Recent news on Coal and Energy

The following are news articles and blog posts about coal, mountaintop removal mining and valley fills, and energy from a regional, national and global perspective.

Price of Central Appalachian Coal

According to the Federal Energy Information Administration (EIA) the current price for Central Appalachian Coal is about $108 a short ton on the spot market. Last year at this time Central Appalachian Coal was about $45 a short ton.

Articles about Coal:

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  The following is an article from The Nation about future of climate change policy with either Senator McCain or Senator Obama as the next president of the United States of America.  Below is an excerpt from the article quoting James Hansen, the leading climate scientist at NASA.

We need a moratorium on the construction of traditional coal-fired power plants by 2010 and a phase-out by 2030," Hansen said in an interview. This farewell to coal "has to be global," the NASA scientist added. That means it must include China and India, which won't be easy; both countries insist that burning coal is essential to lifting their people out of poverty.

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  Here is an article from the AP about a methane gas explosion in a mine in the Ukraine that has trapped 37 coal miners. According to the article "for every 1 million tons of coal brought to the surface in Ukraine, three miners lose their lives." external-link





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  And here is another posted an hour ago from the AP reporting that 23 of the 37 miners have been rescued.



• Miners working at the Absaloka Mine in Montana strike because of poor wages and a hostile work environment. external-link 

Citing years of below-average pay and a hostile work environment, the mostly Crow Indian workforce of the Absaloka Coal Mine vowed Monday to strike around the clock until conditions change.

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  This is a funny video that is a parody of some of the recent advertisements touting clean coal possibilities.



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  Here is a good article from the New York Times about problems the coal industry is confronting trying to develop carbon sequestration technology. The article goes on to describe why carbon sequestration is not likely to be a part of the solution to Global Warming. And this is a good follow-up letter to the editor in the New York Times about the previous article on carbon sequestration written by Mary Anne Hitt, the executive director of Appalachian Voices.



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  I think it is important that those of us working to protect ourselves from the abuses of the coal industry understand what is happening on the economic side of things related to coal. Below is an excerpt from a June 5th U.S. News and World Report article titled Skip Alternative Energy - Dig for Coal Stocks, written by Kathy Marquardt, found in the Your Money Section.

"That said, we think the most exciting part of the U.S. energy sector today is our nation's coal companies. According to the Energy Information Administration, the U.S. has the largest reserves of coal in the world, with a 27 percent share. Compared to other fossil fuels, coal is by far the cheapest fossil fuel in the world today.

Also, the dynamics are changing in the coal industry. Three situations have developed: First, China, which was once a big exporter of coal, has become an importer to feed its growing demand for electricity. Second, there have been major disruptions to the operations of the traditional coal exporters, with flooding in Australia and power outages in South Africa. Third, U.S. coal is more attractively priced than coal from other regions of the world. These dynamics have made for dramatic increases in the exports of U.S. coal, although traditionally, our coal was used primarily for domestic consumption. This export demand shows no signs of letting up in the future, as both India and China each plan to build more than 1,000 new coal-fired electricity plants over the next five years.

How are you investing in coal?

First, we want companies with a lot of coal reserves, and that leads us to Peabody Energy, the largest publicly traded coal company in the world. Peabody has mining operations in the U.S. and Australia, so they'll be able to meet the rising demand from both Asia and eastern Europe for coal. Second, we like companies that are well positioned to take advantage of this new demand for U.S. coal exports, and that brings us to Alpha Natural Resources, which is based in the Appalachian Mountains and is the largest coal exporter via their partial ownership of one of the nation's busiest coal ports in Virginia.

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  Once again High School students are helping to lead us down a path of clean survivable energy policy and away from our dependency on dirty coal power plants. This article talks about grassroots groups in Minnesota protesting a proposed new coal fired power plant in south eastern South Dakota.

Articles about mountaintop removal mining and valley fills:

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  A north Carolina State Representative and ally organizations such as Appalachian Voices are pushing a bill in the North Carolina legislature that would ban public utilities from burning coal from mines that blow up mountains and bury streams. You can read about this effort here, at the environmental news  source Gristmill.

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  This editorial from the Roanoke Times shows how energy in the United States has always had a high cost, no matter how "cheap" it may appear especially when we are talking about external costs of coal mining.



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  Here is a very good article about allies in West Virginia promoting a long term wind project that will supply more energy and long term economic development over a short term, highly destructive mountaintop removal mine.



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  The message is spreading across the country, here is a letter to the editor in a Massachusetts news paper. And at the bottom of this page is another letter to the editor about mountaintop removal mining in a Brattleboro Vermont News paper.

Articles about Energy:

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  Here is a blog post talking about a new method of creating solar powered electricity, it's called Nanosolar. The company working on developing nanosolar technology says using their method of generating solar electricity it costs about 30 cents per watts vs. about 1 dollar per watt to produce electricity from coal.