Bank Of America Backs Away From Funding Coal Mining – by Kate Sheppard (Huffington Post – May 6, 2015)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/politics/

WASHINGTON — Bank of America is cutting off its financing for coal extraction projects, the company announced at its shareholder meeting Wednesday.

“With regard to coal, over the past several years, we have been gradually and consistently reducing our credit exposure to companies focused on coal mining,” said Andrew Plepler, Bank of America’s Corporate Social Responsibility executive, at the meeting. The new policy, he said, “reflects our decision to continue to reduce our credit exposure, over time, to the coal mining sector globally.”

“Today, our renewable energy portfolio is more than three times as large as our coal extraction portfolio,” Plepler continued. “The transition from high-carbon energy to low-carbon energy will continue. At Bank of America, we will continue to do our part to accelerate this transition for our customers, clients and communities.”

The bank said that going forward, it will continue to reduce the credit it extends to coal extraction companies. Bank of America spokeswoman Laura Hunter told The Huffington Post that the bank will continue supporting technologies like carbon capture and storage (CCS) to help reduce the impacts of burning coal, and would work with clients, including mining companies, “that are diversifying to other fuel sources.”

Read more

Vaughn Palmer: Coal deal heralds future of resource development – by Vaughn Palmer (Vancoucer Sun – May 4, 2015)

http://www.vancouversun.com/index.html

Rights holders compensated and mine plan frozen, with possibility of future joint venture with First Nation

VICTORIA — When Mines Minister Bill Bennett met with reporters at the legislature late Monday afternoon, he announced an innovative solution to a dispute over some coal mining licences that also heralded the future for resource development in B.C.

The specifics involved some 61 privately held mineral licences, together forming the basis for an anthracite coal mine in the Klappan region in the northwest of the province.

Together they also formed the basis for a decade-long standoff between the two private company holders of the licences and the Tahltan First Nation, in whose traditional territory the mining property was located.

The Tahltan opposed the project, a determination manifested with blockades going back 10 years. Thus stalled, the rights-holders — Fortune Minerals and POSCO Canada — had no practical option to develop their property, acquired in good faith in 2002.

Read more

B.C. government buys coal licences to stop mining dispute – by Justine Hunter and Ian Bailey (Globe and Mail – May 5, 2015)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

VICTORIA and VANCOUVER — The B.C. government has devised a unique solution to head off conflict between a First Nations community and the developers of a proposed a coal mine, using its Crown corporation BC Rail to buy and hold coal licences during talks with the Tahltan Nation on managing the resource.

The province is paying $18.3-million to buy 61 licences from Fortune Minerals Ltd. and POSCO Canada Ltd. in a region dubbed the Sacred Headwaters in northwest British Columbia. The area is important to the Tahltan Nation because the headwaters of three important salmon rivers – the Stikine, Skeena and Nass – are there.

The companies will be able to buy back the assets at their original price if they reach an agreement with the Tahltan in the next 10 years.

Anthracite coal deposits that the companies want to mine are in an area within the Sacred Headwaters called the Klappan, which has been identified as having significant cultural significance to the First Nations community.

Read more

BHP Wins as Modi Fails to Get India Coal Trains Running on Time – by Rajesh Kumar SinghDebjit Chakraborty (Bloomberg News – May 3, 2015)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Prime Minster Narendra Modi’s plans to shift India’s economy toward manufacturing and away from agriculture and services are being held up by a coal shortage.

Actually, there’s plenty of coal, just not enough trains to get it to the power plants. While about 200 railway convoys arrive every day at Coal India Ltd.’s depots, Technical Director Nagendra Kumar said the company needs 230 of them. The state-run company supplies more than 80 percent of the nation’s coal.

India will need to upgrade its railway network for Coal India to open more mines and deliver its product, said Deven Choksey, managing director at KR Choksey Shares & Securities Pvt., a Mumbai-based brokerage.

“The infrastructure bottlenecks are stopping Coal India from rising to its full potential,” Choksey said. Coal generates about 60 percent of India’s electricity.

With output climbing at Coal India, the fuel is piling up at the mines. At the same time, slumping global prices mean customers are turning to imports from the likes of Glencore Plc, BHP Billiton Ltd. and Indonesia’s PT Bumi Resources.

