Foreign-funded anti-coal activists risk driving India away – by Dennis Shanahan and Michael McKenna (The Australian – October 24, 2016)

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/

A highly orchest­rated, secretly foreign-funded group of Australian environ­mental activists ­oppos­ing the $16 billion Adani coalmine in Queensland has “dampened” ­Indian investment interest in Australia and received heated criticism from the federal Coalition and Queensland Labor governments.

Indian Power Minister Piyush Goyal told The Australian yesterday the years of legal challenges to the vast Carmichael coal project, now revealed to have been funded by multi-million-dollar foundations in the US, “will certainly dampen future investments” from India.

Federal ministers and the Queensland Premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, have warned of the danger posed by activists to jobs and investment, and questioned the links between the Australian groups, through their US funders, to the chairman of Hillary Clinton’s Democratic election campaign, John Podesta.

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Aberfan disaster: 50th anniversary marked with silence (British Broadcasting Corporation – October 21, 2016)

 

http://www.bbc.com/

Wales fell silent on Friday as the country remembered the Aberfan disaster 50 years ago.
On 21 October 1966, a mountain of coal waste slid down into a school and houses in the Welsh village, killing 144 people, including 116 children. A day of events to commemorate the disaster included a service at Aberfan Cemetery at 09:15 BST on Friday.

Prince Charles has visited the Aberfan memorial garden and will unveil a plaque in memory of the victims. Earlier, he visited the Aberfan Cemetery and laid a wreath.

He also attended a reception with the families of some of those who lost their lives, before signing a book of remembrance. Prince Charles said anyone old enough remembers where they were when they heard the “appalling news” about the Aberfan disaster – saying he was at school in Scotland.

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[Coal mining tragedy] Aberfan: The mistake that cost a village its children – by Ceri Jackson (British Broadcasting Corporation – October 21, 2016)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/

“The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.” The phrase is one of the most enduring and quoted of modern literature, an almost proverbial reference to the archaic and bygone.

It is the opening line of LP Hartley’s 1953 novel The Go-Between, an eerie story set 50 years on from a tumultuous experience of an adolescent boy; an experience so devastating it propelled him prematurely into adulthood and ruined the rest of his life.

The story of what happened in the south Wales mining village of Aberfan is a devastating one which dealt a similar fate to the children who survived it. It too is a story for which Hartley’s opening line could not be more pertinent.

It is exactly 50 years since tragedy swooped down on Aberfan killing 116 children and 28 adults. Revisiting the “obscenity” of 21 October 1966, and its aftermath is a stark reminder of the incongruities of the past.

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Goldman Sees China’s ‘Stealth’ Coal Bailout Lasting to 2020 (Bloomberg News – October 21, 2016)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

China’s coal production restrictions are a “stealth” bailout for miners and their creditors that may last until the end of the decade as the policies help boost prices, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

Without government intervention, China’s coal industry wouldn’t be able to service the nearly 3 trillion yuan ($444 billion) in debt from investing in new mines before demand started to drop, the banks analysts including Christian Lelong wrote in an Oct. 20 note.
The twin goals of the mining restrictions have been to develop a “safe, solvent and efficient” industry and protect the country’s financial system from the risk of large-scale defaults, they wrote.

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China’s steelmakers the relative winners in coking coal surge – by Clyde Russell (Daily Mail/Reuters – October 21, 2016)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/

LONDON, Oct 21 (Reuters) – While no steel maker will be happy with the explosion in coking coal prices, Chinese mills are the best placed to deal with the impact, given they are nowhere near as exposed to spot prices as competitors in the rest of Asia and Europe.

The spot price of premium hard coking coal <_.PHCC-AUSSI> in Australia, which dominates global exports, surged to $242.90 a tonne on Oct. 20, taking the rally so far this year to a staggering 210 percent.

While only a small percentage of coking coal cargoes are actually sold at the spot price, the quarterly contract price was recently settled above $200 a tonne and customers of Australia’s BHP-Mitsubishi Alliance, the world’s largest coking coal exporter, will be paying prices linked to monthly indexes.

