https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Saskatchewan is looking to refurbish its fleet of coal-fired power stations, extending their lives well past a federal 2030 phase-out deadline and locking the province into decades of reliance on the fossil fuel.
Jeremy Harrison, the minister responsible for SaskPower, the Crown corporation that oversees electricity supply in the province, says the reliability and affordability of power are at the heart of the policy rethink.
The US should stop the closure of coal-fired power plants, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said, adding the fuel source would be essential to the nation’s power system for decades to come.
“We are on a path to continually shrink the electricity we generate from coal,” Wright said Tuesday on Bloomberg Television. “That has made electricity more expensive and our grid less stable.” Wright’s remarks come as demand for electricity is surging to feed power-thirsty data centers needed for artificial intelligence, new factories and the overall electrification of the economy.
Rat-hole mining is banned by the Supreme Court. But its practice persists under the noses of government officials and politicians.
A tragedy in a coal mine in the northeastern Indian state of Assam has turned the spotlight once again on the illegal practice of rat-hole mining, which thrives in the region despite a ban by the Supreme Court.
Four dead bodies of miners were retrieved last month from a flooded coal mine at Umrangso in Assam’s Dima Hasao district after water from a nearby unused mine suddenly flooded the site. Employees of the quarry were quoted as saying that there were around 15 workers trapped inside the mine, but the government did not confirm the number.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/
Alberta government lifted ban on coal exploration in Eastern Slopes in late January
The reeve of a southwestern ranching community says the municipal district has cancelled its appeal of exploration applications tied to the Grassy Mountain site in southwestern Alberta. Ron Davis, reeve of the M.D. of Ranchland, said recent rule changes from the provincial government have upended the district’s arguments tied to its Alberta Court of Appeal case.
“Given that the government has changed the rules, our case didn’t seem like it had as much impact as we would like,” Davis said. In August 2024, Alberta’s top court allowed Ranchland’s appeal, with Justice Kevin Feth writing he found that “a serious, arguable issue [was] established” after the provincial energy regulator accepted applications from Northback Holdings, the company behind the Grassy Mountain mine project.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/
Industry observer says mine owners have invested hundreds of millions and will want to make that back
A U.S.-based analyst says he believes the undersea coal mine in Donkin, N.S., will reopen someday. Joe Aldina, who writes for thecoaltrader.com, said the Cline Group, whose company Kameron Coal owns the Donkin mine, has made significant investments there that it will likely want to recover.
“They’ve invested a few hundred million dollars US in [capital expenditures] in that mine and that was the last project that Chris Cline, the founder of the company, really put himself into, so I don’t see them walking away from that,” he said.
Russia’s army is around six kilometres (four miles) from the centre of Pokrovsk, a formerly thriving mining hub on top of Ukraine’s largest coal reserves.
Fighting desperately to cling on to coal mines that were once the lifeblood of its industrial east, Ukraine’s soldiers conceded they were struggling against intensifying Russian attacks. “There’s only so much we can do. No matter what super warriors are fighting in our ranks, the Russians outnumber us. It hurts,” said the chief sergeant of Ukraine’s 59th brigade, deployed in the Donetsk region, who goes by the call sign “San Sanych”.
Russia’s army is around six kilometres (four miles) from the centre of Pokrovsk, a formerly thriving mining hub on top of Ukraine’s largest coal reserves. The capture of the city and surrounding mines — some of which are even closer to Russian positions — would be a painful blow to Ukraine’s army, local communities and the national economy, compounding months of setbacks on the front.
Southern Alberta is known for its vast farmland, which contributes billions of dollars to the economy and Chris Spearman fears the proposed Grassy Mountain Coal Mine will negatively impact the agri-food sector and southern Alberta.
Spearman, former Lethbridge mayor and a spokesman for the group Water For Food, says he was alarmed at the Dec. 20 announcement and is wondering why the Albertan government would jeopardize the economy for a project that has a limited life span.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/calgary/
Pushback continues to mount over possible coal mining on the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains, with the latest being a letter penned to the provincial government over the impact coal mining could have on the agriculture industry.
