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[Coal mining] Introduction: The Mine Wars (PBS.org – The American Experience)

 

http://www.pbs.org/

In the first two decades of the 20th century, coal miners and coal companies in West Virginia clashed in a series of brutal conflicts over labor conditions and unionization. Known collectively as the “Mine Wars,” the struggle included strikes, assassinations, marches, and the largest civil insurrection in the United States since the Civil War.

Coal was the engine of American industrial progress at the beginning of the 20th century. It powered locomotives, factories, and home furnaces, and it helped to purify the steel used in erecting skyscrapers all over the U.S.

Nearly three quarters of a million men across the country spent 10 to 12 hours a day in coal mines blasting, hand-picking, shoveling, and loading the indispensable rock onto railway cars bound for destinations across the country.

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King Coal comes to Cape Breton: U.S. billionaire looks to resurrect the fabled Donkin mine project – by Joe O’Connor (National Post – January 11, 2016)

http://news.nationalpost.com/

Elin Nordegren, famously known as Tiger Woods’ ex-wife, had the New York gossip-mongers in a tizzy in early December.

Nordegren appeared at the launch of Marchesa shoes in a Marchesa dress with a plunging neckline and with Chris Cline, her billionaire ex-boyfriend — and her first boyfriend post-life-with-Tiger — on her arm.

Cline is often referred to as King Coal, a self-made man, straight out of West Virginia — where his grandpappy dug for the stuff with a pickaxe — an American success story. The 57-year-old owns a yacht with a submarine, and made a fortune by betting on American coal mining when no one else was willing to make that bet.

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EXCLUSIVE: After 40 years, India set to re-open commercial coal mining to private firms – by Krishna N. Das (Reuters India – January 8, 2016)

http://in.reuters.com/

NEW DELHI – India is getting ready to open up commercial coal mining to private companies for the first time in four decades, with the aim of shifting the world’s third-biggest coal importer towards energy self-sufficiency.

Anil Swarup, the country’s top coal bureaucrat, told Reuters on Friday the government has identified mines it plans to auction, and is now finalising other terms such as eligibility criteria for companies to take part and whether and how to set up revenue sharing.

He said a plan should be ready in the 2-3 months, setting a clear timeline on a plan that has previously only been vaguely marked out.

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Westshore Terminals cuts forecast as B.C. feels effects of coal slump – by Brent Jang (Globe and Mail – January 4, 2016)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

VANCOUVER — A coal export terminal south of Vancouver will no longer be able to avoid the fallout from low prices for the commodity.

Westshore Terminals Investment Corp. had dodged much of the impact of depressed coal prices because it enjoyed long-term contracts with customers. Industry analysts marvelled at how the export facility weathered the economic storm through the first nine months of 2015.

But then the reality of languishing coal markets finally hit Westshore, which said recently that it expects to ship 24 million to 24.5 million tonnes of coal in 2016, down almost one-fifth from the company’s original forecast.

Westshore’s largest customer is Teck Resources Ltd., but the lower export volumes will be due to reduced shipments of U.S. thermal coal.

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The Final Lump of Coal in Britain’s Stocking – by Steffan Morgan (Foreign Policy – December 23, 2015)

http://foreignpolicy.com/

Within a few years, there will be no visible reminder that coal was once dug out of the ground at the Kellingley Colliery.

As it has gone with so many other towns in Britain — Creswell in Derbyshire, Rhodesia in Nottinghamshire, Mardy in South Wales — so it will go with Beal, in North Yorkshire, the town where Kellingley was located. Today, these are small towns and villages — some with only one street, one pub, and one shop — but once they were places of international importance, whose coal powered the Industrial Revolution, drove the steam trains on Victorian railways, and fueled the ships that fought World Wars I and II.

The coal industry — a business that once defined Britain — ended in any meaningful sense with the closure of Kellingley, the last deep pit mine in the United Kingdom, on Dec. 18, though, realistically, the industry has been on life support since 1990. When the workers at Kellingley finished their final shift, surrounded by members of the media, it was with feelings of dejection and anger, but also with a calm resilience.

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Mitch McConnell and the Coal Industry’s Last Stand – by Paul Barrett and Jim Rowley Bloomberg News – December 23, 2015)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Shale gas, solar, wind, new regulations and environmentalists have put relentless pressure on coal. But the Senate majority leader still believes he can stem the tide.

A ballad called “Coal Keeps the Lights On” took singer-songwriter Jimmy Rose of tiny Pineville, Ky., all the way to the finals of America’s Got Talent in the summer of 2013. AGT judges Howard Stern, the radio shock jock, comedian Howie Mandel, and supermodel Heidi Klum cheered and clapped. “That was a damn good song,” Stern declared.

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The Golden Age Of Coal In China Is Over – by Nick Cunningham (Oil Price.com – December 20, 2015)

http://oilprice.com/

China’s coal consumption may have peaked in 2013, and with it, so have the coal industry’s fortunes.

A new report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) finds that preliminary data suggests that China’s coal consumption in 2015 is lower than 2013 levels. Slower economic growth, lower energy-intensity of growth, and a campaign to reduce air pollution have severely dented the prospects for coal in China, the report finds.

China consumes half of the world’s coal, so what happens in China tends to dictate what happens to coal markets around the world. China tripled its coal consumption since 2000, and it burns about five times as much coal as the United States and India, or about two and a half times as much as those two countries combined.

