Bid to mine more coal on U.S. federal lands tests Obama’s green agenda – by Patick Rucker and Valerie Volcovici (Reuters U.S. – January 13, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama’s State of the Union pledge to better manage fossil fuel development will face a test within days, when federal officials rule on whether to open public lands containing more than 600 million tons of coal to more mining.

Interior Department officials are due to decide Jan. 27 on whether to lease two mine sites on federal land in Wyoming’s coal-rich Powder River Basin, where the black rock runs in 10-story seams.

Environmentalists strongly oppose more coal mining on federal land, saying burning all that coal would exacerbate climate change. Reforming government controls on federal lands is one of the few actions still available to Obama in his final year in office.

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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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Obama vows to overhaul coal mining on public lands to ‘invest in the future’ – by Suzanne Goldenberg (The Guardian – January 13, 2016)

http://www.theguardian.com/

Barack Obama promised an overhaul of coal mining on public lands on Tuesday, delivering a major blow to the ailing industry.

In his final State of the Union address, the US president said he would push for changes to the leasing of public lands for oil, coal and gas leases at cut-rate prices, saying: “Rather than subsidize the past, we should invest in the future.”

The move follows a listening tour last year by Sally Jewell, the interior secretary, during which she explored leasing programmes on public lands and the collapse of the coal mining industry due to low prices.

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The Carnage in Coal Country (Wall Street Journal – January 11, 2016)

http://www.wsj.com/

Arch Coal is the latest bankruptcy in the wake of new regulations.

Arch Coal filed for Chapter 11 protection on Monday, continuing an industry collapse that includes the bankruptcies of Patriot Coal, Walter Energy and Alpha Natural Resources. The White House must be cheering, because this is one Obama energy policy that seems to be working.

As President Obama prepares to deliver his final State of the Union address Tuesday, we wonder if he’ll take pride in the damage his policies have done to the coal industry. According to the National Mining Association, 40,000 coal jobs have been lost in the U.S. since 2008.

The wealth destruction has been equally dramatic.

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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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Australia Approves Expansion of Barrier Reef Coal Terminal – by Rob Taylor (Wall Street Journal – December 22, 2015)

http://www.wsj.com/

CANBERRA, Australia—Australia approved the expansion of a shipping terminal close to the Great Barrier Reef on Tuesday, drawing criticism from environmentalists who say an area of outstanding natural beauty is threatened by the decision.

Environment Minister Greg Hunt said he would allow the extension the Abbot Point terminal—used to ship coal to markets in Asia—with 30 conditions to help protect the environment, including a requirement that dredge material be dumped on land instead of in water near the World Heritage-listed reef.

The expanded port will serve one of the world’s largest coal mines that is being developed by Adani Group in Queensland, a state in eastern Australia where the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park is also located. The Indian conglomerate aims to use the port to ship as much as 60 million tons of thermal coal annually to its power plants in India.

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Coal Downturn Hammers Budgets in West Virginia and Wyoming – by Kris Maher and Dan Frosch (Wall Street Journal – December 23, 2015)

http://www.wsj.com/

VAN, W.Va.—Chris West has given up on coal.

In the past year, the 42-year-old former miner was laid off by a company that later filed for bankruptcy and another that has gone out of business.

Mr. West lives in a hilly region here where the conveyor belts at massive roadside mining complexes have gone still, prompting local governments to plan cuts to schools, trash collection and other services.

“Everything here is depressed,” said Mr. West, who lost his car after he couldn’t make monthly payments and is struggling to put a daughter through college. After training for three months to be an emergency medical technician, he now makes $15 an hour, 40% less than his mining pay.

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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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 Kellingley Colliery: Miners Weep After Working Final Shift At Britain’s Last Remaining Deep Coal Mine – by Aubrey Allegretti (Huffington Post UK – December 18, 2015)

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/

Coal mining in Britain fuelled the industrial revolution, provided millions of jobs after the Second World War and defined Maggie Thatcher’s premiership. This morning, it ended with a cup of tea and a polite “salute” to the men whose way of life vanished forever.

Kellingley Colliery, the last underground coal mine which has served countless communities in North Yorkshire since 1965, wound down operations on Friday, with workers offering stories of careers there that spanned decades.

The 450 miners who work at the pit – known locally as the Big K – will receive severance packages at 12 weeks of average pay.

A group of them posed for photos, donning worn orange overalls and hard-hats, proudly cheering on their industry in front of a Union Jack Flag, their photographer calling for mugs of tea to be raised in honour of their legacy.

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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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