with changing the name of the local pro football team. Those who care about real-world Indians might want to focus instead on how the Obama administration's hostility to the coal industry does more harm to Native Americans than any NFL franchise ever will. The Environmental Protection Agency recently ramped up its attack on coal by issuing stringent limits on carbon-dioxide emissions from new coal-fired generating plants, and the agency has more regulations in the works for existing power...

DAEGU, South Korea, Oct 14 (Reuters) – Coal will surpass oil as the key fuel for the global economy by 2020 despite government efforts to reduce carbon emissions, energy consultancy firm Wood Mackenzie said on Monday. Rising demand in China and India will push coal past oil as the two Asian powerhouses will need to rely on the comparatively cheaper fuel to power their economies. Coal demand in the United States, Europe and the rest of Asia will hold steady. Global coal consumption is expected to rise by 25 percent by the end of the decade to 4,500 million tonnes...

From the emotional headlines, you would think America is in dire straights from a government “shutdown.” But as usual the truth is masked by the headlines and can be found in the print of the details. In reality only 18% of the government is “shutdown” and the rest of it is humming along as usual. ... if you look at just one government agency that has a profound effect on the cost of living for all Americans, you can see there is a silver lining. The Environmental Protection Agency has deemed that over 93% of its employees are “non essential”...

Coal supporters are rallying behind Rep. Shelley Moore Capito's (R-W.Va.) call for the Environmental Protection Agency to include coal-producing states on its listening tour. The agency announced Thursday that the first two stops in its 11-meeting listening tour, meant to gather input on carbon emissions limits for power plants, would be postponed due to the government shutdown. Earlier this week, the agency said it would not stop in heavy coal-producing states. House Republicans pushed back, saying the tour conveniently avoids the states where the proposed carbon emissions rule, a key part of President Obama's climate change agenda, would spike electricity...

The proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada to the U.S. would make "OPEC obsolete," billionaire energy entrepreneur T. Boone Pickens told CNBC on Wednesday. "Canadians say they have 250 billion barrels [of oil]. That's exactly what the Saudis claim they have," he said in a "Squawk Box" interview. "You're sitting there with the same amount of oil available to the United States from Canada … as Saudi Arabia." "But when you move the oil through the Strait of Hormuz everyday, it's 17 million barrels," Pickens said. "The Navy is shepherding a cartel daily through the Strait of Hormuz. And...

New England’s largest coal-fired power plant has been slated for shutdown, partly due to Environmental Protection Agency regulations.The Brayton Point Station in Massachusetts will no longer provide power to the region’s electrical grid when the plant is shut down in 2017. The plant’s owner Energy Capital Partners has cited several factors for its closing, including competition from natural gas and the need to spend “significant capital to meet environmental regulations and to operate and maintain an aging plant.”Environmentalists argue that coal is no longer an economically viable fuel source.“If Brayton Point can’t make it economically, no coal plant can make...