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New EPA rule on greenhouse gases the latest blow to King Coal – by Steven Mufson (Washington Post – August 1, 2015)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/

When coal was king, it fueled more than half of the nation’s electricity. It fired up American industry and powered an ever-growing variety of household appliances and electronics. And American presidential hopefuls paid homage to coal, courting mine owners and miners whose unionized ranks once numbered more than 400,000.

Barack Obama was no exception. As a state legislator in 2004 and again as a U.S. senator, he supported proposals for huge federal subsidies to turn coal into motor fuel and ease America’s reliance on oil imports. “With the right technological innovations, coal has the potential to be a cleaner-burning, domestic alternative to imported oil,” Obama said in June 2007.

All of that has changed. On Monday, the Obama administration takes on the coal industry with the final version of rules it has dubbed the Clean Power Plan, a complex scheme designed to reduce, on a state-by-state basis, the amount of greenhouse gases the nation’s electric power sector emits. The main target: coal.

Today, more people in the United States work jobs installing solar panels than work in the coal industry.

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War of words between charity and coal lobbies – by Ben Hagemann (Australian Mining – July 30, 2015)

http://www.miningaustralia.com.au/

Charity group Oxfam Australia has taken aim at the coal industry in a new report which suggests renewable energy is quicker and cheaper for bringing energy to the developing world than coal-fired power.

The report ‘Powering up against poverty’ accused Peabody Energy, the Minerals Council of Australia, Adani, and other coal mining interests of aggressively promoting coal as a solution for energy poverty, while going no further than PR campaigns in their own interests.

Oxfam also said that statistics given by the Institute of Public Affairs, that an increase in the supply of Australian coal to India would bring electricity to 82 million people, were rejected by Indian NGO the Vasudha Foundation which said the arguments did not stand up “even the most basic scrutiny”.

Report author Dr Simon Bradshaw said there were many examples of how renewable energy was already helping impoverished people to gain access to energy, bringing job creation and community development.

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Mining industry faces job losses as coal and iron ore prices remain depressed (The Guardian – July 29, 2015)

http://www.theguardian.com/

Almost 80% of Australian mining leaders are reducing capital expenditure, up from 44% last year, a report has found

The Australian mining industry is bracing for more job losses and mine closures next year as coal and iron ore prices remain depressed.

Almost 80% of mining leaders are reducing capital expenditure, up from 44% last year, a report by Newport Consulting has found.

While mining company bosses are still reluctant to spend money or make investments, the latest Newport Mining Business Outlook Report shows 16% of mining leaders are cautiously optimistic about their growth prospects for the next 12 months.

Newport managing director David Hand said more job losses were expected as coal and iron ore miners fight to remain competitive.

“Miners are likely to make decisions in the next 12 months to shut more operations,” Hand said. “There are thousands of jobs hanging in the balance right across New South Wales.”

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Margaret’s Museum (British/Canadian Coal Mining Movie – 1995) – Review by Janet Maslin (New York Times – February 7, 1997)

 

http://www.nytimes.com/

Finding Signs of Hardy Life in Tough Surroundings

With a strong and colorful sense of its Nova Scotia setting, ”Margaret’s Museum” describes life in a remote coal mining community. It’s an existence that the film’s reckless, earthy heroine knows all too well. Rough-hewn Margaret MacNeil, played spiritedly by Helena Bonham Carter, has lost a father and brother to ”the pit,” as the miners call it.

And she works as a scrubwoman in the village hospital. Periodically throughout the film, which is set in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s, alarm bells sound as the hospital staff braces for new accident victims from underground.

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Coal’s Fortunes Keep Getting Worse – by James Stafford (Huffington Post – July 21, 2015)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/business/

James Stafford is the editor of Oilprice.com.

The coal industry is in uncharted territory. After decades of strong financial numbers and dominance in the electric power sector, coal producers are starting to fall apart faster than anyone could have anticipated. SNL Financial has produced some jaw dropping data on the quickly deteriorating coal industry, with a horrific performance in the second quarter.

The U.S. coal mining sector has exhibited an unprecedented wave of turmoil in just the last few weeks.

Walter Energy, an Alabama coal miner, announced on July 15 that it is filing for bankruptcy. Senior lenders will see their debt turned into equity, and if the company cannot turn the ship around, it will more or less sell off all of its assets. “In the face of ongoing depressed conditions in the market for met coal, we must do what is necessary to adapt to the new reality in our industry,” Walter Energy’s CEO Walt Scheller said in a press release.

Alpha Natural Resources, a top producer of metallurgical coal (used for steelmaking), was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange because its share price was “abnormally low.” The company is eyeing the possibility of declaring bankruptcy protection.

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In dispute over coal mine project, two ways of life hang in the balance – by William Yardley (Los Angeles Times – July 21, 2015)

http://www.latimes.com/

Crow Agency, Montana – Neither tribe created the modern energy economy. They did not build the railroads or the power plants or the giant freighters that cross the ocean.

