Rufus, you claim to know a lot about the coal industry...and I am sure you know more about it than I do...so can you tell me WHY the coal industry is suffering now?
Obama promised to do something about our dependency on foreign oil for energy...he has not. From what I understand (and correct me if I am wrong), the USA has enough COAL to power industry and provide electricity for us for over 100 years...without the OIL we have and without the OIL we currently import.
If we have THAT MUCH COAL, WHY ARE COAL MINES CLOSING AND WHY ARE MINERS BEING LET GO?
Shouldn't we be exploiting our own energy sources?
I read that it was due to excessive regulation...is that incorrect?
Why Are Coal Plants Closing?
Moderators: Pike Ridge Beagles, Aaron Bartlett
Why Are Coal Plants Closing?
The 1st amendment allows the usual liberal narcissistic "I think.." which is how they start all their sentences.
The second amendment protects us from implementing "I think"
The second amendment protects us from implementing "I think"
Re: Why Are Coal Plants Closing?
Maybe you don't wanna answer and expose yourself to be as big of a FRAUD as you homosexual mancrush Obambi has proven himself to be???
Maybe you don't know ANYTHING real about the coal industry...
Just because you live in what used to be coal country doesn't make you an expert on it, does it??
Maybe you don't know ANYTHING real about the coal industry...
Just because you live in what used to be coal country doesn't make you an expert on it, does it??
The 1st amendment allows the usual liberal narcissistic "I think.." which is how they start all their sentences.
The second amendment protects us from implementing "I think"
The second amendment protects us from implementing "I think"
-
Pine Mt Beagles
- Posts: 7803
- Joined: Wed May 11, 2005 6:01 pm
- Location: Pineville Ky
Re: Why Are Coal Plants Closing?
THE Reason I didn't say anything is that new miners are being trained every day here ,and just about every mine around here is hiring -I turned down a job last week 140,000,mines in some places are doing better than others ,I think the one thing- that is going on with mines right now- is natural gas prices.and mines are stock piling to sell later.
If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and not be answered
Re: Why Are Coal Plants Closing?
Pine Mt Beagles wrote:THE Reason I didn't say anything is that new miners are being trained every day here ,and just about every mine around here is hiring -I turned down a job last week 140,000,mines in some places are doing better than others ,I think the one thing- that is going on with mines right now- is natural gas prices.and mines are stock piling to sell later.
Alright...some of that makes sense...but didn't the EPA shut down some mines recently with their excessive regulation?
It just seems that when energy prices are at an ALL TIIME HIGH as OIL is, when there is so much national security tied up in energy, it seems that we should be exploiting ALL our resources...not having coal mines "stockpiling" coal, which I don't actually believe is going on...I think the coal industry has been targeted by the Obama administration because OBAMA SAID HE WOULD TARGET THEM...
When he was still a candidate Obama said roughly the following "...they can open a coal mine if they want to, its just that it will bankrupt them if they do...."
If you cannot find it I will cut and paste the exact wording for you...He said energy prices would necessarily skyrocket under his cap and trade plans...he is NO FRIEND TO DOMESTIC ENERGY.
I just wanted your take on the Coal Industry in particular.
The 1st amendment allows the usual liberal narcissistic "I think.." which is how they start all their sentences.
The second amendment protects us from implementing "I think"
The second amendment protects us from implementing "I think"
-
Pine Mt Beagles
- Posts: 7803
- Joined: Wed May 11, 2005 6:01 pm
- Location: Pineville Ky
Re: Why Are Coal Plants Closing?
When I inspected coal mines ,there were the same laws as there are now,A few years back there was a push to stop some of the spoil piles and hollow fills to use better retaining methods to keep the black mud out of the rivers,as far as I know no new laws have been added,I guess you know it but,all the regulatory parts of government inforce laws in different ways ,most of the ime when some one new got appointed to a district manager position they would have some laws they woulds enforce hard and others they would relax some on the law didn't change just he enforcement .I don't know of any new E P A-laws governing the mining of coal and clay under the 30 -C F R-code of federal regulations-or under the 1977 Act. but some may have changed. M S H A Comes under the department of labor same AS O S H A-last I heard Elane Chow Mitch McConnel's wife was over the Department of Labor ,I'am sure that has Changed by now.
