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China Hurries to Burn More Coal, Putting Climate Goals at Risk – by Keith Bradsher (New York Times – October 28, 2021)

https://www.nytimes.com/

LINFEN, China — Desperate to meet its electricity needs, China is opening up new coal production exceeding what all of Western Europe mines in a year, at a tremendous cost to the global effort to fight climate change.

The campaign has unleashed a flurry of activity in China’s coal country. Idled mines are restarting. Cottage-sized yellow backhoes are clearing and widening roads past terraced cornfields. Long columns of bright red freight trucks are converging on the region to haul the extra cargo.

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Why India can’t live without coal despite its negative environmental effects – by Salimah Shivji (CBC News – October 26, 2021)

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

A lone well sits in the middle of the Bhatali village square in central India’s coal-rich Chandrapur district, steps from a massive open-pit mine. The well is dug 10 times deeper than previous ones, which all ran dry years ago, and the water spurting from it is not safe to drink.

“Our lands have gone to waste,” said village leader Subhash Gaurkar, pointing to the coal mining activity that surrounds the town. Mining of the highly polluting fossil fuel in Chandrapur, like in many other coal-rich regions of India, has siphoned most of what was, at one time, a plentiful water supply.

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The World Is Nowhere Near to Kicking Its Dirtiest Habit – by Thomas Biesheuvel and Samuel Dodge (Bloomberg News – October 20, 2021)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Never in human history has a ton of coal cost more. Governments and utilities across the globe are willing to pay record sums to literally keep the lights on. That’s the bruising reality that global leaders must face at the high-stakes climate talks in Glasgow this month as hopes fade for a deal to end the world’s reliance on the dirtiest fuel.

The burning of coal represents the biggest single obstacle to meeting the Paris Agreement goal of limiting warming to 1.5C. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres calls it a “deadly addiction,” and COP26 president Alok Sharma has urged leaders to “consign coal to history.”

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Corb Lund, Alberta’s unlikely activist, mounts final resistance against coal mining interests in the Rockies – by Jesse Snyder (National Post – October 26, 2021)

https://nationalpost.com/

“It’s the goddamned drinking water,” says an exasperated Corb Lund, still in disbelief over a government decision last year to re-open the Rocky Mountains to coal mining interests, which opponents say could threaten critical water supplies in southern Alberta.

The country music star and sixth-generation Albertan became a key figure last year in the campaign to resist new development in Alberta’s foothills, after the provincial government in June 2020 rescinded a decades-old ban on open-pit mining along the region’s southern slopes.

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Germany portrays itself as a climate leader. But it’s still razing villages for coal mines. – by Loveday Morris (Washington Post – October 23, 2021)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/

LÜTZERATH, Germany — The yawning black-brown scar in the earth that is Germany’s Garzweiler coal mine has already swallowed more than a dozen villages.

Centuries-old churches and family homes have been razed and the land they were built on torn away. Farmland has disappeared, graveyards have been emptied. “All destroyed for coal,” said Eckhardt Heukamp, surveying the vast pit that drops away from the edge of his fields, 20 miles west of Cologne. But there’s still more under his feet to be mined: Six more villages are threatened.

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Alberta country stars band together on song opposing Rocky Mountain coal mining – by Bob Weber (Canadian Press/CBC News Calgary – October 21, 2021)

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

When Alberta country singer Corb Lund wrote a song 12 years ago about a rancher determined to defend the landscape he loves against encroaching development, it was just a campfire yarn. “It was just kind of a story, a fictional story,” Lund said.

Events have since caught up to the tune “This Is My Prairie.” The summits and foothills of Alberta’s Rocky Mountains have been leased along a vast stretch of their range for coal exploration and a series of companies have announced plans for open-pit mines.

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World leaders ready big new climate pledges, as past failures leave people cold and poor – by Kelly McParland (National Post – October 18, 2021)

https://nationalpost.com/

A big environmental get-together is due to open in Glasgow soon , at which government representatives will gather to make promises. Progressives are very excited, hoping the promises will be big ones.

Already a few countries have gotten out in front with their pledges, eager to demonstrate their prowess at promising. President Joe Biden says the United States will cut its emissions by 50 per cent from 2005 levels within a decade, even if it has to slap windmills along the entire U.S. coastline.