Read more

Norway’s oil fund slashes coal investments after criticism – by Stine Jacobsen (Reuters U.S. – May 4, 2015)

http://www.reuters.com/

May 4 (Reuters) – Norway’s $900 billion sovereign wealth fund, the world’s biggest, has reduced the value of its coal mining portfolio by almost 40 percent in the first quarter, its head told parliament on Monday.

Environmental groups and some Norwegian politicians have accused the fund of having too large an exposure to coal and not making enough use of its influence to reduce carbon emissions.

As of March 31 the fund had coal mining assets worth 493 million crowns ($3.75 million), down from 805 million at the end of 2014.

The fund owns assets worth 31 billion crowns in general mining, 109 billion in power production and 228 billion in oil and gas production.

The fund, owning around 1.3 percent of all listed companies globally, is still exposed to firms using coal for steel production and those where coal is only one of several business areas, such as large mining conglomerates, the fund’s head Yngve Slyngstad told the parliament’s Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs.

Read more

Church of England Dumps Coal as Fossil-Fuel Divestment Gains – by Thomas Biesheuvel (Bloomberg News – May 1, 2015)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

It appears coal mining isn’t God’s work. The Church of England will dump its holdings in coal and oil-sand producers and has ruled out backing companies with exposure to the most polluting fossil fuels, joining the movement that wants investors to help fight climate change.

The church’s investment arm said on Thursday that it will sell its 12 million-pound ($18.3 million) coal and tar sands investments. The church also vowed not to invest in any business that gets more than 10 percent of its revenue from the fuels, ruling out companies including Peabody Energy Corp. and Suncor Energy Inc.

The move by the church, created by Henry VIII’s split from the Roman Catholic Church in the 16th century and still headed by the Queen, is a victory for environmental activists seeking to stigmatize oil and coal companies in the way South Africa and tobacco companies have previously been targeted.

“Climate change is already a reality,” said the Reverend Richard Burridge, deputy chair of the church’s ethical investment advisory group. “The church has a moral responsibility to speak and act on both environmental stewardship and justice for the world’s poor who are most vulnerable to climate change.”

Read more

A Lifetime in the Mines: An Essay on Watching Films about Coal Mining + Complete filmography – by Steve Fesenmaier (July 23, 2009)

Steve Fesenmaier, director of WVLC Film Services – I wonder if coal miners ever watch movies? Frani Stone, native West Virginian and assistant director of WVLC, Film Services – I think miners spend enough of their time in the dark….. Summer, 1979

Recently a Pittsburgh filmmaker contacted me concerning his expanding film pertaining to the Monongah 1907 Disaster. He has completed a 25-minute version of a film, but plans to add another hour or so, making it a wider film. He asked me about “other films on coal mining.” This request caused me to spend a concerted amount of time compiling the following list of films about coal mining. Considering the fact that I, at this point, have spent 30 years watching every possible film on the subject, helping several films be made and showing coal mine films in numerous milieus, a brief essay on the subject may be worth writing in my case and worth reading in yours.

The first coal mine film I ever saw was “Harlan County, USA” at the Edina Theater in south Minneapolis, around May 1978. I recall staggering out of the theater, thinking that it was a powerful film. I thought, “How could Americans be treated by their bosses like that?” Within a month, I was in New York City at The American Film & Video Festival, standing back to back with the director, Barbara Kopple. I had just accepted an award at the festival for Les Blank. Kopple and I were shaking hands in the lobby, people thinking that I was Les. I called him on the phone, telling him that he had better get down to the  festival so HE could shake hands.

Within a few months, now living in Charleston, I learned that Kopple had been invited to the Governor’s office in Charleston to talk to people about filmmaking in the state. Unfortunately I was not invited to the meeting.

Read more

West Virginia Mine Wars Museum aims to tell overlooked coalfields history – by Marcus Constantino (Charleston Daily Mail – April 28, 2015)

http://www.charlestondailymail.com/

Local volunteers and historians are opening a museum in Matewan dedicated to telling the untold and often-overlooked stories of coal miners’ long and bloody fight for labor rights.

The West Virginia Mine Wars Museum is to open Saturday, May 16, with a grand opening celebration at 1 p.m. Charles “Chuck” Keeney, a history teacher in Logan and member of the museum’s board of directors, said the museum is a collection of artifacts and stories from the early 20th century labor uprising that has mostly been passed down informally from generation to generation.