If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and not be answered
Re: Why Are Coal Plants Closing?
bluegrass wrote:Rufus, you claim to know a lot about the coal industry...and I am sure you know more about it than I do...so can you tell me WHY the coal industry is suffering now?
Blue, I'll take you at your word that the coal industry is in a down turn, as I don't know this as fact. . However, If in deed that is the case the answer is really pretty simple. In the free market society in which we live, currently the price of natural gas is a much cheaper form of energy. Natural gas drilling currently is at an all time high in this country , and the supply is plentiful. under the Obama administration a record number permits have been granted. "drill baby drill"
Big Mike
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Rabbithoundjb
- Posts: 4517
- Joined: Wed Jun 28, 2006 4:30 pm
- Location: Rocky Mount, NC
Re: Why Are Coal Plants Closing?
Well Mike maybe you could show us a list of all of those Obama permits since what I found says drilling permits down 36% under the Obama administration.
Re: Why Are Coal Plants Closing?
Rabbithoundjb wrote:Well Mike maybe you could show us a list of all of those Obama permits since what I found says drilling permits down 36% under the Obama administration.
you have bad information
Big Mike
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Pine Mt Beagles
- Posts: 7803
- Joined: Wed May 11, 2005 6:01 pm
- Location: Pineville Ky
Re: Why Are Coal Plants Closing?
Natural gas gold rush: Is your state next?
By Dan Vergano, USA TODAY Updated 7/2/2012 12:44
The script might not play out exactly the same in each new community touched by the nationwide boom in natural gas and oil drilling, but the changes have a familiar echo:
By Eileen Blass, USA TODAY
A shale gas well operates at night in Moshannon State Forest in Clearfield County, Pa. Twenty states including Pennsylvania have shale gas wells, rigs that tap rock layers harboring gas in shale formations.
By Eileen Blass, USA TODAY
A shale gas well operates at night in Moshannon State Forest in Clearfield County, Pa. Twenty states including Pennsylvania have shale gas wells, rigs that tap rock layers harboring gas in shale formations.
Trucks. Noise. Cash. Conflict.
Since the late 1990s, American landscapes have become dotted with a small forest of shale gas wells — 13,000 new ones a year, or about 35 a day, according to the American Petroleum Institute. In the past decade, this steady stream of development has become a gusher as nearly half the country has staked claim to these energy riches. In 2000, the USA had 342,000 natural gas wells. By 2010, more than 510,000 were in place — a 49% jump — according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Twenty states have shale gas wells, so-named because they tap rock layers that harbor the gas in shale formations (with names such as Marcellus, Utica, Barnett). The bulk of the drilling has come since 2006, according to the EIA.
The fracking debate
Organic farmer concerned about fracking
Wherever drilling happens, life changes.
First, the "landmen," or agents from drilling companies, show up offering three- to six-year drilling leases to property owners. The payoff can be as little as $15 an acre or up to $6,000 an acre, producing a new class of wealthy landowners, though some have used the windfall to simply pay off old farm debts.
Then the trucks arrive and the drilling starts, using a process called hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," to retrieve the natural gas. The process pumps millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals underground to fracture shale layers and release its natural gas.
That's what happens below the Earth's surface. Above ground, rents increase and hotel rooms begin to fill up. In the process, out-of-the-way towns that had been moseying along for decades begin to change: Some folks are thrilled at the infusion of jobs and cash, and others worry about higher rents and the massive change in the landscape. After all, right before their eyes, forests and farms become factories for finding fossil fuel.