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This energy crisis has been 30 years in the making. Why is anyone surprised? – by Rex Murphy (National Post – October 13, 2021)

https://nationalpost.com/

The inevitable collision between 30 years of global warming hyper activism — the howling demonization of available, proven energy resources — and reality, is upon us.

There is an atmosphere of semi-panic as many of the countries most committed to “getting off” oil and gas and turning their economies over to wind and sun find winter approaching and they, environmentally virtuous as they are, are wondering if they have enough oil and gas and even coal to get through it.

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US coal use is rebounding under Biden like it never did with Trump – by Will Wade (Bloomberg News – October 12, 2021)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

Donald Trump vowed to revive the coal industry, but it’s President Joe Biden who’s seeing a big comeback of the dirtiest fossil fuel. U.S. power plants are on track to burn 23% more coal this year, the first increase since 2013, despite Biden’s ambitious plan to eliminate carbon emissions from the power grid.

The rebound comes after consumption by utilities plunged 36% under Trump, who slashed environmental regulations in an unsuccessful effort to boost the fuel.

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OPINION: There is no quick fix for Europe’s self-manufactured energy crisis – by Eric Reguly (Globe and Mail – October 9, 2021)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Suppose you were told 10 years ago that you had 10 years to replace your soot-spewing diesel car. You did not. Now, you’ve missed the deadline and have no right to be surprised by your sudden lack of four-wheeled transportation – you had ample time to buy a hybrid or electric car.

So it is with Europe. A bit more than a decade ago, a concerted effort was launched within the European Union countries and a few others on the continent to phase out their coal-fired generating plants to clean the skies and slow the pace of global warming.

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If you’re feeling good about your renewable energy stocks, better look away from the rally in coal – by David Berman (Globe and Mail – October 8, 2021)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Renewable energy is a growing sector that sits well with investors who want to align their portfolios with environmental solutions to global warming. But have you seen what coal has been doing? Welcome to one of the great conundrums in today’s market.

Funds that conform to environmental, social and governance (ESG) principles are seeing a massive influx of investor dollars. Yet companies involved with fossil fuel extraction are being rewarded with spectacular gains this year, as demand for traditional energy surges against a backdrop of tight supplies that could last for months.

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U.S. Coal Mines Are Running Out of Miners Just as Demand Booms – by Will Wade (Bloomberg News – October 6, 2021)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Just when the world is clamoring for more coal, U.S. suppliers are facing a shortage of miners. The number of coal miners in the U.S. has been sliding for years, and is down about 8.6% from before the pandemic.

People who have left are reluctant to come back and young people are even more wary about taking a job in an industry that they’ve consistently been told has no future given the global push toward clean energy.

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Mining giant eyes transition to copper from coal – by Nelson Bennett (Business In Vancouver – October 6, 2021)

https://biv.com/

Metallurgical coal prices are at all-time highs, providing companies like Teck Resources (TSX:TECK.B, NYSE:TECK) – the world’s second-largest producer of steelmaking coal – with a potential big windfall.

And with the long-term demand for steel expected to grow significantly over the next few decades – driven largely by global decarbonization efforts – there is perhaps no better time to be in the met-coal business.

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Energy Crisis Deepens in India as Power Plants Face Outages – by Rajesh Kumar Singh and David Stringer (Bloomberg News – October 4, 2021)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — The worsening squeeze on India’s coal supply is triggering a power crisis that’s threatening to stall the world’s fastest-expanding major economy.

Coal-fired power stations had an average of four days’ worth of stock of the fuel at the end of last month, the lowest level in years, and down from 13 days at the start of August. More than half the plants are on alert for outages.

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Environment minister restores federal assessment of Alberta coal mine – by Bob Weber (CBC News Edmonton – October 1, 2021)

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

Federal Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson has reinstated his decision to subject a thermal coal mine expansion in Alberta to a federal review after a court ordered him to rethink it.

“Following the reconsideration process, I have determined that the physical activities warrant [federal] designation,” Wilkinson said in a statement regarding the proposed Vista expansion project.

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