But the Crow Tribe, on a vast and remote reservation here in the grasslands of the northern Plains, and the Lummi Nation, nearly a thousand miles to the west on a sliver of shoreline along the Salish Sea in Washington state, have both become unlikely pieces of the machinery that serves the global demand for electricity — and that connection has put them in bitter conflict.

The Crow, whose 2.2 million-acre reservation is one of the largest in the country, have signed an agreement to mine 1.4 billion tons of coal on their land — enough to provide more than a year’s worth of the nation’s coal consumption.

The Lummi, on a 13,000-acre peninsula north of Seattle, are leading dozens of other tribes in a campaign that could block the project. They say it threatens not only the earth’s future climate, but also native lands, sacred sites and a fragile fishery the Lummi and others have depended on for thousands of years.

For the Crow, the project is a matter of survival. Traffic at the Crow’s remote and modest casino provides no meaningful revenue, there are no reservation hotels and unemployment here is well into the double digits.

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BHP Billiton’s coal king Mike Henry digs in for a challenging time – by Matt Chambers (The Australian – July 18, 2015)

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

After 25 years working in and around the mining industry, Mike Henry has been given his first major role managing operations. And it’s a beauty.

In January, the former BHP Billiton marketing boss was made coal president, heading the mining giant’s lowest-margin business at a time when forecasts and prices for the commodity seem to be getting relentlessly worse and in which chief executive Andrew Mackenzie says he will not allocate capital.

But the 48-year-old Henry, who is regarded by company-watchers as a potential internal candidate to succeed Mackenzie, sees plenty of positives.

“I like a challenge and there’s lots to like here,” Henry tells The Weekend Australian from BHP’s coal headquarters on the Brisbane River. “In the first half (of 2014-15), we generated a 2 per cent return on capital and 2 per cent of BHP’s earnings before interest and tax,” he says, explaining coal’s current limited prospects for investment funds.

“My job is to take what we have and make sure that we’re getting the most we possibly can out of it.

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Coal India aiming to double output to one-billion tons a year by 2020 – by Ajoy K Das (MiningWeekly.com – July 17, 2015)

http://www.miningweekly.com/page/americas-home

KOLKATA (miningweekly.com) – Coal India Limited (CIL) dreams of producing one-billion tons of coal a year by 2020, and, as the sixth-largest miner in the world, having big dreams is not unusual. However, if past performance is seen as an indicator of future performance, then it has a lot of sceptics to prove wrong.

“CIL’s major challenge is to meet the rising demand from the power sector . . . and this is how the dream of achieving the one-billion-tons-a-year coal production [target] began,” the miner states in its Roadmap for Enhancement of Coal Production.

“The idea of ramping up production germinated at grassroots level and traversed up, growing bigger as the possible potential was realised,” the vision document adds.

With a current production of 494-million tons a year, the target centres on achieving a 15% compound average annual growth rate (CAGR). However, the road ahead may not be that easy as, over the past five years, CIL’s yearly growth rate has averaged between 0% and 7%, with the latter achieved only in the previous fiscal year.

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Coal Producers Face New Stream Protection Rule From Interior – by Mark Drajem (Bloomberg News – July 16, 2015)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Coal producers would be subject to new restrictions under an Obama administration proposal that would limit operations near streams and curb the disposal of waste, a plan that had been criticized even before it was issued.

The proposal from the Interior Department’s surface mining office, released Thursday, would replace a Bush-era regulation that was tossed out by a federal court. The rule would require companies to avoid mining practices that permanently pollute streams, destroy drinking water sources, increase flood risk or threaten forests.

“As we engage in mining, let’s do so in a way that helps mitigate the impact they can have on the environment,” Interior Department Secretary Sally Jewell said on a conference call. The rules would provide “a modern and balanced approach to energy development,” she said.

The rules won’t take effect until finalized, probably next year. They are meant to deal with the destruction of streams, watersheds, endangered species and forests tied to mountaintop mining for coal.

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[China coal] Mining safety: Shaft of light (The Economist – July 18, 2015)

http://www.economist.com/

The coal that fuels China’s boom is becoming less deadly to extract

FOR decades China’s coal mines served as tragic showcases of greed, corruption and contempt for life: thousands died in accidents every year and many more after prolonged agony from dust-clogged lungs. In 2003 Wen Jiabao, who was then about to become prime minister, went down a shaft to have dumplings with miners.

He told local officials that safety was the Communist Party’s priority. Over the next three years, however, just as many coalworkers died in mines—more than 18,000, by official counts—as in the preceding three years. Mr Wen’s words rang hollow.

Then a striking turnaround began. Chinese coal mines became far safer even as they more than doubled output to fuel the country’s economic boom—they produced 3.9 billion tonnes in 2014, about half the world total. Last year 931 miners were killed in coal-mine accidents.