"The issue is, what kind of landscape is left behind? Who's going to win? Who's going to lose?" says Harvard public policy professor David Keith, speaking at a National Academy of Sciences event in May.
Whatever the changes, fracking is no longer a distant phenomenon for many Americans. Natural gas production from shale was just shy of a trillion cubic feet in 2006. Last year, it swelled to 7.19 trillion cubic feet, a 600% increase, according to the EIA.
Stephen Cleghorn, owner of a 50-acre certified organic farm and goat dairy in Reynoldsville, Pa., is worried hydraulic fracturing gas drilling activity nearby will affect his animals and the farm he and his wife started in 2005.
At this rate, it might be coming soon to a town near you.
Where the money is good
Starting with efforts during the 1990s to fracture the Barnett shale in Texas — a 5,000-square-mile rock layer more than 320 million years old and loaded with natural gas — shale fracking has crept across the country. More than 1,400 wells were drilled last year across Pennsylvania alone, and nearly that many the year before, according to the state's Department of Environmental Protection.
"Oh my heavens, yes, the boom is here," says Ohio State University agricultural extension agent Mike Hogan, who until recently worked in two eastern Ohio counties, Harrison and Jefferson. Both sit atop the Utica shale, about 10,000 feet down and prized for its "wet" natural gas, rich with liquid ethane, butane, propane and heavier liquids that can be made into gasoline.
As natural gas prices are down and gasoline prices top $3 a gallon in most of the country, the action in hydraulic fracturing has found a home in eastern Ohio.
"The number of trucks on the roads is incredible," Hogan says. "But the money is more than welcome here."
States swept up in the fracking frenzy rush to keep pace with the relatively new phenomenon.
In New York, community and business groups are fighting over an unreleased proposal by Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo that could limit fracking to a handful of economically struggling counties along the border with Pennsylvania.
In May, regulators unveiled updated rules to cover fracking in Ohio, the latest state to take such a turn. The regulations require water well tests within 1,500 feet of gas wells, partial disclosure of fracking fluids and other measures to ensure "cradle-to-grave" monitoring of wells.
Next door in Pennsylvania, regulators approved similar rules last year for drilling from its Marcellus shale, a layer of rock about 7,000 feet deep stretching from New York State to Tennessee, which was the star of the boom six months ago. The Marcellus shale produces mostly "dry" natural gas, a commodity whose price has fallen by half over the past year.
The two states illustrate the wider issues that ride tandem with the spread of the fracking boom, seen from North Dakota to Texas and beyond.
"A big issue is just change itself. Too often 'fracking' gets blamed when it's the whole package that leads to the problems — the trucks, the noise, the workers, the environmental problems, the feeling of being disempowered by regulations," says rural sociologist Kathy Brasier of Penn State. "At the same time, there's no doubt that this industrial activity causes significant change to the landscape, and there are unanswered questions about environmental impacts that concern people."
The big questions
The first to confront the questions are landowners, sometimes offered big money for rights to drill on their property.
"We have had some landowners walk into extension offices with 'million-dollar' checks, and ask, 'What now?' " says Ohio State's Kenneth Martin, who heads the university's agricultural extension efforts that have helped farmers and landowners in the state for decades.
Besides producing such "winners," boomtowns typically see more jobs (unemployment is down more than a percentage point in Ohio's eastern counties in the past year, partly because of manufacturing and drilling activity), more occupied hotel rooms, more Texas and Oklahoma license plates on drillers' cars and higher property values, increasing rents and taxes.
"The big question we hear is, 'when do I pull the trigger' and sign a lease agreement," says Steve Schumacher, an Ohio State extension agent in Belmont County, where the heavy drilling has not quite started. "We have had some time to prepare in Ohio because we have seen what happened elsewhere." Schumacher and his colleagues tell landowners to get everything in writing, check their water for methane and brace for change.
