Coal – Page 92 – Republic of Mining

Former Massey Energy C.E.O. Guilty in Deadly Coal Mine Blast – by Alan Blinder (New York Times – December 3, 2015)

December 3, 2015

http://www.nytimes.com/

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Donald L. Blankenship, a titan of the nation’s coal industry whose approach to business was scrutinized and scorned after 29 workers were killed at the Upper Big Branch mine in 2010, was convicted Thursday of a federal charge of conspiring to violate mine safety standards, part of a case that emerged after the accident, the deadliest in mining in the United States in decades.

The verdict reached by a federal jury here made Mr. Blankenship, 65, the most prominent American coal executive ever to be convicted of a charge connected to the deaths of miners. He had been accused of conspiring to violate mine safety regulations, as well as of deceiving investors and regulators; prosecutors secured a conviction on only one of the three charges.

OPINION: Obama’s Appalachian Tragedy – by Paul H. Tice (Wall Street Journal – November 30, 2015)

December 1, 2015

http://www.wsj.com/

Mr. Tice is a senior managing director and head of the Energy Capital Group at USCA Asset Management LLC.

The traveler comes to the Appalachians in the lovely season. He sees the hills, the streams, the foliage—but not the poor.” That passage comes from “The Other America,” Michael Harrington’s 1962 book that opened the eyes of liberal policy makers to America’s invisible poverty.

The classic work helped provide the intellectual ammunition for President Lyndon Johnson’s “unconditional war on poverty,” announced in his State of the Union address two years later.

Fast forward to today. The latest touchstone of liberal policy, the regulation of greenhouse-gas emissions, is causing economic destruction and pushing poverty higher in the Appalachians.

Europe’s Coal Curtain Is Complicating the Climate Fight – by Ladka Mortkowitz Bauerova (Bloomberg News – November 30, 2015)

December 1, 2015

http://www.bloomberg.com/

At the Bilina mine 50 miles north of Prague, excavators the size of 10-story buildings claw at the earth and scoop out 2,700 tons of brown coal a day to feed the smoke-belching power station on the horizon. After the Czech government relaxed environmental regulations this fall, they’ll be able to keep going for another 40 years.

Some 130 miles away, in eastern Germany, Vattenfall AB’s Jaenschwalde coal pit is preparing to scale back production as the country shifts away from coal and the oldest units of the adjacent power station are scheduled to shut down by 2019.

The two mines highlight Europe’s growing divide on cutting greenhouse gases as global leaders descend on Paris for the biggest climate conference in history.

Coal Miners Feel the Burn – by Rhiannon Hoyle (Wall Street Journal – November 26, 2015)

November 27, 2015

http://www.wsj.com/

SYDNEY—Coal-mining companies whose stock prices have tumbled could use some friends. Instead, they have become the target of campaigners hoping to cast the sector as the new Big Tobacco.

With a meeting of global leaders to discuss climate change beginning Monday in Paris, the campaign has been building support.

This week, German insurer Allianz SE, which manages roughly $2.1 trillion in assets, said it would no longer invest in mining companies or utilities that generate more than 30% of their sales or energy output from coal.

BHP sees coal price getting worse before it gets better – by Mark Ludlow (Australian Financial Review – November 25, 2015)

November 27, 2015

http://www.afr.com/

A senior BHP Billiton executive has warned the market for Australian resources will get a lot worse before it gets better, saying it would be “dangerous” to invest in a new mine based on the assumption coal prices will recover.

As big miners continue to cut costs following a plunge in international coal prices, BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance asset president Rag Udd painted a bleak picture of the resources sector in Australia.

“I think it’s dangerous to try and align a business around prices improving in metallurgical coal. I personally think it will get worse before it gets better,” Mr Udd told a Queensland Resources Council forum in Brisbane on Wednesday.

Rio Tinto says licence to operate will ‘make or break’ miners – by Amanda Saunders (Sydney Morning Herald – November 26, 2015)

November 26, 2015

http://www.smh.com.au/

Rio Tinto coal and copper boss Jean-Sebastien Jacques says thermal coal prices are likely to stay depressed for five to seven years but copper could stage a recovery in two years.

Thermal coal is languishing near US$51 ($70) a tonne, down 20 per cent this year, and a huge drop on the $US150 a tonne it was trading at during the peak of the boom in 2011.

Metallurgical coal prices, like thermal coal, also had “a long way to go” before there was any light at the end of the tunnel, Mr Jacques said.

Rio Tinto has been readying to bow out of coal, restructuring its Hunter Valley business and kicking off its staggered exit two months ago with the $US606 million ($867 million) sale of a minority stake in Bengalla, one of its three mines in the New South Wakes region, to New Hope Group.

Coal communities see bleak future as Obama agenda speeds industry decline – by Ben Wolfgang (Washington Times – November 24, 2015)

November 24, 2015

http://www.washingtontimes.com/

ST. CLAIRSVILLE, Ohio — Frank Stupak got his start in the coal business just as it was beginning its steep decline, and while there’s little chance the industry will ever return to its glory days, the 27-year-old safety manager isn’t giving up hope.

“We know what our industry did for this country. Hopefully someday we’ll get back there,” he said while deep inside an Ohio County Coal Company mine along the Ohio-West Virginia border, coal dust filling the air around him and the sound of machinery nearly drowning out his voice.

Mr. Stupak came to work for the Ohio County Coal Company — a subsidiary of Murray Energy Corp., the nation’s largest coal-mining operation — after briefly attending college but deciding “it wasn’t really my thing.”

[Alberta] Coal industry warns of mine closures, blasts NDP government’s climate plan – by Colette Derworiz (Calgary Herald – November 23, 2015)

November 24, 2015

http://calgaryherald.com/

Alberta’s coal industry fired back at the Notley government’s climate change plan, suggesting the province should be working with the companies to find cleaner ways to burn coal for electricity — rather than speeding up the phase out.

