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Coal

Judge orders Alberta to hand over documents related to coal policy – by Emma Graney (Globe and Mail – April 17, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The Alberta government has been ordered by a court to hand over a swath of records pertaining to its 2019 decision to quietly nix a policy governing where coal mines can be built in the province.

The case stems back to 2020, when a group of Southern Alberta ranchers requested records around the United Conservative government’s decision to rescind the province’s 1976 Coal Policy without any consultation. The decision caused public backlash so fierce it forced the government to backpedal and introduce new rules around coal mining.

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BMO drops anti-coal policy amid Wall Street rebuke of ESG – by Amanda Albright (Bloomberg News – April 8, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

BMO Bank quietly dropped its policy restricting lending to the coal industry in late 2023, helping it avoid being labelled an energy “boycotter” in West Virginia. The change came to light Monday after West Virginia Treasurer Riley Moore took a victory lap in an announcement of the financial firms it was adding to its boycott list, which doesn’t include BMO.

In late February, the bank received a warning that it could be put on a state list of companies that Moore’s office considers to boycott the fossil fuels industry. BMO is the U.S. subsidiary of Toronto-based Bank of Montreal.

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Canada’s coal exports up again in 2023 as government’s promised ban elusive – by Mia Rabson (Kitchener City News/Canadian Press – March 29, 2024)

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OTTAWA — Canadian exports of thermal coal increased another seven per cent last year, reaching the highest level in almost a decade. The boom in exports of the kind of coal burned to make electricity comes as Canada leads a charge to end the use of coal as a source of power worldwide, including at home.

The Liberals also promised three years ago that all thermal coal exports will stop from Canada by 2030, but exports have risen almost 20 per cent since that promise was made.

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Baltimore Bridge Collapse Will Likely Block Coal Exports for Weeks – by Josh Saul (Bloomberg News – March 26, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — The collapse of a major Baltimore bridge Tuesday is likely to shut down the port’s coal exports for as many as six weeks and block the transport of up to 2.5 million tons of coal, said Ernie Thrasher, chief executive officer of Xcoal Energy & Resources LLC.

The US exported about 74 million tons of coal last year, with Baltimore the second-largest terminal for the commodity. Plugging up a major coal hub threatens to disrupt global energy supply chains that have finally begun to work out the kinks left over from pandemic slowdowns.

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Coal, the Dirtiest Fossil Fuel, Is Preparing for a Long Goodbye (Bloomberg News – March 23, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Follow Bloomberg India on WhatsApp for exclusive content and analysis on what billionaires, businesses and markets are doing. Sign up here. More than two years after climate negotiators first attempted to consign coal to history, the dirtiest fossil fuel is having a moment.

Thanks to a combination of China’s energy insecurity — pushing Beijing back to trusted power sources — plus rising Indian demand, the continued fallout from the war in Ukraine and faltering international programs to wean developing economies off fossil fuels, coal is proving remarkably resilient. Output hit a record last year, and producers are preparing for a future where they will be required for decades yet to balance renewable energy.

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More investors push Glencore to keep coal post-Teck deal – by Clara Denina and Simon Jessop (Reuters – March 22, 2024)

https://www.reuters.com/

LONDON, March 22 (Reuters) – A growing group of Glencore investors are keen for it to keep mining coal instead of spinning out the soon-to-be enlarged unit, with one eye on its financial outlook and another on the environmental benefits of keeping the fuel in-house.

Echoing a demand last week by activist Tribeca Investment Partners, investors said the polluting fossil fuel would be a lucrative option – for a decade or two at least – even as it is phased out in favour of renewable energy.

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Australian Coal Miners Woo Private Capital as Banks Get Leery – by Sharon Klyne and Megawati Wijaya (Bloomberg News – March 20, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Australian coal producers are increasingly dabbling in high-interest private loans as lenders look to replace reluctant banks that are held back by ESG concerns.

Sydney-based coal miner Whitehaven Coal Ltd.’s deal last month to secure a $1.1 billion loan for buying two mines attracted 17 private credit lenders and only one bank. A consortium led by Golden Energy and Resources Pte Ltd. also is sounding out private credit funds, as well as banks, to secure financing for its $1.65 billion acquisition of a coal mine in Australia, according to people familiar with the matter.

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Cleanup for pollution from Teck coal mines will top $6.4-billion, assessment claims – by Wendy Stueck (Globe and Mail – March 19, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

It will cost at least $6.4-billion to tackle selenium contamination from Teck Resources Ltd.’s Elk Valley coal mines, according to a new report – far exceeding a $1.9-billion security bond required by the B.C. government to cover cleanup costs.

The report, commissioned by environmental group Wildsight, bases its price tag on calculations of what it would cost to implement Vancouver-based Teck’s current plan of building water treatment plants through to 2027 and then running them for 60 years.

