Chris White Tech Reporter
November 23, 2019 8:51 PM ET
- Coal producers are still finding life difficult even as President Donald Trump is easing regulations on the industry.
- More than 50 coal plants have shuttered since 2015, when Trump began campaigning to save the industry from former President Barack Obama’s so-called war on coal.
- Trump has seen one of his biggest backers, coal tycoon Robert Murray, fall on hard times after his plant filed for bankruptcy amid the country’s changing energy mix.
One of the largest coal companies in the western U.S. closed Monday, making it among the more than 50 coal producers to shutter since voters elected President Donald Trump in 2016 on a promise to rescue the industry.
The Navajo Generating Station burned the last of its coal as the Arizona-based coal producer deals with the industry’s downturn, the Arizona Republic reported Monday. The mine that supplied the plant with coal closed in August, leaving Navajo with no other supply in the area.
This comes after a coal company headed by one of Trump’s biggest supporters filed for bankruptcy in October. Murray Energy announced on Oct. 29 that it reached an agreement to continue operating, with CEO Robert Murray relinquishing two of his roles in the company.
Murray contributed $1 million to a Trump super political action committee and donated another $300,000 to the president’s inauguration. He’s also been at the forefront of efforts to poke and prod the Department of Energy into crafting policies designed to prop up the fledgling coal industry.
He also has done his level best to provide leverage for the industry during a time of upheaval. A series of reports in 2017, for instance, showed photos of the coal tycoon meeting with Energy Secretary Rick Perry that year to craft policies designed to prop up the coal industry.
Things have been rough for the industry, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA). (RELATED: This Major Trump Backer Is Behind An Effort To Block Gas Power Plants)
Nearly “34.1 [gigawatts] of coal capacity from 170 coal-fired generators at 85 plants have retired — 36 of those plants remain operational” since 2016, Glenn McGrath, an engineer at EIA who is responsible for calculating electricity generation, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. One gigawatt can power roughly 300,000 homes.
He added: “One could reasonably claim that roughly 50 plants with coal-fired capacity have closed.” The closures have actually slowed since 2015 during former President Barack Obama’s final term in office, according to EIA data.
“The annual number of retired U.S. coal units has declined since 2015, and the configuration of retired coal capacity has changed,” EIA noted in a report in July. Most of the plants that have retired since 2015 have been larger than those that shuttered after that year, according to the report.
Trump, meanwhile, is getting pushback from environmentalists and Democrats who object to his regulation rollbacks. New York Attorney General Letitia James is among a handful of attorneys general who are suing the administration to block Trump from easing restriction on coal power plants.
James, a Democrat, argues the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had no basis for weakening a regulation Obama brought in 2015 that placed national limits on carbon dioxide pollution from coal power plants. The so-called Clean Power Plan required states to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 2022 and encouraged states to close and replace facilities with natural gas.
Obama’s rule was expected to force more coal power plants and mines to close down, costing thousands of jobs in the process. Nearly 40% of coal-fired power capacity has been retired or announced plans to retired as a result of market forces, technological change and an increase in regulations, according to some experts. Trump promised to end what conservatives believe was Obama’s “war on coal.”
“America is blessed with extraordinary energy abundance, including more than 250 years worth of beautiful clean coal,” Trump tweeted in a May 2018. “We have ended the war on coal and will continue to work to promote American energy dominance!” He was reviving elements of his campaign promise.
Coal is still an important energy mixture. The U.S. got 27% of its power from coal plants in 2018, despite mining jobs declining in recent years, according to federal data. Coal power generation and mining employed 160,119 American workers in 2016, the Energy Department reported. Coal use globally is expected to rise in the coming decades on growing demand, mostly from Asian countries.
Some energy advocates say the closures are a result of Obama-era regulations. “I do think Trump has ended the war on coal. Most of the plant closures were baked into utility plans once the [Mercury and Air Toxics Standards] MATS rule came out,” Myron Ebell, an analyst at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, told the DCNF. Ebell worked on Trump’s EPA transition team and is a fervent critic of Obama’s policies.
He added: “We and others fought the MATS rule. It was absolutely a shameful rule.” Ebell was referring to the 2011 Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS), an Obama-era regulation that required the EPA to factor in additional “co-benefits” when evaluating a regulation’s cost compared to its expected health benefits. Obama used the rule to justify waves of regulations.
The U.S. Supreme Court overturned the rule in 2015. Justices ruled that the EPA should have considered the costs regulations impose on utilities before foisting rules on them. Obama-era EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy sparked an optimistic tone after the high court acted.