The NDP’s climate change strategy unveiled on Sunday will see the province eliminate pollution caused by burning coal and a shift to more renewable energy and natural gas power generation by 2030. Although it’s being touted as a benefit to public health, the plan raises concerns for the coal industry.

“It has been single-handedly targeted to resolve all of the issues of greenhouse gases in Alberta,” said Robin Campbell, president of the Coal Association of Canada, noting 90 per cent of coal in the province is used for power generation.

India opposes deal to phase out fossil fuels by 2100 at climate summit – by Tommy Wilkes (Reuters India – November 24, 2015)

November 24, 2015

http://in.reuters.com/

NEW DELHI – India would reject a deal to combat climate change that includes a pledge for the world to wean itself off fossil fuels this century, a senior official said, underlying the difficulties countries face in agreeing how to slow global warming.

Almost 200 nations will meet in the French capital on Nov. 30 to try and seal a deal to prevent the planet from warming more than the 2 degrees Celsius that scientists say is vital if the world is to avoid the most devastating effects of climate change.

To keep warming in check, some countries want the Paris agreement to include a commitment to decarbonise — to reduce and ultimately phase out the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas that is blamed for climate change — this century.

Why 2015 will go down as a year to forget for North American coal miners – by Peter Koven (National Post – November 21, 2015)

November 23, 2015

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

Plenty of coal industry insiders have spoken out about the collapse of the business in the United States. But nobody does it with quite the same fervor as Robert Murray.

“We have the worst president the United States has ever had in its history,” said the founder and chief executive of Ohio-based Murray Energy Corp., one of the largest coal producers in the U.S.

“He has stacked the government with hundreds of thousands of bureaucrats who are on a regulatory rampage (against coal) that are carrying out the desires of those who got him elected,” Murray said in an interview.

Sealing off New Zealand’s Pike River Coal mine tragedy – by Ean Higgins (The Australian – November 19, 2015)

November 19, 2015

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

It consumed $NZ290 million in investment, huge amounts of sweat and tears, and five years ago today, the lives of 29 men, including two Australians. Now the Pike River Coal mine is starting to disappear back into the primordial forest of the moody Paparoa Ranges, having produced hardly any coal in commercial quantities.

The bodies of the Pike 29, as they are known locally, and the secrets of how they met their end are in the process of being locked away forever.

But for many of the families of those who died, and the New Zealand union movement, there’s no closure. Many who lost loved ones feel betrayed by the government of John Key, who committed to “getting the boys out”.

Fate of Former Coal Mining CEO in Hands of Jury – by Kris Maher (Wall Street Journal – November 18, 2015)

November 19, 2015

http://www.wsj.com/

Don Blankenship of Massey Energy faces charges over accident that killed 29

CHARLESTON, W.Va.—The fate of former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship, who faces criminal charges in connection with a deadly 2010 coal mine explosion, is now in the hands of a West Virginia jury.

Mr. Blankenship, 65 years old, has been charged with three felony counts that carry a maximum of 30 years in prison, in a rare prosecution of a top corporate executive following an industrial accident. The case stems from an investigation into the explosion at Massey’s Upper Big Branch mine in which 29 miners were killed in the worst U.S. coal mining disaster in four decades.

Teck enduring worst financial squeeze since the recession – by Brent Jang (Globe and Mail – November 19, 2015)

November 19, 2015

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

VANCOUVER — Teck Resources Ltd. is facing its worst financial squeeze since the recession, forcing the company to retrench during a mining industry slump that has hammered coal exports from Canada.

Vancouver-based Teck is cutting 1,000 jobs and lowering its semi-annual dividend to only 5 cents a share as it seeks to corral expenses amid depressed commodity prices.

The diversified mining company will eliminate the jobs at its offices and operations worldwide through layoffs and attrition, representing almost 10 per cent of its current work force.

Elk Valley Coal pumps $1 billion into economy: report – by Gordon Hoekstra (Vancouver Sun – November 15, 2015)

January 14, 2016November 16, 2015

http://www.vancouversun.com/

Nearly 60 per cent goes into Metro Vancouver and Fraser Valley businesses

Teck’s Elk Valley coal operations in the southeastern B.C. spent more than $1 billion on goods and services in the province in 2013, a new report by Resource Works says.

While about one quarter of that spending took place in the southern Interior region the coal operations are located, nearly 60 per cent of the money was pumped into businesses in the Lower Mainland, which includes Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley.

“We are trying to shine a light on a part of the economy that most people don’t see in their day-to-day lives if they live in larger cities, yet has a very significant impact on the employment prospects they enjoy and also the funding for services that governments deliver because of taxes and royalties,” Resource Works executive director Stewart Muir said Sunday.

Clinton’s coal aid plan leaves critics cold – by Darren Goode (Politico.com – November 12, 2015)

November 16, 2015

http://www.politico.com/story

Hillary Clinton’s proposal for $30 billion in aid for people suffering from the decline of the coal industry drew a mixed-to-hostile response Thursday from critics of President Barack Obama’s environmental policies — raising doubts about whether she can arrest the Democratic Party’s electoral slide in coal country.

The package her campaign outlined includes billions of dollars to shore up coal workers’ pension benefits and retrain out-of-work miners or power plant employees to find jobs in other industries. It also includes spending on the so-far-elusive goal of developing “clean coal” technology that would capture and store coal-burning plants’ greenhouse gas pollution.

The plan, which is similar to proposals from Obama, is meant to help coal-dependent communities navigate the transition toward economies based on cleaner energy sources — something that could have an impact in key 2016 states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia and Colorado.