Even as the price of natural gas dropped to around $2 for a thousand cubic feet this warm winter — half last year's price — states caught up in the boom have enjoyed an employment windfall when jobs nationally have been hard to come by. Since 2009, Pennsylvania has 38,900 natural resources jobs, up 72%; North Dakota has 21,900 jobs, a 172% surge, according to Federal Reserve data.
These numbers don't include
jobs added to service the fracking industry — everything from selling workers donuts to making steel pipes used in the process. One-time lease checks — some for more than six figures — also can juice local economies, according to Schumacher.
At the same time, concerns have mounted about the risks of having such industrial activity near towns and farms. Some farmers have taken smaller lease checks on the promise that the wellheads wouldn't be on their land. That shifts the hassle and noise of a wellhead — an industrial site up to 8 acres in size and operating 24 hours a day while it is being drilled — onto the land of neighbors who took bigger checks. The wells drill down to the shale layer, then fracture the rock sideways to recover the natural gas under all the leased land.
Just a small start
By Dan Vergano, USA TODAY Updated 7/2/2012 12:44
The script might not play out exactly the same in each new community touched by the nationwide boom in natural gas and oil drilling, but the changes have a familiar echo:
By Eileen Blass, USA TODAY
A shale gas well operates at night in Moshannon State Forest in Clearfield County, Pa. Twenty states including Pennsylvania have shale gas wells, rigs that tap rock layers harboring gas in shale formations.
By Eileen Blass, USA TODAY
A shale gas well operates at night in Moshannon State Forest in Clearfield County, Pa. Twenty states including Pennsylvania have shale gas wells, rigs that tap rock layers harboring gas in shale formations.
Trucks. Noise. Cash. Conflict.
Since the late 1990s, American landscapes have become dotted with a small forest of shale gas wells — 13,000 new ones a year, or about 35 a day, according to the American Petroleum Institute. In the past decade, this steady stream of development has become a gusher as nearly half the country has staked claim to these energy riches. In 2000, the USA had 342,000 natural gas wells. By 2010, more than 510,000 were in place — a 49% jump — according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Twenty states have shale gas wells, so-named because they tap rock layers that harbor the gas in shale formations (with names such as Marcellus, Utica, Barnett). The bulk of the drilling has come since 2006, according to the EIA.
The fracking debate
Organic farmer concerned about fracking
Wherever drilling happens, life changes.
First, the "landmen," or agents from drilling companies, show up offering three- to six-year drilling leases to property owners. The payoff can be as little as $15 an acre or up to $6,000 an acre, producing a new class of wealthy landowners, though some have used the windfall to simply pay off old farm debts.
Then the trucks arrive and the drilling starts, using a process called hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," to retrieve the natural gas. The process pumps millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals underground to fracture shale layers and release its natural gas.
That's what happens below the Earth's surface. Above ground, rents increase and hotel rooms begin to fill up. In the process, out-of-the-way towns that had been moseying along for decades begin to change: Some folks are thrilled at the infusion of jobs and cash, and others worry about higher rents and the massive change in the landscape. After all, right before their eyes, forests and farms become factories for finding fossil fuel.
"The issue is, what kind of landscape is left behind? Who's going to win? Who's going to lose?" says Harvard public policy professor David Keith, speaking at a National Academy of Sciences event in May.
Whatever the changes, fracking is no longer a distant phenomenon for many Americans. Natural gas production from shale was just shy of a trillion cubic feet in 2006. Last year, it swelled to 7.19 trillion cubic feet, a 600% increase, according to the EIA.
Stephen Cleghorn, owner of a 50-acre certified organic farm and goat dairy in Reynoldsville, Pa., is worried hydraulic fracturing gas drilling activity nearby will affect his animals and the farm he and his wife started in 2005.
At this rate, it might be coming soon to a town near you.
Where the money is good
Starting with efforts during the 1990s to fracture the Barnett shale in Texas — a 5,000-square-mile rock layer more than 320 million years old and loaded with natural gas — shale fracking has crept across the country. More than 1,400 wells were drilled last year across Pennsylvania alone, and nearly that many the year before, according to the state's Department of Environmental Protection.
