Posted on 06/08/2015 8:23:54 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
The war has been waged on several fronts for nearly a decade, and the aggressors are poised to declare victory over the wounded U.S. coal industry.
After powering the Industrial Revolution and helping to turn the U.S. into the world’s top economic power, coal now seems to be drowning in what environmentalists call a “deadly cocktail” — a rabid, politically potent anti-fossil fuels movement, the rise of cheap, abundant, relatively clean domestic natural gas and an Obama administration that freely admits it wants to decrease coal use in America through a host of new rules.
That near-perfect storm is taking its toll.
Some of the nation’s top utilities say they’re planning to drastically reduce their coal portfolios over the next five years. Financial giants such as Bank of America no longer are willing to invest in coal projects. Researchers say traditional coal states such as West Virginia will see massive coal production declines and job losses over the next decade.
Federal agencies predict coal consumption in the power-generation sector will fall by 6 percent this year. The Environmental Protection Agency says coal’s share of U.S. power generation will drop by nearly 25 percent over the next 15 years if proposed regulations go into effect as scheduled.
Symbolizing coal’s decline across the country, Pennsylvania’s last standing coal breaker, the St. Nicholas breaker in the heart of anthracite coal country, now is being torn down. The breaker wasn’t operational, but its demise still is a powerful reminder of how far coal has fallen.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
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As the ban on alcohol was eventually lifted so too this will not last. Future generations will laugh at this folly.
Too true and well said!
Fools.
Why travel internationally when you can teleconference?
I’m kinda waiting for the first big winter storm after we have cut out the coal and nuclear plants and have gone wind and solar. Wind and solar don’t work in the snow, and so an east coast winter storm like any of last winter’s will cause blackouts. That might be our “oops” moment.
The use of coal in China and India is essential to produce reliable cheap electricity. Without it, there is miserable poverty. The Indians and Chinese will not be abandoning coal.
Good luck with that.
I am very optimistic that 2016 will bode well for us good guys.
And then the liberal heads exploding begins.
I can hardly wait :-)
Guess these foes of coal will be ok in the dark without electricity when coal companies close
The next generations may be happy that we “conserved” on coal for 20 years leaving more of it cheap when they go to use it.
So I leased a Kia Soul EV.
In my mind, it’s powered by coal, since coal creates electricity. Just like the coal fired steam engines before, powering American transportation.
So, hey. I’m doing my small part to support the coal industry, despite the ongoing PC onslaught.
...and someone is going to make a killing.
It won't be cheap if no one remembers how to mine it.
There so brave.
Technology will make carbon fuels obsolete long before then.
Well.....at least more coal for those who survive the great rebooting....
I hope you’re right.
Stop the regs and all this goes away. There’s an opportunity here, not just a risk.
As soon as they start shivering.
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