Free Republic

Jeffrey Grossman thinks we've been looking at coal all wrong. Instead of just setting it afire, thus ignoring the molecular complexity of this highly varied material, he says, we should be harnessing the real value of that diversity and complex chemistry. Coal could become the basis for solar panels, batteries, or electronic devices, he and his research team say. Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-04-electronics-coal.html#jCp

There was a time in America -- and it wasn't even so long ago -- that liberals cared a lot about working-class people. They may have been misguided in many of their policy solutions -- e.g., raising the minimum wage -- but at least their hearts were in the right place. Then a strange thing happened about a decade ago. Radical environmentalists took control of the Democratic Party. These leftists care more about the supposed rise of the oceans than the financial survival of the middle class. The industrial unions made a catastrophic decision to get in bed with these...

There was a time in America — and it wasn't even so long ago — that liberals cared a lot about working-class people. They may have been misguided in many of their policy solutions — e.g., raising the minimum wage — but at least their hearts were in the right place. Then a strange thing happened about a decade ago. Radical environmentalists took control of the Democratic Party. These leftists care more about the supposed rise of the oceans than the financial survival of the middle class. The industrial unions made a catastrophic decision to get in bed with these...

Peabody Energy, the nation's largest coal miner, has filed for bankruptcy protection as a crosscurrent of environmental, technological and economic changes wreak havoc across the industry. Mines and offices at Peabody, a company founded in 1833 by 24-year-old Francis S. Peabody, will continue to operate as it moves through the bankruptcy process. However, Peabody's planned sale of its New Mexico and Colorado assets were terminated after the buyer was unable to complete the deal. The company's bankruptcy filing comes less than three months after another from Arch Coal, the country's second-largest miner, which followed bankruptcy filings from Alpha Natural Resources,...

Donald Trump states in Pittsburgh he will bring back Pittsburgh's coal industry, clean coal. And also he will bring back Pittsburgh's steel industry.

Bowie Resources Partners’ purchase of Peabody Energy Corp.‘s Twentymile Mine in Routt County has fallen through, and Peabody has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization. Peabody, the world’s largest privately owned producer of coal, joins other major coal companies including Arch Coal, owner of the West Elk Mine in the North Fork Valley, in going bankrupt. Arch Coal also is in Chapter 11 reorganization. Bowie, owner of the Bowie No. 2 Mine near Paonia, had agreed to buy Twentymile and two mine properties in New Mexico for $358 million. But Peabody previously had said Bowie was still trying to find...

In a sign of the times, the world’s largest private sector coal miner just went bankrupt. The St. Louis-based Peabody Energy Corp. warned a month ago that it was considering filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and on Wednesday they made it official. Peabody’s mines will continue to operate uninterrupted through the bankruptcy process. According to Peabody’s court filing, it has obtained $800 million in debtor-in-possession financing facilities. “Through today’s action, we will seek an in-court solution to Peabody’s substantial debt burden amid a historically challenged industry backdrop. This process enables us to strengthen liquidity and reduce debt, build upon the...

“Cheap natural gas is killing coal.” While that headline has been written dozens of times over the last few years, it continues to be true. In fact, natural gas has become even cheaper over the past year, and the slow death of coal is poised to accelerate. In a new report from Moody’s, and reported on by SNL, the ratings agency predicts that cheap natural gas could lead to another massive wave of coal-fired power plant closures over the next year and a half.

the U.S. Supreme Court .. issued an injunction blocking the EPA from implementing its Clean Power Plan, which would end America’s use of coal, its cheapest and most abundant source of electricity. ... Western Colorado’s economy is so dependent on coal. It employs more than 2,000 people and generates $58 million in federal and state royalties, $28 million in private landowner royalties, $4.5 million in reclamation funds, and pays $28 million in property, severance, and sales taxes — all of it on the Western Slope. EPA has never tried anything so unpopular in its 45-year history, and that is saying...

It may be April 1, but apparently Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul is not joking about supporting Donald Trump for the Republican nomination if — if — he emerges as the party's nominee in the general election. Paul said Friday morning that he would support whoever is named the Republican nominee, even if it's Trump, telling a Cincinnati Enquirer reporter during a visit to the metro area in Kentucky that backing the Manhattan businessman would be better than going for Hillary Clinton. The senator, according to the report, specifically criticized Clinton's comments in Ohio that she would "put a whole lot...

