Posted on 03/28/2017 1:28:04 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
President Donald Trump is expected to lift a moratorium on federal coal-mining leases -- though it probably won’t do the industry much good until years after he’s left office.
That’s because U.S. coal companies including Peabody Energy Corp. won’t be looking to secure new reserves of the fossil fuel on federal land for years, especially as mining slows amid the sector’s worst downturn in generations. Production in Wyoming and Montana, where much of government coal is located, fell 18 percent in 2016 from the prior year. Coal’s share of U.S. power generation has plunged in the face of competition from cheap natural gas and renewables.
“No one’s looking for new coal reserves,” said Robert Godby, a professor of energy economics at the University of Wyoming. “The decline in coal demand has meant existing reserves will last a lot longer.’’
Trump is set to sign an executive order Tuesday that would promote domestic oil, coal and gas by reversing much of former President Barack Obama’s efforts to address climate change, according to details shared with Bloomberg News. The order will require the Interior Department to lift a moratorium on the sale of new coal leases on federal land, and compel a review of regulations designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.
The move is part of a broader effort by Trump to kill regulations he deems “job-killing” and make good on a campaign promise to unleash “clean, beautiful coal” and bring jobs back to the sector. While Trump’s rolling back a policy that may have loomed over coal producers in coming decades, it’s going to take more to overcome market forces and raise demand for the fossil fuel to a level that’ll put miners back to work, coal executives and analysts say.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
Coal cannot compete with cheap natural gas.
The US is the Saudi Arabia of coal...at least in terms of reserves.There's absolutely no reason why we can't use coal *and* gas.
Reality: People who are looking to make money and supply a need (energy) are like water that finds its own level. There will be people who will buy these leases, and they will make money off them, and provide coal for energy.
It is the will to use them, and when capitalism is involved, there is will.
The biggest power plant in Colorado has a direct rail link to Wyoming coal fields.
“The US is the Saudi Arabia of coal...at least in terms of reserves.There’s absolutely no reason why we can’t use coal *and* gas.”
Let the market decide based on price and other factors.
Especially when a lunatic made it near impossible to mine and use. My electric bill is insane during the winter and I am in a 'coal' using power plant region. Am I suppose to refit my all electric house for 'natural gas'?
We don’t have to just burn the coal. There are coal gasification and syngas-to-liquid conversion technologies. that’s how we get clean Diesel fuel. Even in Russia they are doing it, even as they have so much natural gas.
We don’t have to just burn the coal. There are coal gasification and syngas-to-liquid conversion technologies. that’s how we get clean Diesel fuel. Even in Russia they are doing it, even as they have so much natural gas.
Sorry for the hiccough.
Coal has the advantage of being in vast reserve, and much of it is within the territorial limits of the United States.
The scientists of Imperial Germany had made an excellent study of the potential use of coal in other purposes than directly as fuel, extracting a number of highly important industrial chemicals, and working out a number of ways to convert coal to various fractions of volatile liquid fuels, including Diesel oil and aviation gasoline. They even worked out ways to make a clean-burning gaseous fuel out of coal that had been coked, using something called the Fischer-Tropsch process. This was all done nearly a century ago, but it is very relevant today.
Not to be replaced by abundant and cheap natural gas, but as an augmentation to those supplies. Coal and its derivative, coke, are very concentrated energy storage, being nearly entirely or entirely composed of carbon.
We have the technology, we have the need, we only have to apply the will to use it.
Coal is also required for steel manufacturing. As we manufacture more steel, we would need more coal. The article is rubbish.
I live in heart of coal country and the trains are moving several time a week now where before once every 2-3 weeks if then
Fine, no one wants these leases...I’ll take them for $1/year, or even $100/year. Something tells me that there’s plenty of money to be made. Technology makes the impossible, possible.
Yeah this sounds fishy to me. Oh, it’s a story from MSN? Yeah, it’s so fishy it stinks on ice.
Moody's: Falling wind energy prices threaten Midwestern coal plants
Renewable energy prices will continue to fall, and new transmission lines will be built
In 10-12 years, natural gas won't be able to compete with renewables and 10-12 years after that oil won't be able to compete.
The federal government (President Odorko) intentionally killed the domestic market for coal with their over the top EPA rules.
It will take some time for the market to turn around and it is doubtful that it will ever return to previous levels.
Plus coal companies will be hesitant to make large investments to resurrect the industry when they know the country is just one election away from having another crazy leftist in the White House.
If you were the CEO of an energy company, and knew that coal would once again be outlawed when the next Dem becomes President, would you invest heavily in coal? That is the decision that energy companies are facing.
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