“There’s not a whole lot of emphasis on the history of what coal miners did and the struggles they went through and the tumultuous time,” Keeney said. “The Battle of Matewan has all the elements of a classic Western shootout, yet while something like the Gunfight at O.K. Corral has become a part of American lore, Matewan has languished in obscurity for a number of generations. We’re promoting this regional history that has been overlooked.”

The May 19, 1920, Battle of Matewan, also known as the “Matewan Massacre,” broke out in front of the Chambers Hardware building — the current-day home of the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum at 336 Mate Street.

Read more

Biggest Coal Exporter Says Climate Change Won’t Strand Assets – by Jesse Riseborough (Bloomberg News – April 28, 2015)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Glencore Plc, the top exporter of coal used in power stations, expects efforts to curb climate change by keeping its fossil-fuel reserves in the ground to fail in the face of world energy demand.

Shareholders won’t be “prevented from realizing the full value of Glencore’s fossil fuel assets,” Ivan Glasenberg, 58, Glencore’s billionaire chief executive officer, said Tuesday.

His comments are a snub to a growing campaign that wants investors to shun fossil fuels that cause climate change. The world can’t safely extract all its oil and coal reserves, meaning some will end up as worthless stranded assets, campaigners say. Investors from Stanford University to the British Medical Association plan to cut fossil fuel holdings.

Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell Plc are among those defending their interests with the argument that the only way the world can feed its appetite for cheap, reliable energy is by burning fossil fuels. Coal supplies the world with about 30 percent of its main energy needs and more than 40 percent of its electricity, according to the World Coal Association. Global coal output reached a record 7.8 billion metric tons in 2013.

Read more

Teck Resources Ltd slashes dividend as commodity prices plummet – by Peter Koven (National Post – April 21, 2015)

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

Teck Resources Ltd. has finally slashed its dividend, a move many analysts thought was inevitable as the company grapples with weak coal prices and high spending at its Fort Hills oil sands project.

The Vancouver-based miner announced on Tuesday that it cut its semi-annual dividend by two-thirds. The payout is now 15 cents a share, down from 45 cents.

The move will help keep Teck’s balance sheet in solid condition as it continues its $2.9 billion investment in Fort Hills. It has only spent about $900 million so far, meaning there is $2 billion to go. First production is expected in late 2017.

Teck also reported weaker-than-expected first quarter results on Tuesday. Adjusted profit dropped 39 per cent year-over-year to $64 million, or 11 cents a share, which was below the consensus analyst estimate of 15 cents.

Positively, the company’s liquidity remains strong. Teck currently holds $1.4 billion of cash, and it has an additional US$3 billion available in a revolving credit facility.

Read more

Will solar be the bullet that kills coal? – by Andrew Topf (Mining.com – April 19, 2015)

http://www.mining.com/

For the past few years, it has been assumed that natural gas is the enemy of coal, at least in the United States, where low natural gas prices have eroded marketshare from thermal coal producers. Now, a new adversary is emerging for coal. It comes from silicon wafers, the material used to make solar panels.

According to a post in Saturday’s Quartz, a digital news outlet, a small research facility in Bedford, Massachusetts is helping to perfect a new technique for making silicon wafers, and if successful, it could reduce the cost of solar by 20 percent in the next few years.

“This humble wafer will allow solar to be as cheap as coal and will drastically change the way we consume energy,” Quartz quoted Frank van Mierlo, CEO of 1366 Technologies, the company behind the new method of wafer fabrication.

Quartz continues: The dramatic reduction in cost came from a wide number of incremental gains, says Mark Barineau, a solar analyst with Lux Research. Factors include a new, low-cost process for making polycrystalline silicon; thinner silicon wafers; thinner wires on the front of the module that block less sunlight and use less silver; less-expensive plastics instead of glass; and greater automation in manufacturing.

Read more

What is on the Cards for the Coal Industry in 2015? – by Aleksandra Tomczak (Cornerstone: The Official Journal of the World Coal Industry – April 2015)

http://cornerstonemag.net/

Aleksandra Tomczak is the Policy Manager, World Coal Association.

Last year the coal industry saw a number of important changes to policies and regulations, both nationally and internationally, that directly affect coal demand and the business of mining coal. Among the most important were the repeal of the carbon tax in Australia, the EPA’s CO2 emission limits on new and existing power plants in the U.S., the EU’s initial agreement on the 2030 energy and climate package, and the election of a new prime minister in India.