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UN tells Bangladesh to halt mangrove-threatening coal plant – by Karl Mathiesen (The Guardian – October 19, 2016)

https://www.theguardian.com/

Rampal coal plant poses a ‘serious threat’ to a key ecosystem for Bengal tigers and must be cancelled, says the UN world heritage body

The UN’s world heritage body has made an urgent intervention to stop the construction of a coal power station in Bangladesh. Unesco said the plant could damage the world heritage-listed Sundarbans mangrove forest, which houses up to 450 Bengal tigers.

A fact finding mission, published by Unesco and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) on Tuesday, found that the proposed site of the Rampal coal power plant, which is 65km north of the Sundarbans world heritage area, would expose the downriver forests to pollution and acid rain.

Ships carrying coal and other material for the plant’s functioning will move through the mangrove reserve, requiring dredging and dumping of 32.1 million cubic metres of river bottom at first and further annual dredging.

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Poland’s Kings of Coal – Photo Essay by Tomasz Tomaszewski (Social Documentary Network)

http://viewfind.com/

Poland-Faces blackened with coal, miners in Upper Silesia emerge from beneath the surface and blink into the Polish twilight – just as they have been doing for hundreds of years.

When photojournalist Tomasz Tomaszewski showed up, however, he found an industry flailing amidst global competition and a Western World hungry for green energy, leaving the proud Polish miner a dying breed.

“When the time comes to work, The Silesian miner works relentlessly. When a colleague must be saved from death, he does not hesitate to walk into danger. The Silesian miner, along with his comrade the steelworker, is one of the most valuable members of Polish socity,” wrote Gustaw Mocinek in Upper Silesia, a book about gritty Polish communities written in 1950.

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Alberta’s Notley promises details of coal phase-out plan coming this fall – by Dean Bennett (Halifax Chronicle-Herald – October 20, 2016)

http://thechronicleherald.ca/

Canadian Press – EDMONTON — Premier Rachel Notley says Alberta will roll out specifics this fall of its plan to phase out coal-fired electricity and promote renewable energy.

Notley, in a state-of-the-province speech Wednesday, said the plan will include financial help to coal emitters closing their plants and transitioning to cleaner forms of power.

There will also be details on how proponents will be able to bid to replace coal generation in the Alberta market. “And we will set out more detail on how we will promote the construction of clean, renewable energy — wind, solar, thermal and hydropower — efficiently, economically and without undue subsidy,” Notley said.

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Mountaintop Removal Never Ended: Coal River Mountaineers Fight On – by Jeff Biggers (Huffington Post – October 17, 2016)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

Standing in solidarity with the water protectors on the Standing Rock Sioux Nation, Coal River Mountain residents already fending off seven square miles of devastating mountaintop removal mining permits are planning a protest on Monday at the Department of Environmental Protection in Charleston, West Virginia against pending permits for a possible expansion of operations by formerly bankrupt Alpha Natural Resources.

Yes, Virginia, in 2016 formerly bankrupt coal companies continue to blast away historic Coal River Mountain and adjacent communities. Let’s call it morally bankrupt.

And while the presidential campaigns trade “war on coal” slogans, no candidate and few reporters have made a single mention of one of the most egregious environmental crimes and civil rights violations in our lifetimes: The enduring health crisis of residents living amid the fallout of mountaintop removal operations.

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Coal company shifts to Canadian port to reach Asia markets – by Matthew Brown (Associated Press – October 13, 2016)

http://www.newscenter1.tv/

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) – A coal company with mines in Montana and Wyoming said Thursday that it’s begun exporting fuel to Asia through a Canadian shipping terminal, after its years long effort to secure port access in the U.S. Pacific Northwest has come up short.

The announcement from Lighthouse Resources, Inc. offered a rare bit of positive news for the coal mining industry, which has been in a prolonged tailspin amid falling demand due to climate concerns and competition from cheap natural gas.

But industry opponents said the move signals that coal exports through Oregon and Washington are doomed to failure, while a regional trade group warned it heralds a loss of U.S. jobs to Canada. Details on the announcement were obtained in advance by The Associated Press.