“But even if we don’t, it was three years ago,” McCarthy said on a June, 29 2015 appearance on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher.” “Most of them are already in compliance, investments have been made, and we’ll catch up. And we’re still going to get at the toxic pollution from these facilities.” She has not responded to the DCNF’s request for comment.
EPA supports all kinds of energy production, provided the producers comply with the Clean Air Act, the agency told the DCNF.
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Of course, there will be the usual guff from anti-coalers about NG being “the reason” for coal’s decline. But coal was given a one-two punch, the primary one being from the unconstitutional Obamanible EPA and its blatant attempt at ending coal. The Trump administration needs to do more to help coal get back on its feet, beginning with targeting the EPA’s bogus declaration of CO2 as a “pollutant”. In fact, the EPA should probably be abolished, as it is an out-of-control, unconstitutional body acting without any oversight.
+10
Ditto
+50
I remember GW Bush with that frozen, teleprompter demeanor declaring CO2 a “pollutant”. Grrr…
How’s come the article HEADLINE didn’t read, to wit?
“More Than 50 Coal Companies Have Been Wiped Out Since President Obama, Mayor Bloomberg and Hillary Clinton launched an all-out attack against coal.”
Plusabunch.
Trump did nothing to cause this.
We have been trying to get our Carbon Capture technology in front of President Trump. This technology turns the CO2 into good paying full time jobs and money. http://www.SidelGlobal.com
We don’t use expensive lab produced amine. We use what God has provided to produce a sorbent that absorbs the CO2 turning it into friendly earth based products that can then be sold.
America has to take another look at it’s energy sources and supply. The end of civilization is not here in 10 or 12 years. The democrats want to spend 70 Trillion to reduce CO2 emissions. We want to have Billions go into America’s Economy.
America has over 600 years of good quality coal available. This needs to be used to produce electricity. Our natural gas needs to be used Efficiently for building space heating and by industry to produce all those other products that we consume daily. http://www.SidelSystems.com
America’s oil is to be used for transportation and to produce all those other products where oil is required.
The renewables, solar and wind need to have it’s own grid network feeding the produced electricity to the growing EV industry. When the sun goes down and the wind stops blowing and the batteries go dead it’s time to park and call it a day. No harm done.
The world is better off with “Free Carbon”.
There’s no need to “capture” it.
Plant more trees !!!
You can’t get people to spend their own money on your scam, so you want the president to spend other people’s money on it.
SidelGlobal, a solution that doesn’t work for a problem that doesn’t exist.
That about sums it up.
The best solution is to let CO2 go free and get absorbed by plants that we can use to eat and build stuff with. Plants have been doing this for millions of years and they are very good at it, much better than humans with technology.
The best solution is to let CO2 go free and get absorbed by plants that we can use to eat and build stuff with. Plants have been doing this for millions of years and they are very good at it, much better than humans with technology.
The US coal industry is hardly a “fledgling”. PA anthracite mining took flight in about 1775.
The war on coal wasn’t just “so-called”, but a proud plank of the Obama-Biden programtic platform, waged with a vengeance once in office.
https://www.politico.com/blogs/ben-smith/2008/09/biden-no-coal-plants-here-in-america-012157
The word should have been “struggling”…not fledgling.
Maybe the author meant “flailing”. Or failing.
or maybe the industry is actually a little bird LOL
The author is a moron:
“More than 50 coal plants have shuttered since 2015, when Trump began campaigning to save the industry from former President Barack Obama’s so-called war on coal.” The title mentions 2016 but the article repeatedly speaks of 2015. He is conflating when Trump was elected and when he started his presidential campaign? Don’t forget, many plants were planned to be decommissioned well before that time so regular maintenance processes were ended knowing the timeline for shutdown.
Fledgling?? Get a dictionary.
“Most of the plants that have retired since 2015 have been larger than those that shuttered after that year, according to the report.” I think since and after would mean the same thing in this context. How is the same set different?? Am I confused?
And this is their “Tech” guy. The author point is Trump was incompetent in keeping his promises. He wasn’t even inaugurated until 2017! The numbers are from the beginning of 2015, 2 years BEFORE Trump was the President?? Ridiculous anti-Trump bigotry. Just my opinion.
BTW this reminds me of the news spin on 9-11. Every news outlet stated again and again that 9 months into Bush’s presidency he was incompetent in allowing 9-11 to happen, even after Clinton/Gore refused to allow a normal transition due to the attempted theft of the Presidency. But in reality it happened LESS THAN 8 MONTHS into Bush’s presidency. Go back and look at the reporting, you hear 9 month on every network, by every reporter, as the time into Bush’s first term repeated over and over, when it was roughly 7 month and 21 days. Less than 8 months!
