WASHINGTON – U.S. rail traffic grew 4.2 percent in February thanks in part to a surge in coal shipments. "The 19.2 percent increase in coal carloads in February 2017 was the highest percentage gain for coal since sometime before 1988 when our…
http://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2017/03/02-aar-carloads
Drudge had several stories on how active some Eastern Coal sites are. Working 7 days. Max overtime. Yuge increase in traffic. All the miners called back. And it came suddenly. The question is, is this permanent. If it is then Rail traffic should increase. If it already has, and happened mid-February, then the figure given would be an understatement.
Time will tell.
I believe it is permanent. What was not permenant was the 8-year war on coal. Fortunately, that war has ended.
Economics has also had a lot to do with the decrease in coal production, both for domestic use and export.
Obviously, clean air isn’t that important to you.
I don’t think it’s permanant. We still today have the luxury of pretending man made climate change isn’t real. In a few years, however, we will nolonger have that option, and humankind’s adverse impact on the environment will be all too obvious and probably irreversible. And coal won’t do any good where power plants have already converted to gas.
It’s real. But nature is capable of throwing much larger curves at us, climate-wise, than anything mankind has been able to do. Most of the climate change hype has been directed at putting money in peoples pockets, not saving the environment.
That said - we should be paying attention to what mankind is doing, and work to minimize it. And, lo and behold, we already have. And much of it was done long before “climate change” became part of our daily lexicon.
As we know from the various fossil records - the Earth has bounced between being totally tropical with very high CO2 readings and Snowball Earth - frozen from both Poles almost to the Equator - ALL WITHOUT MAN’S INTERVENTION.
I’m not naieve enough to think what man has done over the past couple of centuries hasn’t had any effect - I just don’t know how much is man and how much is Nature.
Part of the economics was the promise to bankrupt coal plants with new regualtions. I prefer clean air, but I don’t require it to be free of CO2 in order to be clean. In any case, the war to kill Old King Coal with regulations is over. Nice to see that destructive era receding in the rear view mirror.
I see more solar panels on roofs every day…that’s where the future is going. The resurgence in coal if there even is one will be shortlived. At least I wouldn’t dump my life savings into a coal mine…
Ulrich when Mount St Helens blew up in 1980 it released more energy than had ever been released by every atomic weapon used or tested since 1945. It released more ash than 10,000 power plants going at full power for 200 years. It produced more CO2 gas in more belch than every car in the USA Canada and Europe did in 1980. So tell me again how bad man is for the Enviroment. Or as the late great George Carlin said it best the Planet is fine the People are SCREWED I changed the wording to make it safe for the forums.
I’m no scientist… but the scientific community has been telling us for some 20 years now that manmade pollution is significantly and adversely altering our environment. They’re the experts… I haven’t done my own measurements so like we all do I have to place my trust in what others are saying. They have the credentials… I don’t see any conspiracy from which they stand to gain… so I tend to believe them.
Which is about the same amount of time a certain politician has been trading in carbon credits. Coincidence? I don’t think so.
Better watch it, we’re drifting into politics… (No thanks to me)
But you will have to invest a good part of those life savings into solar panels, if you are so inclined.
Not a bad idea actually… lots of ground floor opportunities in that sector…
Ulrich - no idea what you are doing when you quote someone - but what is quoted is appearing two times in your resulting post.
What might be shortlived are those solar panels once we find out what their lifespan actually is.
BWAH HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha… (gasp) hahahaha
Ulrich- You see solar panels more frequently because you live in ONTARIO, and the good folks are desperately trying to get out from electricity rates that no one else on the entire North American continent would or could tolerate. Folks in the States and here in Saskatchewan don’t have a clue what you are faced with.
We’re seeing a lot of solar in northern New York - both residential and municipal.
Of course, it doesn’t matter that we’ve got the St Lawrence Power Project, and myriad smaller hydro power installations, not to mention a nuke plant. Most of that power goes straight to NYC.