"Oh my heavens, yes, the boom is here," says Ohio State University agricultural extension agent Mike Hogan, who until recently worked in two eastern Ohio counties, Harrison and Jefferson. Both sit atop the Utica shale, about 10,000 feet down and prized for its "wet" natural gas, rich with liquid ethane, butane, propane and heavier liquids that can be made into gasoline.
As natural gas prices are down and gasoline prices top $3 a gallon in most of the country, the action in hydraulic fracturing has found a home in eastern Ohio.
"The number of trucks on the roads is incredible," Hogan says. "But the money is more than welcome here."
States swept up in the fracking frenzy rush to keep pace with the relatively new phenomenon.
In New York, community and business groups are fighting over an unreleased proposal by Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo that could limit fracking to a handful of economically struggling counties along the border with Pennsylvania.
In May, regulators unveiled updated rules to cover fracking in Ohio, the latest state to take such a turn. The regulations require water well tests within 1,500 feet of gas wells, partial disclosure of fracking fluids and other measures to ensure "cradle-to-grave" monitoring of wells.
Next door in Pennsylvania, regulators approved similar rules last year for drilling from its Marcellus shale, a layer of rock about 7,000 feet deep stretching from New York State to Tennessee, which was the star of the boom six months ago. The Marcellus shale produces mostly "dry" natural gas, a commodity whose price has fallen by half over the past year.
The two states illustrate the wider issues that ride tandem with the spread of the fracking boom, seen from North Dakota to Texas and beyond.
"A big issue is just change itself. Too often 'fracking' gets blamed when it's the whole package that leads to the problems — the trucks, the noise, the workers, the environmental problems, the feeling of being disempowered by regulations," says rural sociologist Kathy Brasier of Penn State. "At the same time, there's no doubt that this industrial activity causes significant change to the landscape, and there are unanswered questions about environmental impacts that concern people."
The big questions
The first to confront the questions are landowners, sometimes offered big money for rights to drill on their property.
"We have had some landowners walk into extension offices with 'million-dollar' checks, and ask, 'What now?' " says Ohio State's Kenneth Martin, who heads the university's agricultural extension efforts that have helped farmers and landowners in the state for decades.
Besides producing such "winners," boomtowns typically see more jobs (unemployment is down more than a percentage point in Ohio's eastern counties in the past year, partly because of manufacturing and drilling activity), more occupied hotel rooms, more Texas and Oklahoma license plates on drillers' cars and higher property values, increasing rents and taxes.
"The big question we hear is, 'when do I pull the trigger' and sign a lease agreement," says Steve Schumacher, an Ohio State extension agent in Belmont County, where the heavy drilling has not quite started. "We have had some time to prepare in Ohio because we have seen what happened elsewhere." Schumacher and his colleagues tell landowners to get everything in writing, check their water for methane and brace for change.
Even as the price of natural gas dropped to around $2 for a thousand cubic feet this warm winter — half last year's price — states caught up in the boom have enjoyed an employment windfall when jobs nationally have been hard to come by. Since 2009, Pennsylvania has 38,900 natural resources jobs, up 72%; North Dakota has 21,900 jobs, a 172% surge, according to Federal Reserve data.
These numbers don't include
jobs added to service the fracking industry — everything from selling workers donuts to making steel pipes used in the process. One-time lease checks — some for more than six figures — also can juice local economies, according to Schumacher.
At the same time, concerns have mounted about the risks of having such industrial activity near towns and farms. Some farmers have taken smaller lease checks on the promise that the wellheads wouldn't be on their land. That shifts the hassle and noise of a wellhead — an industrial site up to 8 acres in size and operating 24 hours a day while it is being drilled — onto the land of neighbors who took bigger checks. The wells drill down to the shale layer, then fracture the rock sideways to recover the natural gas under all the leased land.