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OPINION: Coal is dead, or at least was, according to the ESG crowd. Long live coal – by Eric Reguly (Globe and Mail – March 16, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

For the resources industry, the trick to meeting ESG standards was pretty simple: sell your dirty fuels, especially coal. If you did, investors who cared about the health of the planet would love you, and your company’s valuation would go up.

The formula seemed solid a few years ago, and a big number of mining giants sold or spun off their coal assets. Canada’s Teck Resources was the latest to pursue the black-to-green transition with the sale, announced last year but not yet approved by Ottawa, of its metallurgical coal business to Switzerland’s Glencore.

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Canada, U.S. governments reach deal to address cross-border coal pollution – by Wendy Stueck (Globe and Mail – March 11, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The Canadian and U.S. governments have agreed to put the issue of cross-border pollution from B.C. coal mines before the International Joint Commission, a body set up more than a century ago to resolve conflicts over shared waters.

The request, made through what is known as a joint reference under the Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909, follows years of campaigning by Indigenous peoples and was developed with the Ktunaxa Nation, an Indigenous people whose traditional territory takes in parts of British Columbia, Montana and Idaho.

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Alberta regulator will hear Australian company’s revived plan for a controversial coal mine – by Emma Graney (Globe and Mail – February 23, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Alberta’s energy regulator will consider controversial applications to explore a new coal mine in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, ruling the project is excluded from a government-mandated ban on exploration approvals. The decision announced on Friday applies to a set of permit applications for exploratory activities by Northback Holdings Corp. at Grassy Mountain, on the site of an old mine that closed about five decades ago.

Northback, formerly Benga Mining Ltd., is a subsidiary of Australian mining giant Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd. Benga’s application for an open-pit mine on the land was rejected by a joint federal-provincial panel in June, 2021, because of environmental concerns.

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Metallurgical coal is the commodity world’s quiet performer – by Clyde Russell (Reuters – February 22, 2024)

https://www.reuters.com/

LAUNCESTON, Australia, Feb 22 (Reuters) – When looking at the commodities used to make steel, iron ore gathers the bulk of headlines given its strong link to the perceived health of China’s economy. But metallurgical coal is also a key input, and this fuel has quietly been a top performer in the energy commodity space in recent months.

Australia dominates the seaborne market for metallurgical coal, accounting for more than half of global volumes, and about three times the shipments of the next biggest exporter, the United States. The price of Australian metallurgical coal, also known as coking coal, on the Singapore Exchange ended at $315 a metric ton on Wednesday.

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Filmmakers aims to honor Appalachian culture in ‘King Coal’ – by Miles Layton (Vinton Jackson Courier – February 13, 2024)

 

https://www.vintonjacksoncourier.com/

“King Coal” is one of the best movies I’ve seen depicting the people, places and culture of Appalachia. The film was shown as part of From the Hills and Hollers: Appalachian Stories Film Series on Feb. 8 at the Athena Cinema.

Initially, without knowing anything about “King Coal,” I was worried it was going to be a documentary that negatively portrays Appalachian people (poverty porn) before a sermon about coal’s impact on climate change and possibly includes a cameo from Al Gore. None of that could be further from the truth. It was an accurate presentation about the culture surrounding coal.

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NDP to move bill calling for ban of coal exports as Canadian output booms – by Mia Rabson (Canadian Press/CTV News – February 14, 2024)

https://www.ctvnews.ca/

OTTAWA – Canadian exports of the kind of coal used to make electricity hit an eight-year high in 2022, even as the Liberals have promised to work on banning exports completely by the end of the decade. The Liberals made the promise during the 2021 election and it was listed in Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault’s mandate letter that December.

In the year that followed, Canada exported more than eight million tonnes of domestically produced thermal coal, a 60 per cent increase over 2021 and more than eight times what was exported in 2018. That year, thermal coal exports hit a low of one million tonnes, before rapidly rising, doubling to two million tonnes in 2019, almost five million tonnes in 2020 and 5.5 million tonnes in 2021.

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Federal Court allows judicial review of southern Alberta coal mine denied by panel – by Bob Weber (Canadian Press/CBC Calgary – February 14, 2024)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/

Company lost earlier attempt to seek review from Alberta Court of Appeal

A Federal Court ruling Tuesday has thrown out a decision from federal Environmental Minister Steven Guilbeault denying a permit for an open-pit coal mine in the Alberta Rockies. The ruling, which comes in response to two Alberta First Nations, will force Guilbeault to revisit the issue after consulting with the bands on the economic benefits of the proposed mine.

The company hoping to develop the mine, Benga Mining, also requested the decision be reviewed. It was denied. The court ruled that the Piikani and Stoney First Nations never received a consultation opportunity they had been promised by the federal-provincial panel that reviewed Benga’s application.

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