Free Republic

Communities in nine U.S. states that have been hard-hit by coal layoffs are being promised more than 3,000 jobs in several industries through a multimillion-dollar federal grant. Officials for the Appalachian Regional Commission and other agencies announced the 29 projects totaling nearly $39 million Wednesday at a news conference in Huntington, West Virginia. The investments are expected to create or retain more than 3,400 jobs in agriculture, health care, manufacturing, technology and other industries. The projects are intended to help communities in Texas and in eight Appalachian states: Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia. …

The fate of the European Union’s global warming commitments negotiated as part of the Paris Protocol may be in jeopardy as result of Brexit. The U.S. on the other hand, should take a page out of the U.K.’s playbook and not only withdraw from the Paris agreement, but also withdraw participation from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change altogether. ... countries made individual commitments to reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions, largely centered on shifting away from affordable natural resources such as coal, oil, and natural gas, and toward more expensive, intermittent, subsidy-dependent renewables. ... The...

A federal judge ruled Friday that a lobbyist and former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) official can testify for a coal company in its lawsuit against the agency. The EPA had sought to block Jeff Holmstead, who led the EPA’s air pollution office under then-President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005, from appearing as an expert witness in Murray Energy Corp.’s case. The agency argued that Holmstead’s time at the EPA is a significant conflict of interest and his testimony would amount to little more than unreliable legal conclusions. The EPA “effectively argues that, because Mr. Holmstead once worked at...

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...

US scientists have found what it could be key for the future of the country’s ailing coal industry as they detected that ashes from local operations, particularly those around the Appalachian region, are very rich in rare earth elements. Researchers from North Carolina-based Duke University analyzed coal ashes from coal-fired power plants throughout the US, including those in the largest coal-producing regions: the Appalachian Mountains; southern and western Illinois; and the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Montana. One of the team main conclusions was that coal waste generated by the Appalachian coal operations was the richest in rare earth...

OK my friends. If he wins he can light up a fuse throughout the dictatorial world. It's already going on in the Middle East-not by design. My targets would be Iran, China, and especially Cuba. If the oil in the Mid East stops it's ok. We got our own. Plus there's coal and nuclear. Fracking and natural gas. These countries will start a war b4 giving up power. What do we have to lose? Maybe the Norks and the Russians will take notice. Gentlemen: might as well do the most to get these issues over with. Start on victory night...

Democratic incumbent Sen. Michael Bennet’s first ad of the election cycle touts one of his campaign donors, the New Belgium Brewing Company. Bennet released his first television spot Thursday, which features the senator talking about beer and farmers. “They say one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Or sometimes, these guys’ treasure,” Bennet says, pointing to a herd of cows. The ad then cuts to Bryan Simpson, who is only introduced as a “brewery worker” in Fort Collins. Simpson praises Bennet for working against a federal regulation of how breweries can sell spent grain, or leftover malt beer makers can...

Coal's future as a major energy source is being undermined by market forces, government regulations and moral arguments.

Misaligned mirrors are being blamed for a fire that broke out yesterday at the world’s largest solar power plant, leaving the high-tech facility crippled for the time being. It sounds like the plant’s workers suffered through a real hellscape, too. A small fire was reported yesterday morning at the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System (ISEGS) in California, forcing a temporary shutdown of the facility. It’s now running at a third of its capacity (a second tower is down due to scheduled maintenance), and it’s not immediately clear when the damaged tower will restart. It’s also unclear how the incident will...

The booing was nearly as loud as the cheering when Bill Clinton stepped to the microphone in this remote mountain hamlet deep in the depressed heart of coal country. In the audience at the local elementary school Thursday night was a sizable contingent of coal miners and their families, many wearing helmets and T-shirts declaring their support for Donald Trump. […] The event here was Bill Clinton’s fourth in a long day of campaigning across Kentucky, where his wife faces a similar backlash in next week’s primary. …

The world will use 48 percent more energy by 2040, three-quarters of which will come from coal, oil or natural gas, according to projections made Thursday by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). The report states that most of the world’s new energy use will come from developing countries, particularly China and India, and most of the 75 percent of that energy will be coal, oil or natural gas. Only a relatively small percentage of the world’s energy will come from wind and solar power despite massive subsidies, contrary to the claims from environmental groups like The Sierra Club.

The Association of American Railroads (AAR) reported U.S. rail traffic for the week ending May 7, 2016: Total U.S. weekly rail traffic was 492,923 carloads and intermodal units, down 10.6% compared with the same week last year. Total carloads for the week ending May. 7 were 233,047 carloads, down 14.8% compared with the same week in 2015, while U.S. weekly intermodal volume was 259,876 containers and trailers, down 6.4% compared to 2015. Three of the 10 carload commodity groups posted an increase compared with the same week in 2015. They were miscellaneous carloads, up 6.7% to 9,839 carloads; chemicals, up...

What if an attack on coal was like an attack on Mom or apple pie? Now, granted, coal would make a lousy mom or even pie, but coal is what helped make America great. And at least one presidential contender is for Making America Great Again via including an avenue through coal country. West Virginia voters are certainly hopeful. See results of Tuesday’s voting for confirmation. Coal has traditionally been the muscle to hoist America above foreign competitors because of its relative low expense and high energy content. But, typical of the contemporary climate, that which was yesterday’s hero is...

The economic devastation is very real in West Virginia. Obama promised to shut down the coal industry as one of his bold campaign promises in 2008. Hillary’s plan is to keep the dream of shutting down the coal industry alive long after Obama is out of office. Coal miners are taking and stand and letting America know they are not going to sit back and watch their livelihoods and towns destroyed by a radical leftist President. Watch here:

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.” In recent years, according to...

In what Monica Alba of NBC News called “a rare candid moment” (I love it that even NBC News acknowledges Hillary is such a phony), Hillary Clinton “apologized to a man who confronted her over comments made earlier this year about putting coal miners "out of business.”

Hillary Clinton apologized on Monday for saying in March that she would put coal miners and coal companies “out of business” as part of a transition to alternative energy sources. The Democratic front-runner and former secretary of state called the prior remark a “misstatement” as she campaigned in Kentucky, ahead of the state’s Democratic primary on May 17, CBS News reported. The small group discussion took place in what was once one of the country’s top coal producing counties, as protesters gathered outside. “What I said was totally out of context from what I meant,” Clinton said. “It was a...

Bill Clinton was heckled and booed on Sunday during a campaign event in Logan, West Virginia, where the town’s mayor recently informed Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin that the former first couple are “simply not welcome” because of their “anti-coal messages.” “I wanted to come here and tell you that I care about what you’re going through. I get it and I think that we can do something about it, that’s the most important thing,” Clinton said at the event, where he was joined by Manchin and Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, a native of the coal town of about 1,800. But...

There was a time in America -- and it wasn't even so long ago -- that liberals cared a lot about working-class people. They may have been misguided in many of their policy solutions -- e.g., raising the minimum wage -- but at least their hearts were in the right place. Then a strange thing happened about a decade ago. Radical environmentalists took control of the Democratic Party. These leftists care more about the supposed rise of the oceans than the financial survival of the middle class. The industrial unions made a catastrophic decision to get in bed with these...

There was a time in America — and it wasn't even so long ago — that liberals cared a lot about working-class people. They may have been misguided in many of their policy solutions — e.g., raising the minimum wage — but at least their hearts were in the right place. Then a strange thing happened about a decade ago. Radical environmentalists took control of the Democratic Party. These leftists care more about the supposed rise of the oceans than the financial survival of the middle class. The industrial unions made a catastrophic decision to get in bed with these...