Just a small start
If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and not be answered
-
Pine Mt Beagles
- Posts: 7803
- Joined: Wed May 11, 2005 6:01 pm
- Location: Pineville Ky
Re: Why Are Coal Plants Closing?
Obama says the U.S. has a “record number of oil rigs" and "more working oil and gas rigs than the rest of the world”
President Barack Obama came to the University of Miami to talk about energy, and with Republicans attacking him over a recent spike in gas prices, Obama attacked back.
"Only in politics do people root for bad news, do they greet bad news so enthusiastically. You pay more; they’re licking their chops," Obama told the college crowd on Feb. 23, 2012.
"You can bet that since it’s an election year, they’re already dusting off their 3-point plan for $2 gas. And I’ll save you the suspense. Step one is to drill, and step two is to drill. And then step three is to keep drilling," he said.
"Now, we absolutely need safe, responsible oil production here in America. That’s why under my administration, America is producing more oil today than at any time in the last eight years. That’s why we have a record number of oil rigs operating right now – more working oil and gas rigs than the rest of the world combined."
President Barack Obama came to the University of Miami to talk about energy, and with Republicans attacking him over a recent spike in gas prices, Obama attacked back.
"Only in politics do people root for bad news, do they greet bad news so enthusiastically. You pay more; they’re licking their chops," Obama told the college crowd on Feb. 23, 2012.
"You can bet that since it’s an election year, they’re already dusting off their 3-point plan for $2 gas. And I’ll save you the suspense. Step one is to drill, and step two is to drill. And then step three is to keep drilling," he said.
"Now, we absolutely need safe, responsible oil production here in America. That’s why under my administration, America is producing more oil today than at any time in the last eight years. That’s why we have a record number of oil rigs operating right now – more working oil and gas rigs than the rest of the world combined."
If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and not be answered
-
Rabbithoundjb
- Posts: 4517
- Joined: Wed Jun 28, 2006 4:30 pm
- Location: Rocky Mount, NC
Re: Why Are Coal Plants Closing?
Obama says, LMAO! thats not the first or last lie he will tell. I'm sure in areas we are producing oil and gas but according to the bureau of land management under Clinton 1992 until 2000 permits up 58%, under Bush 2000 to 2008 up 116%, under Obama 2008 to 2011 down 36%.
Getting to the question asked though, coal plants are closing because of Obamas EPA.
Getting to the question asked though, coal plants are closing because of Obamas EPA.
Re: Why Are Coal Plants Closing?
Coal mines close down and reopen under different names to get rid of unions.
DPL needs 2.5 million tons if you know anyone selling.
Stockpiling is what the meat industry is doing now waiting for the surge in price when the grain reports come out, they won't let the supply/demand free market work.
When you hear 40% of the prices are factored in speculation, it's no wonder we're where we're at.
I remember a few years ago where the "green" folks bought a coal plant in Texas just to shut it down. don't ignore those forces today, prices have dropped so buying plants is cheaper.
The life of a windmill will just about pay for it'self, subsidize it all you want, drive the price of a megawatt down but nobody's electricity bill goes down.
Winter coming and those coal burners will wake from the slumber, it's call "Idled Reserve".
I haven't seen any trucks from the scrap yard at the gates yet...
DPL needs 2.5 million tons if you know anyone selling.
Stockpiling is what the meat industry is doing now waiting for the surge in price when the grain reports come out, they won't let the supply/demand free market work.
When you hear 40% of the prices are factored in speculation, it's no wonder we're where we're at.
I remember a few years ago where the "green" folks bought a coal plant in Texas just to shut it down. don't ignore those forces today, prices have dropped so buying plants is cheaper.
The life of a windmill will just about pay for it'self, subsidize it all you want, drive the price of a megawatt down but nobody's electricity bill goes down.
Winter coming and those coal burners will wake from the slumber, it's call "Idled Reserve".
