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Alpha Natural Resources idles eight mines, production cuts to follow
Truly an example of the “war” this administration is waging on our abundant resources of coal. Yet, most of these states voted democrat. Let there be a valuable lesson here.
In a war there are casulaties. In Obama’s “war on coal” the mines and the miners are the casulaties. These mine closings and layoff are literally just thirty minutes drive from where I live and are taking a devestating toll on the economy of SW Va. It is death by regulation. Pray for the people to find jobs or for the Feds to loosen the restictions and let them have thier old jobs back.
I thought the current administration wants to increase employment? A lot of coal fired plants are closing due to the new EPA regs.
These mines are not closing due to environmental regulations about coal fired power plants. They’re closing because natural gas is abundant and cheap. Why run a costly to maintain coal boiler when you can run a clean gas turbine with practically no maintenance and produce electricity for 1/2 to 2/3 the cost of coal? These mines aren’t going open or coal fired power plants aren’t going to reopen if the regulations are relaxed. It just doesn’t make any economic sense to burn coal anymore for the forseeable future (10-20 years).
These mines are not closing due to environmental regulations about coal fired power plants. They’re closing because natural gas is abundant and cheap. Why run a costly to maintain coal boiler when you can run a clean gas turbine with practically no maintenance and produce electricity for 1/2 to 2/3 the cost of coal? These mines aren’t going open or coal fired power plants aren’t going to reopen if the regulations are relaxed. It just doesn’t make any economic sense to burn coal anymore for the forseeable future (10-20 years).
Thermal coal use is dropping because natural gas now costs far less than coal, so power plants are switching to gas. This is entirely the free market working here, nothing to do with any government actions.
And this is this just the begining folks.If you know who gets re elected on 11/6 a cascade across this county will take place the unelected and accountable bunch at the epa.Read today how 200 coal fired plants might be shutting in the near future
James - sorry, you’re off the mark about the EPA. Their onerous smokestack regulations have forced several coal-fired power plants in Texas to shut down, even in the face of a significant shortage of generating capacity. The market here is demanding more coal, not less, but the cost of meeting the EPA regulations is prohibitive, to the point of making it completely unprofitable to fit the plants with the necessary equipment to get already minimal emissions even lower.
Somewhere I read that it is the lower price for natural gas that is causing reduced utilization of coal fired plants.
Virginia, West Virginian,
Is West Virginian a new state of the US?
will come production curtailments
say what?
Ain’t the EPA wunnerful?
In a war there ARE casualties. The incredible drop in natural gas prices thanks to fracking technology has displaced coal as the predominant fuel in power plants. It’s just cheaper to build and operate a gas-powered plant than a coal-fired plant. They are also easier to get permits for and approval times for gas-powered plants are far less than coal-fired ones.
You want to save coal?
Abolish the EPA and take all the Democrats and Republicans with you! It’s time to put some common sense in charge of this government and the only way to do it is ask Ottawa to take over for a few years and clean up the last 24 years of incompetence in Washington - in all three branches of government.
Good Grief guys. President Obama and the EPA are not closing coal mines. Free market economics are closing coal mines - just as any good card carrying member of the Tea Party or Republican right wing would want it. In this country we have free markets for energy of all kinds - coal, natural gas, electricty, and petroleum. This de-regulation began in earnest during the presidency of Ronald Reagan when the NYSE first set up a futures exchange for petroleum and petroleum products in an effort to pry pricing abilities away from OPEC control. What a success this has been! Our energy costs are controlled by the free market as it should be to ensure good and even supply where needed - free market prevails. Why anyone would want to invest in a coal burning plant at this time is beyond belief. The stuff is a rock. It can’t be moved by pipeline, it can’t be pumped, it takes up thousands of acres to store, heavy machinery to move around and is difficult to burn and then you have mountains of ash to deal with. So - the market is telling coal it is no longer needed. Don’t worry - coal will reinvent itself in some way and find new markets, however we can’t envision what those markets will be just now. Under the current administration oil production has risen to over 6.5 million barrels per day, the highest since 1999. The current administration is increasing domestic energy production and reducing our reliance on foreign oil all due the economics of the free market. Save all the “the sky is falling” right wing crap for something that it truly applies to.
To Mr. Wayne Jenkins of Tennessee; may I ask you to clarify which Ottawa you are referring to? Ottawa, Ontario, Canada? Heaven help you if that is what you want!