“We are very concerned with the impact on integrated agriculture in southwestern Alberta,” said Chris Spearman with the Water for Food Group. “We don’t understand — our question to the Alberta government is basically – ‘are they prepared to sacrifice a multi-billion-dollar food industry for a coal mine?’”
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
A member of Alberta’s coal policy committee says the provincial government is ignoring the will of tens of thousands of Albertans as it develops new rules around mining and is instead leaning on industry to guide its hand.
Bill Trafford was appointed to the coal policy engagement committee when it was established by then-Energy Minister Sonya Savage in 2021. Mr. Trafford is also the president of the Livingstone Landowners Group and worked alongside the four other committee members to gather feedback from across the province to help in the development of a modern coal policy.
Federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault’s decision not to assess the impact of a massive thermal coal mine expansion is “cowardly” and “colossal backtracking” on Canada’s commitments to stop exporting this dirty fossil fuel, says an environmental advocate. On Dec. 6, the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada (IAAC) decided Coalspur’s Vista Coal mine expansion in west-central Alberta will not be subject to a federal impact assessment.
“Over the last two years, we’ve seen zero progress on the thermal coal export ban, and now we’re seeing Canada move in the opposite direction by refusing to even assess the impacts of a major expansion of Canada’s largest thermal coal mine,” Julia Levin of Environmental Defence told Canada’s National Observer in a phone interview.
Nearly 20 years after Peabody Mining closed its Black Mesa Mine and five years after the Kayenta Mine and Navajo Generating Station closed on the Navajo Nation, residents are working toward recovery of what’s left of the land after more than 50 years of coal extraction.
The work includes a land use plan that has been 20 years in the making and a proposal for a community center that will also be instrumental as a climate resilience center. While the coal company initiated reclamation efforts, the post-mining landscape has always appeared different depending on whether it’s seen by someone who resides within the community or someone from the outside.
https://www.news-expressky.com/
Bobby McCool is the State Representative 97th District
Electricity, roads, smartphones. What do all these seemingly unrelated things have in common? Their existence is dependent on mined materials, extracted from the earth by hard-working men and women who take pride in the role they play in providing a great quality of life to our nation.
While the products mined can range from rock salt to metals, Kentuckians most often think of mining in terms of the coal industry that accounts for almost 70 percent of our energy portfolio. It is the coal miner that kept our state’s utility rates less expensive than neighboring states.
President Joe Biden’s administration approved legislation blocking new coal mining in parts of Wyoming and Montana due to climate change concerns. Republican politicians in both states vowed to challenge and eventually overturn the decision.
The Bureau of Land Management announced its approval of the Resource Management Plan Amendment for the Buffalo Field Office in Buffalo, Wyoming, according to reports. This amendment will prohibit new federal coal mining leases in the Powder River Basin by 2041. The judgment was made over concerns about the amount of greenhouse gas emissions due to coal mining operations, according to documentation.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/
More than 70% of voters were in favour of Grassy Mountain mine
Crowsnest Pass residents voted decisively Monday in favour of bringing coal back, with more than 70 per cent of voters saying they’d support a nearby coal project. Though the vote is non-binding, Crowsnest Pass councillors say the vote in support will guide them in the months ahead as they lobby decision-makers to advance the proposed coking coal mine at Grassy Mountain.
“The Crowsnest Pass has made a decisive decision and as mayor and council we will take your position forward to the upper levels of government and through the regulatory process,” Crowsnest Pass Mayor Blair Painter told The Canadian Press late Monday.
A mayor in southwestern Alberta is hoping for an immediate meeting with Premier Danielle Smith to discuss a coal project his community has voted in favour of being built. “The sooner the better,” said Crowsnest Pass Mayor Blair Painter. “Let’s do this.”
Residents of the municipality, which saw its last coal mine close four decades ago, voted 72 per cent “yes” to a simple referendum question: “Do you support the development and operations of the metallurgical coal mine at Grassy Mountain?”