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U of T advised to sell coal, oil assets in its funds – by Tyler Hamilton (Toronto Star – December 17, 2015)

http://www.thestar.com/

An advisory committee created last year by University of Toronto president Meric Gertler is recommending that the institution start divesting coal and oil assets from its massive $5.9 billion (U.S.) endowment and pension fund.

The 10-member committee, made up mostly of representatives from several university faculties, singled out fossil fuel companies that “blatantly disregard” the 1.5-degree C global warming threshold recognized in the Paris climate agreement and which engage in “socially injurious behaviour.”

“The university should, in a targeted and principled manner, divest from its direct holdings in such firms,” the committee recommended. Gertler received the report late Tuesday and called it a “timely” document he hopes will spark broader debate within the university community.

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Mass Layoffs in China’s Coal Country Threaten Unrest – by Jane Perlez and Yufan Huang (New York Times – December 16, 2015)

http://www.nytimes.com/

HEGANG, China — In the dank shower room where the miners soak, the coal dust from their bodies staining the water chocolate, a lone worker sat smoking a cigarette, staring at the floor.

He lingered, he explained, because since his pay had been cut in half, he had been eating dinner at his parents’ apartment, and he dreaded the humiliation of going there again.

“If any of the leaders would do their job properly, the situation would not be like this,” said the worker, Mr. Guo, 39. “If they want to sack me, they should just do it. Can it get any worse?” It probably will.

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Queensland court agrees Adani overstated benefits of Carmichael coal mine -by Lisa Cox (Brisbane Times – December 16, 2015)

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/

A Queensland court has found Indian mining company Adani exaggerated the economic benefits of its proposed Carmichael coal mine, including the amount of jobs and royalties the $16.5 billion project would generate.

In a judgment on Tuesday, the Queensland Land Court recommended the Queensland government grant mining leases and environmental approvals for the controversial project, which would become Australia’s largest coal mine.

But the approvals should only be given with additional environmental conditions, including regular monitoring of water bodies near the mine site in central Queensland and a more thorough assessment of the presence of threatened bird species, the black throated finch.

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The Paris summit: A colossal waste of time – by Margaret Wente (Globe and Mail – December 15, 2015)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

What a cliffhanger. As delegates from 195 countries pulled all-nighters in search of a climate deal, the world held its breath. At last, success! Perhaps we’ll save the planet after all. In fact, a deal in Paris was always in the works and everybody knew it.

After the Copenhagen debacle of 2009, the mighty UN climate juggernaut desperately needed a victory. And here it is – an agreement that’s unenforceable and toothless, but makes everyone feel good. Especially Canada.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, our fearless and photogenic leader, took a delegation of 300 politicians, functionaries and hangers-on with him just to prove it. “Canada is back, my good friends,” he announced in Paris.

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COLUMN-Climate deal may be terminal for coal, but death will be lingering – by Clyde Russell (Reuters U.K. – December 14, 2015)

http://uk.reuters.com/

Dec 14 It’s tempting to take the champagne-fuelled view that the historic global climate agreement reached in Paris signals the death of coal, but even if the dirty fuel is terminal, it will be a long, lingering demise before the final hacking cough.

This is simply because coal is, and will remain for decades, the main fuel in the world’s top and third-biggest emitters, China and India.

While China has changed direction on coal fairly dramatically in the past two years, its pledge at the climate summit that ended last weekend in the French capital is only that its emissions will peak by 2030.

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[Canada] The Coal Bust – by Kelly Cryderman and Brent Jang (Globe and Mail – December 12, 2015)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

HANNA, ALTA., AND VANCOUVER – Tanis Graham is having trouble sleeping.

At night, the shop owner in the small town of Hanna worries about the downturn in the oil and gas industry and how she’s going to afford the Alberta government’s plan to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

And in the past few weeks, Ms. Graham, 43, has been kept awake by news that the nearby coal-fired generating station will be closed a decade earlier than scheduled due to the province’s new climate-change strategy.

About 110 people from the area are employed at the coal mine that supplies the generating station, including Ms. Graham’s partner.

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The ‘climatecrats’ and their credibility gap – by Konrad Yakabuski (Globe and Mail – December 14, 2015)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The global climate negotiations in Paris, like the schemes some Canadian provinces have adopted to meet their self-imposed targets, have all been predicated on the fib that greenhouse-gas emissions are easily measurable and verifiable. The opposite is true, a fact politicians and climatecrats continue to gloss over as they jet to summits pretending to save the planet.

The climatecrats’ most obvious disconnect concerns China. No one knows how much carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases the world’s biggest polluter really emits.

The Chinese government’s own estimates are simply not credible, a fact underscored by its recent admission that the country had been burning 17 per cent more coal a year than it had previously disclosed.

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Twilight of the Skeptic: Climate Critics Fume as Talks Near Deal – by Alex Nussbaum and Reed Landberg (Bloomberg News – December 10, 2015)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Coal mining CEO Robert Murray looks at the Paris climate talks and sees nothing but a farce.

A two-week parade of world leaders, scientists and corporate executives attesting to the dangers of global warming has failed to persuade the head of one of America’s biggest coal companies, who dismisses the idea as a hoax.

Now, with envoys in Paris inching toward a final agreement, Murray sees nothing but disaster for the world’s poor and for his already beleaguered industry.

“To me, it is a tragedy,” said Murray, chief executive officer of Murray Energy Corp., the biggest closely-held U.S. coal producer, during an interview from his offices in Ohio’s mining region.

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