It was the 12th year in a row in which the death toll reportedly fell. By one measure of mining safety—deaths per million tonnes of coal produced—China’s record had improved twenty-fold since 2002, to 0.24 (see chart).

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UPDATE 2-Miner Anglo warns of up to $4 bln writedown on iron ore and coal assets – by Eric Onstad and Clara Denina (Reuters U.K. – July 16, 2015)

http://uk.reuters.com/

LONDON, July 16 (Reuters) – Mining group Anglo American has warned of a second multi-billion dollar writedown this year on its coal and iron ore assets, demonstrating the growing impact of sliding commodity prices.

The charge of between $3 billion and $4 billion flagged on Thursday, to be taken in its first-half results, comes on top of a $3.9 billion writedown Anglo took for similar reasons in February, when it also posted a 25 percent drop in underlying operating profit for 2014.

Anglo, the fifth-biggest diversified global mining group by stock market capitalisation, is not alone in feeling the pinch of tumbling commodity prices.

BHP Billiton said on Wednesday it will take a $2 billion impairment on its U.S. shale operations, the third writedown in three years.

Anglo has been fighting the impact of struggling metals prices by trying to improve the efficiency of its mining operations and by selling less profitable assets, including coal mines in Australia.

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bama unveils new coal mining rules (The Hill – July 16, 2015)

http://thehill.com/

The Obama administration Thursday unveiled new standards meant to better protect streams in Appalachia from the controversial mountaintop removal coal mining process.

The proposed rule, from the Interior Department’s Office of Surface Mining (OSM), would update three-decade-old standards that create a buffer zone around streams, prohibiting mining activities and waste from getting near them and harming the ecosystem.

Administration officials characterized the rule as a common-sense approach that uses the best available science to protect streams and groundwater from the effects of mining.

But Republicans and industry leaders immediately blasted the rule as part of President Obama’s “war on coal” and challenged the idea that the 1983 standards need updating.

“These regulations are meant to protect human health and welfare by protecting our environment, while helping to meet the nation’s economic needs and supporting economic opportunity,” Interior Secretary Sally Jewell told reporters Thursday.

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The Latest Sign That Coal Is Getting Killed – by Tom Randall (Bloomberg News – July 13, 2015)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Coal is a sick dragon, and the bond market wields a heavy sword

Coal is having a hard time lately. U.S. power plants are switching to natural gas, environmental restrictions are kicking in, and the industry is being derided as the world’s No. 1 climate criminal. Prices have crashed, sure, but for a real sense of coal’s diminishing prospects, check out what’s happening in the bond market.

Bonds are where coal companies turn to raise money for such things as new mines and environmental cleanups. But investors are increasingly reluctant to lend to them. Coal bond prices tumbled 17 percent in the second quarter, according to an analysis by Bloomberg Intelligence. It’s the fourth consecutive quarter of price declines and the worst performance of any industry group by a long shot.

Bonds fluctuate less than stocks, because the payoff is fixed and pretty much guaranteed as long as the borrower remains solvent. A 17 percent decline is huge, and it happened at a time when other energy bonds—oil and gas—were rising. Three of America’s biggest coal producers had the worst-performing bonds for the quarter:

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COLUMN-China Shenhua’s Australian coal mine on troubled path – by Clyde Russell (Reuters India – July 14, 2015)

http://in.reuters.com/

LAUNCESTON, Australia, July 14 (Reuters) – A planned Chinese-owned coal mine in Australia has become the latest example in a long line of mud-slinging trumping sensible debate.

While it makes for great headlines, there are few things less edifying than seeing politicians, business and community leaders flinging gratuitous insults at each other.

The stoush is over the Australian federal government’s approval of a A$1 billion ($746 million) coal mine being developed by China Shenhua Energy Co in the Liverpool Plains region of New South Wales state.

It would be something of an understatement to say the 10-million tonne a year project has been controversial, with its approval showing splits in the ruling Liberal National coalition, while prompting threats of civil disobedience from farmers and legal action from a variety of opponents.

The main issue is that the proposed mine, known as Watermark, is in prime agricultural land and there is concern that not only will it take up land that could be used for farming, but also that the mine will deplete or degrade the region’s underground water table.

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China imports of coal go into steep decline but there’s a silver lining for Australia – by Angus Grigg (Australian Financial Review – July 13, 2015)

http://www.afr.com/

China is demanding less coal and more wheat.

That’s the key message from first-half trade data released on Monday by the Customs Bureau, which showed China’s overall imports remained weak while exports were only marginally better.

In US dollar terms the value of trade in the world’s second biggest economy fell 6.9 per cent over the first half of the year as wheat imports surged and coal declined.

For Australia, these wildly divergent statistics are hard to ignore. Over the first six months of the year, the volume of China’s coal imports fell 37.5 per cent compared to the same period in 2014.

The volume of wheat imports was up 66.5 per cent over the same period. For coal, the decline is a combination of protectionism and falling domestic demand.

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