I haven't seen any trucks from the scrap yard at the gates yet...
Re: Why Are Coal Plants Closing?
Um, Charles....I'm not even sure what you said...BUT I did find THIS:
Report: More than 200 coal-fired generators slated for shutdown
Published: 11:29 PM 09/21/2012
By Michael Bastasch
Within the next three to five years, more than 200 coal-fired electric generating units will be shut down across 25 states due to EPA regulations and factors including cheap natural gas, according to a new report by the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE).
“This is further evidence that EPA is waging a war on coal, and a war on affordable electricity prices and jobs. EPA continues to ignore the damage that its new regulations are causing to the U.S. economy and to states that depend on coal for jobs and affordable electricity,” said Mike Duncan, president and CEO of ACCCE, in a statement.
However, ACCCE notes that EPA policies may have played a role more than 4,800 megawatts of announced closures not included on in their report which would bring total shutdowns to 241 coal generator in 30 states — more than 36,000 MW of electric generation or 11 percent of the U.S. coal fleet.
The most affected states include Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, and North Carolina, which will see a combined 103 coal-fired generators shut down.
“Actually our utility rates are higher and the impact is such that it’s going to interfere with the quality of life that a lot of individuals have in my community,” said John McNeil, mayor of Red Springs, N.C., in an ACCCE video — one of the heavily affected states.
According to ACCCE, coal provides more than half of North Carolina’s power. Poorer areas, like Red Springs, where a number of residents are on fixed income or live below the poverty line, are adversely affected by higher electricity bills because they eat up a greater portion of their income.
“During my lifetime, Red Springs has gone through some fairly significant changes. We don’t have the large textile plants which provide employments opportunities for many people. We’ve just shifted away,” said John Roberts of John’s Fuel Service, also in Red Springs.
“Most people, their income is fixed,” Roberts continued.
“They can’t say ‘hey, I need fourteen dollars an hour as compared to twelve an hour to offset my energy price,’” he argued.
On Friday, the coal industry caught a slight break as the House voted 233 to 175 to stop the Obama administration’s so-called “war on coal,” passing a bill that would limit the EPA’s regulatory authority over greenhouse gases and limit the Interior Department’s ability to issue coal mining rules.
“Since taking office, the Obama Administration has waged a multi-front war on coal — on coal jobs, on the small businesses in the mining supply chain, and on the low-cost energy that millions of Americans rely upon,” said Washington Republican Rep. Doc Hastings on the House floor Thursday.
Earlier this week, coal company Alpha Natural Resources announced it would be laying off 1,200 workers and closing eight coal mines to face two new challenges: cheap natural gas and “a regulatory environment that’s aggressively aimed at constraining the use of coal.”
“These lost jobs aren’t random events — they are the direct result of the policies and actions of the Obama Administration — these are the outcomes of their regulatory war on coal,” Hastings added.
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/09/21/repor ... z27EOGiKkg
Report: More than 200 coal-fired generators slated for shutdown
Published: 11:29 PM 09/21/2012
By Michael Bastasch
Within the next three to five years, more than 200 coal-fired electric generating units will be shut down across 25 states due to EPA regulations and factors including cheap natural gas, according to a new report by the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE).
“This is further evidence that EPA is waging a war on coal, and a war on affordable electricity prices and jobs. EPA continues to ignore the damage that its new regulations are causing to the U.S. economy and to states that depend on coal for jobs and affordable electricity,” said Mike Duncan, president and CEO of ACCCE, in a statement.
However, ACCCE notes that EPA policies may have played a role more than 4,800 megawatts of announced closures not included on in their report which would bring total shutdowns to 241 coal generator in 30 states — more than 36,000 MW of electric generation or 11 percent of the U.S. coal fleet.
The most affected states include Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, and North Carolina, which will see a combined 103 coal-fired generators shut down.