Controversial coal executive Robert Murray is planning a fundraiser for Ted Cruz on April 6, though he says he isn’t endorsing the Texas senator for president. Murray, the CEO of the Ohio-based Murray Energy Corp., said he would support the eventual Republican nominee but wants to help fill Cruz’s campaign account to keep him competitive with front-runner Donald Trump. “I have not picked a candidate, but I do know that Ted Cruz needs some money,” Murray told The Hill from his office in St. Clairsville, Ohio, which is located directly over a coal mine. “I think at this time in...

President Obama openly declared war on coal in his last State of the Union address. And it’s going to be a very, very expensive war. “Now we’ve got to accelerate the transition away from old, dirtier energy sources,” Obama said. “Rather than subsidize the past, we should invest in the future - especially in communities that rely on fossil fuels. We do them no favor when we don’t show them where the trends are going. That’s why I’m going to push to change the way we manage our oil and coal resources, so that they better reflect the costs they...

By now, most people probably know about one of Secretary Hillary Clinton’s biggest campaign gaffes to date: “we’re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.” As soon as I heard it, I tweeted: “Imagine a presidential candidate running for office based on putting people out of work?” I wasn’t the only one shocked by the uncharacteristic clarity of her statement. Lacking the usual political-speak, her comments were all the more surprising in that they were not made at a fundraiser in billionaire environmental donor Tom Steyer’s posh San Francisco living room. They were...

Peabody Energy, the world's largest private-sector coal producer, warned early Wednesday it may go out of business, the latest sign of the brutal conditions in the battered industry. In a regulatory filing the company said that ongoing losses and its decision to miss certain interest payments means it may not have enough cash to "sustain operations and continue as a going concern."

Obama Administration has illegally bypassed Congress, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and the States and their Public Utility Commissions The global warming/climate change industry has been aggressively pushing renewable energy, wind, solar, and biofuels for a long time even though the economies of various industrialized countries need much more energy than what renewables generate. The green activists have been zealously lobbying Congress and the EPA to change the laws, rules, and regulations that would make it much more expensive and difficult for fossil fuel energy producers to survive while passing the higher costs onto consumers, impoverishing those customers on fixed...

During her time as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton was an avid proponent of advanced energy recovery methods such as hydraulic fracturing. Yet it now seems her efforts to gain the Democratic Presidential nomination have led Clinton to completely reverse this support, moving towards an anti-energy stance, which could prove damning for her in energy rich swing states. During the March 6th Democratic debate, in response to a question about hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking” as commonly referred,Clinton laid out a list of anti-energy conditions she’d impose to end the practice. Clinton stated, “By the time we get through all of...

Facing a backlash from Appalachian Democrats, Hillary Clinton’s campaign on Monday tried to reaffirm her commitment to coal communities one day after declaring on national television she was going to “to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.” Clinton’s comments came during a Sunday night appearance on CNN, where she was asked a question about how her policies would benefit poor white people in southern states who generally vote Republican. […] Clinton was touting a plan she released last year that would set aside $30 billion to protect the health benefits for coal miners and...

...But trust her! Normally, if Hillary says she “won’t forget you,” you start looking for a way into some kind of witness protection program. It’s sort of like when a character in a mob movie promises to “take care of you.” The endgame is implied. ...And so it is with America’s coal industry and the people it employees. Except, in the case of fossil fuels, Hillary isn’t even going the double-entendre route. She’s being explicit in her promise to destroy coal companies, and eliminate the jobs they provide. As Hillary says:

And, the liberal zombies sat there and nodded in agreement. Hillary Clinton bragged during her CNN town hall in Ohio that she’s going to put a lot of coal miners out of work. It should be no surprise that the Republican Party carries working class districts in America by a 2-1 margin. And working Middle Class Americans support Donald Trump.

The Environmental Protection Agency is spending nearly $300,000 to develop technology that will track the energy and water use of office buildings, with a colored light bulb system that will send "visual messages" to employees when they are using too much.