I'm shocked.
Posted on 08/20/2015 3:54:07 AM PDT by markomalley
The real winner of President Barack Obama’s so-called “war on coal” isn’t the EPA, nor is it the natural gas industry. It’s liberal billionaire George Soros.
Last week, Obama’s EPA announced sweeping regulations for U.S. power plants, forcing them to drastically reduce carbon dioxide emissions 32 percent by 2030. The news sent shockwaves through the coal industry, sending stocks tumbling and forcing the industry’s two biggest players to consider bankruptcy filings.
That’s where liberal billionaire Soros steps in. In the days after the Clean Power Plan was announced, Soros bought more than 1 million shares of Peabody Energy and 553,200 shares of Arch Coal — the country’s two biggest publicly-traded coal companies.
Both Peabody and Arch Coal “have seen their market values plummet” due to “competition from cheap natural gas, new environmental regulations and a slowing export market,” according to SNL Financial. Soros was able to pick up these coal stocks on the cheap, in part, due to Obama administration regulations targeting coal-fired power plants and coal mines.
Soros, the 29th richest person in the world, has been a major funder of liberal causes in the country. In 2009, he pledged to spend $1 billion of his own money backing green energy, and he also put funding behind the Climate Policy Initiative think tank, according to The Guardian.
Most importantly, however, is that Soros has been a major financial backer of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton through his super PAC Priorities USA Action. The financial ties between Soros and Democrats has some right-leaning commenters speculating about what all this means.
“I posited that once the existing coal industry ownership was wiped out by President Obama’s regulatory onslaught, a new politically correct ownership would rehabilitate the fuel by contributing to Democrats,” wrote Steve Milloy, an energy expert who runs the blog JunkScience.com.
It’s true that Soros’ coal buy only represented a small portion of his personal wealth and of each company’s available stocks. This could mean that Soros is looking to make some quick cash off a rebound in global coal prices as international demand for the fuel grows. But Milloy thinks that’s unlikely.
“It’s possible that Soros is only looking for a ‘dead cat bounce’ from his Peabody and Arch Coal investments, but the companies together have provable coal reserves of about 11 billion tons, worth hundreds of billions of dollars,” Milloy added. “I doubt the shrewd Soros is looking to make just a few million dollars on these investments.”
I'm shocked.
We have lost so many wonderful, good people in life, and yet, this old coot hangs on. Sometimes it makes you just shake your head in wonder.
As obvious as this is, he just laughs all the way to the bank at the democrat rank and file. Can’t wait to see the “real” reasons he’s doing this.
Michael Bastasch
06/25/2013
President Obama laid out his new plan to tackle global warming Tuesday. In 2008, he made comments about “bankrupting” coal plant owners and making energy prices “skyrocket.”
“So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can; it’s just that it will bankrupt them, because they’re going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted,” Obama said during a meeting with the San Francisco Chronicle’s editorial board.
“Under my plan of a cap-and-trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket. Even regardless of what I say about whether coal is good or bad,” he added. “Because I’m capping greenhouse gases, coal power plants, you know, natural gas, you name it — whatever the plants were, whatever the industry was, they would have to, uh, retrofit their operations. That will cost money. They will pass that money on to consumers.” ...”
************************************************************
From Politico, April, 2012
“If somebody wants to build a coal-fired power plant, they can. It’s just that it will bankrupt them,” Obama said, responding to a question about his cap-and-trade plan. He later added, “Under my plan … electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.”
Of course, cap and trade is long dead. But coal-fired power plants are powering down nationwide, and they are blaming the Obama Environmental Protection Agency. The president’s critics say proposed greenhouse gas regulations for future power plants are designed to cripple the coal industry.
And just like with another 2008 quote — Energy Secretary Steven Chu’s famed call to “figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe” — Republicans say the Chronicle clip shows what’s really in the president’s heart, that high electricity prices and the death of coal have always been Obama’s goal.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0412/74892.html#ixzz3jAzdi18H
This ex-Nazi globalist needs to be expelled from the US.
Buying a stock in an industry sector that has tanked is no guarantee of making money.
Obama/EPA would have to weaken/rescind coal restrictions for stock prices to recover and Soros to make a meaningful profit.
Look for that to happen in the next month or so.
And the Republicans will be blamed.
Republican political rhetoric has driven down the value of coal stocks, making them a good investment for those who know what they are doing.
The premise of the article is faulty. It implies that only George Soros can buy coal stock. Anybody can buy coal stock.
Going forward, coal use will diminish but in 2035 and 2050 sizable amounts of coal will still be used to generate electricity. That amount will depend a lot on the price of natural gas. Or how much renewables are subsidized by congress.
Not all coal is the same. So it needs to be classified.
1. Anthracite, bituminous, lignite
2. Metallurgical or thermal
3. Mining technique: shaft, mountain top, strip mined
4. For the domestic or export market
If you listen to the leftwing enviros, they are complaining because Obama is selling coal leases on western federal lands to the strip miners for dirt cheap.
Fixed it.
et cetera
HOW ABOUT IF HE DID THIS TO GENERATE INTEREST SO HE COULD BAIL FROM EARLIER INVESTMENTS...
BRING IN THE RETAIL SUCKERS...
HEY HOW DO YOU LIKE HIS BLOCKING THE KEYSTONE PIPE THAT BENEFITED BUFFETS TANK/RAIL INVESTMENTS...
AND BESIDES THE OVERSEAS MARKETS FOR COAL WILL REVIVE.
CERTAINLY CHINA COULD CARE LESS ABOUT EPA REGS OR GREENHOUSE GASES... AND HAS NO INTENTION OF DRIVING ITS ENERGY COSTS UP.
IT IS ENERGY SUBSIDIES THAT ENABLE THE CHINESE TO CUT MANUFACTURING COSTS. TAKE ALUMINUM AS AN EXAMPLE... ENERGY DEPENDENT. THAT IS HOW THEY DUMP IT ON THE GLOBAL MARKET..
NO ONE has yet to write an article (no one I'VE read, anyway) about THAT connection !
We hear a lot about Trump and his wealth, but never about how his wealth stacks against another.
ALSO ... I've NEVER heard of Trump being a socio/political pusher to foment change and destruction (like Soros)
Just sayin'
Any bets if he shorted coal on the way down?
Prior to that, in the 90s, he was praised because he funded civil society NGOs in eastern Europe, Georgia, Ukraine, etc.
If you listen to Trump most recently, he has gotten on the "opposed to Iraq invasion" bandwagon, which is not setting well with many republicans. When he talks about it he also says in the next breath that the way we came out of Iraq was also a mistake.
Soros is Trump’s real opponent in the Presidential race.
"He Didn't Build That!
That's Why I've Been
Getting a Cut!"
Fixed.
Once they have ownership they will announce that "Clean Coal" technology has arrived and we must focus on domestic production of energy for the economy and JOBs.
Don’t sell. Coal will be back. Maybe sooner; maybe later, but coal will be back.
If a coal company declares bankruptcy, do the shareholders still retain ownership if the company makes a comeback?
I don’t think so. I think it gets sold.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