“Actually our utility rates are higher and the impact is such that it’s going to interfere with the quality of life that a lot of individuals have in my community,” said John McNeil, mayor of Red Springs, N.C., in an ACCCE video — one of the heavily affected states.
According to ACCCE, coal provides more than half of North Carolina’s power. Poorer areas, like Red Springs, where a number of residents are on fixed income or live below the poverty line, are adversely affected by higher electricity bills because they eat up a greater portion of their income.
“During my lifetime, Red Springs has gone through some fairly significant changes. We don’t have the large textile plants which provide employments opportunities for many people. We’ve just shifted away,” said John Roberts of John’s Fuel Service, also in Red Springs.
“Most people, their income is fixed,” Roberts continued.
“They can’t say ‘hey, I need fourteen dollars an hour as compared to twelve an hour to offset my energy price,’” he argued.
On Friday, the coal industry caught a slight break as the House voted 233 to 175 to stop the Obama administration’s so-called “war on coal,” passing a bill that would limit the EPA’s regulatory authority over greenhouse gases and limit the Interior Department’s ability to issue coal mining rules.
“Since taking office, the Obama Administration has waged a multi-front war on coal — on coal jobs, on the small businesses in the mining supply chain, and on the low-cost energy that millions of Americans rely upon,” said Washington Republican Rep. Doc Hastings on the House floor Thursday.
Earlier this week, coal company Alpha Natural Resources announced it would be laying off 1,200 workers and closing eight coal mines to face two new challenges: cheap natural gas and “a regulatory environment that’s aggressively aimed at constraining the use of coal.”
“These lost jobs aren’t random events — they are the direct result of the policies and actions of the Obama Administration — these are the outcomes of their regulatory war on coal,” Hastings added.
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/09/21/repor ... z27EOGiKkg
The 1st amendment allows the usual liberal narcissistic "I think.." which is how they start all their sentences.
The second amendment protects us from implementing "I think"
The second amendment protects us from implementing "I think"
Re: Why Are Coal Plants Closing?
Why are coal plants closing?
A combination of things,
Grandfathered plants have to install scrubbers and nox controls. Many of these plants are small older plants from what I know of. there time line was limited.
The flood of NG into the market, the increase of subsidized wind power, the over all constriction of power usage have all played into figuring if the cost vrs. return is worthy of the investment of updating these coal plants. Many of these plants are over 50 yrs old, as the ladies used to say in the commercial , "We've came a long way baby." They used to only use these plants as "peakers" when demand was high.
Coal gasification was a coming event.
Hope this makes some sense to you.
A combination of things,
Grandfathered plants have to install scrubbers and nox controls. Many of these plants are small older plants from what I know of. there time line was limited.
The flood of NG into the market, the increase of subsidized wind power, the over all constriction of power usage have all played into figuring if the cost vrs. return is worthy of the investment of updating these coal plants. Many of these plants are over 50 yrs old, as the ladies used to say in the commercial , "We've came a long way baby." They used to only use these plants as "peakers" when demand was high.
Coal gasification was a coming event.
Hope this makes some sense to you.
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Pine Mt Beagles
- Posts: 7803
- Joined: Wed May 11, 2005 6:01 pm
- Location: Pineville Ky
Re: Why Are Coal Plants Closing?
Patch
I have been doing a little research on Coal gasification -Do you have any idea why it is not catching on better -besides the obvious-it's A dirty fuel sourse-One of the companies- I used to work for was -some years back was doing research here to set up plants But -sold out -and left .
One thing around here that is gong on now is the bigger companies are shutting down -and opening back up under a different I.D.number offering lower pay and no benefits.
I have been doing a little research on Coal gasification -Do you have any idea why it is not catching on better -besides the obvious-it's A dirty fuel sourse-One of the companies- I used to work for was -some years back was doing research here to set up plants But -sold out -and left .
One thing around here that is gong on now is the bigger companies are shutting down -and opening back up under a different I.D.number offering lower pay and no benefits.
If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and not be answered