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Coal Miner’s CEO Calls Tesla a ‘Fraud’ and Elon Musk Tweets It – by Jonathan Crawford (Bloomberg News – October 10, 2016)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

The head of the biggest privately owned U.S. coal producer on Monday called electric-car maker Tesla Motors Inc. a “fraud” for failing to turn a profit despite subsidies. Elon Musk, the billionaire chief executive officer of Tesla, fired back at Murray Energy Corp. CEO Robert Murray within hours on Twitter.

In his post, Musk said Tesla gets “pennies” on the dollar in subsidies compared with the coal industry, and that climate science denial is the “real fraud.”

The verbal sparring between Murray and Musk comes as seismic changes in energy policy and competition from natural gas have pummeled coal miners, leading to bankruptcies and record production cuts. Meanwhile, the presidential election has underscored differences between Republicans and Democrats in their approaches to federal energy regulations and spending.

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Boondoggle: How Ontario’s pursuit of renewable energy broke the province’s electricity system – by Terence Corcoran (Financial Post – October 7, 2016)

http://business.financialpost.com/

Back in 2010, deep green environmentalist Rick Smith, then head of Environmental Defence Canada, hailed Ontario’s Green Energy and Green Economy Act regime as a cost-free operation that would catapult the province into the big leagues of renewable energy. Through fat subsidies and high prices offered to wind, solar and other renewable industry players, jobs and growth would boom and Ontario would be free of its dirty coal plants. It was the End of Coal, the government said. The birth of a renewable miracle.

Asked whether the plan might lead to higher prices for consumers, “No,” said Dr. Smith — he likes to be called doctor in recognition of his PhD in biology. “No. Not at all.”

Smith was absolutely sure that Ontario’s campaign to become the North American leader in renewable energy would not be a burden on consumers. He had the facts, the study, and the numbers. Renewable is doable. “We’ve done some modelling on this and we’re talking a penny’s increase to your average person’s electricity bill,” he said. “Ontarians won’t even notice any impact on their electricity rates.”

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Australia boosts iron ore, coal price forecasts on China demand – by James Regan (Reuters U.S. – October 6, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

Australia on Friday raised its 2016 average price forecasts for its two highest-grossing exports, iron ore and coal, citing a surprise upturn in demand from steelmakers in China.

In its latest quarterly outlook, Australia’s Department of Industry, Innovation and Science boosted its forecast for iron ore by 10 percent to an average $48.50 a tonne this year, while metallurgical coal was increased 16 percent to $99.40 a tonne.

The rise reflects a recent surge in the prices of both commodities, with iron ore currently trading around $55 a tonne and metallurgical coal at $200 a tonne, underscoring an unforeseen resurgence in China’s industrial sector, the main buyer of Australian commodities.

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Wyoming coal counties best positioned to weather declining industry – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – October 4, 2016)

http://www.miningweekly.com/

VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – In dealing with the decline of US coal mining, western coal-producing states, such as Wyoming, are much better positioned to weather the market shift than their eastern counterparts, such as West Virginia and Kentucky, according to new analysis by Moody’s Investors Service.

Driven by weaker seaborne demand, lower natural gas prices and tighter emissions regulations, coal production is experiencing record declines in the three largest coal producing states.

As the downturn increasingly trickles down to local governments, Wyoming counties are benefiting from greater production levels, more favourable income and poverty indicators, as well as a lower reliance on state severance tax distributions, Moody’s states.

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Teck Resources’ rebound staves off debt drama – by Tim Kiladze (Globe and Mail – October 3, 2016)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

A dramatic rebound in coal prices is giving Teck Resources Ltd. extra breathing room, reducing concerns about its cumbersome debt.

Over six months, the price of premium hard coking coal – one of the key ingredients for steel-making – has more than doubled, and Teck’s share price has jumped a stunning 350 per cent since the start of the year. The miner is one of the commodity’s top producers, along with global giants such as Anglo American PLC and BHP Billiton Ltd.

The recovery hasn’t received much attention. For much of 2016, gold miners have been in focus, with behemoths such as Barrick Gold Corp. dominating headlines because rising bullion prices have made fears about their leverage seem much less pressing.

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