Following a year that saw over 40% of the world’s population voting in national elections and major new policy developments in the key coal demand and production regions, what is on the cards for the coal industry in 2015? Undoubtedly, the major event that could structure policy and regulatory developments of interest to the coal industry in 2015 is COP21 in Paris. COP21 is expected to bring about the world’s first comprehensive climate deal.

In fact, some of the most important jurisdictions—including the EU, China, the U.S., Australia, South Africa, Australia, and Japan—will see national climate policies debated as part of the preparations for the international climate negotiations. This makes 2015 a year of strategic importance to the coal industry as it continues to make its case for the sustainable use of coal and cleaner coal technologies as part of the global mitigation strategy.

Read more

Why coal looms large in India’s future – by Peter Foster (National Post – April 17, 2015)

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

Narendra Modi is the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Canada since Indira Ghandi. For much of the intervening period, relations were sticky because of that unfortunate business of India using Canadian technology to manufacture nuclear weapons. At the same time, India’s growth was held back by poor economic policies and widespread corruption, much of it soaked in socialist cant.

Those lousy policies also go back to Mrs. Ghandi. Mr. Modi is rightly seen as a breath of fresh air, even if he inevitably has to play the hypocritical game of global realpolitik.

The alleged landmark deal of Mr. Modi’s visit is India’s $350 million purchase of Saskatchewan uranium. This both symbolically buries the bomb issue, and enables Mr. Modi to trumpet his country’s commitment to “sustainable development,” even as SD is increasingly exposed for the unworkable non-concept that it is.

The notion first emerged at the 1972 UN conference on the environment in Stockholm. Conceived by British intellectual Barbara Ward, who thought the Industrial Revolution had been a mistake, SD’s conceit was that poor nations had to grow while avoiding free markets and fossil fuels.

Read more

Modi’s coal turnaround to ease chronic power cuts – by Krishna N. Das (Reuters India – April 16, 2015)

http://in.reuters.com/

NEW DELHI – (Reuters) – Fewer power cuts are likely in India this summer after a surge in output at Coal India (COAL.NS) helped generators amass record stocks, a turnaround for Narendra Modi who had to battle a power crisis within months of becoming prime minister last May.

Fast-track mine approvals, tighter production oversight and more flexibility in coal sales have helped power station stocks recover from a six-year low hit in October, vindicating Modi’s pitch to voters as the state leader who brought round-the-clock power to industrial Gujarat.

As Modi prepares to mark his first year in office and seeks to fulfil a poll promise to provide power to all of India’s 1.2 billion people by 2019, power stations hold 28 million tonnes of coal, a 38 percent jump from a year ago, government data shows.

“The situation is improving,” said K. Raja Gopal, head of the thermal power business at construction, power and real estate conglomerate Lanco Infratech (LAIN.NS), pointing to recent growth in Coal India output. “More needs to be done but 8 to 9 percent didn’t happen before.”

India, the world’s third-largest coal buyer, is expected to cut imports by a fifth in the fiscal year to March 31 from an estimated 200 million tonnes in the previous year. Power companies have relied on imports for 15 percent of their coal needs.

Read more

Coal Is Dying and It’s Never Coming Back — by Tim McDonnell (Mother Jones – April 14, 2015)

http://www.motherjones.com/

With or without help from President Obama.

Coal, the No. 1 cause of climate change, is dying. Last year saw a record number of coal plant retirements in the United States, and a study last week from Duke University found that since 2008, the coal industry shed nearly 50,000 jobs, while natural gas and renewable energy added four times that number. Even China, which produces and consumes more coal than the rest of the world put together, is expected to hit peak coal use within a decade, in order to meet its promise to President Barack Obama to reduce its carbon emissions starting in 2030.

According to Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), this is all the fault of President Barack Obama’s “war on coal”—specifically the administration’s new limits for carbon dioxide emissions from power plants, which probably will force many power companies to burn less coal. If there is a war, McConnell has long been the field marshal of the defending army. His latest maneuver came last month when he called on state lawmakers to simply ignore the administration’s new rules, in order to resist Obama’s “attack on the middle class.”

His logic, apparently, is that if Kentucky can stave off Obama long enough, the coal industry still has a glorious future ahead. That logic is fundamentally flawed. While Obama’s tenure will probably speed up the country’s transition to cleaner energy, the scales had already tipped against coal long before he took office. Kentucky’s coal production peaked in 1990, and coal industry employment peaked all the way back in the 1920s.

Read more