I hold most posters at this site with high regard. Think back, those of you who are old enough, and you will realize that you probably accepted the 9 month lie without ever considering the reality that it was a lie. This is how the MSM manipulate the populace, even the sharper tools in the shed.
well said comment
It’s also not clear that he understands the difference between “coal plant” and “coal [producing|shipping|storage] company”. The headline says companies, the article says plants. Maybe 50 of each have closed… but I’m guessing it’s more likely that he just thinks they are the same thing.
Indeed. While 50 plants have closed (many of which were already scheduled to close before Trump ever took office) only 8 companies have filed for bankruptcy (according to CBS news). so the headline is misleading. Spend years demonizing an industry and putting up legal roadblocks (Obama’s war on coal) and then be shocked when it results in damage to companies that isn’t so easy to undo.
I remember reading a Reuters story that dealt with teen suicides. It studied teens “aged 13-25”.
Math, English, and Logic must not be a prerequisites for journalism students. And I’m damn sure we can rule out Ethics as well.
The President has labeled the democrats the do nothing party. He is partly right, they are the party of do nothing useful.
It would be interesting to know how many democrats and environmentalists are financially invested in new energy. And I always thought before regulations were imposed the cost to citizens a factor.
The obvious reason is fracking. Of course, Mencken warned us about the obvious. What am I missing?
Fracking is part of the equation. Another part is the high cost of new and increased regulatory requirements imposed by Obama’s EPA with the intent to drive coal out of the market
Regulatory uncertainty for one. Renewables subsidies for two. And deep state regulatory inertia for three; many of these closures were set in motion years ago. Let’s see, radical environmentalist group lawyers, four. Behind the scenes natural gasser lobbyists, five. Sue and settle collusion scamming, six. Public school indoctrination programs, seven. Pandering pols, eight. Bogus economic analysis, nine. And activist judges, ten (yeah, I’m looking at you R. Brooke). That’s just off the top of my head but sure, fracking played a part too.
Obama’s “Clean Power Plan” was an attempt to regulate the entire electric power sector in the name of CO2. Instead of dispatching based on cost, it would have forced dispatch based on CO2 emissions and squeezed out coal and gas in favor of renewables. I thought the “E” in EPA stood for “Environmental” not “Energy.” It was a travesty.
Even so, coal plants continue to be shut down.
Is this a good thing or a bad thing?
It is a very bad thing. Eliminating coal puts a strain on other fossil fuels that are used for other purposes. Coal is pretty much good for one thing, and it is the best at it. I’ve always said we need to:
1) use coal and nuclear for electricity
2) use CNG for normal commuting vehicles and home heating and appliances
3) use oil for commercial transport and manufacturing.
Reserve wind and solar for individual use.
I do not understand why the U.S. engineering and manufacturing companies have fallen behind the competition
from other countries. The U.S. built its first High Energy Low Emissions coal plant in 2012 {HELE}. Now we are being eclipsed.
Here is an overview document.
https://www.powermag.com/could-high-efficiency-low-emissions-hele-technology-revive-u-s-coal-power/?pagenum=1
Page 2 has the meat. They are being built in Asia.
I guess the U.S. doesn’t need money that, isn’t falling off a truck.
Regards,
I do not understand why the U.S. engineering and manufacturing companies have fallen behind the competition from other countries.
Rough guess is that natural gas is much cheaper in the US than elsewhere & attracting all the US research & construction. There is a 200 MW fluidized-bed coal plant built near me around the early 2000s and has performed well, but that was one of the last such plants built in the US.
No.
The HELE configurations improve the efficiency 20%.
Second, stop thinking like a person from a developed country.
In Africa, Asia and other multi billion population countries, there are no pipelines and no electric
backbone.
Coal works at the village level.
China lends monies to these countries at a profit and not a give away like the U.S..
And the countries pay up!
Maybe, the CHICOMs are better capitalists then capitalists.
I addressed the comment on US situation. Your Africa, Asia, Chicoms, etc comment is irrelevant to my comment.
The two primary reasons why US engineering and manufacturing have fallen behind are government regulations and unions.
Well, duh. The US war against coal & coal companies had been started long before Trump. Most of it is inevitable as purposely suffocating EPA regs & NG from new fracking has made the coal plants (& mines) uneconomical to keep running.
Destruction is really the only thing progressives are good at.
Creation is really beyond them, except for value as a target.
I think it’s a tragedy that people don’t understand what is going on in Ukraine energy. Seems very 2-faced of Democrats to have used the EPA to shut down coal, yet use Ukraine energy companies like Burisma as a tool to profit from CO2 producing energy companies. $Billions$ of information have been invested by Democrats (John Kerry and Hunter Biden) to promote fracking in Ukraine. They (Burisma) even bought a useless American GREEN energy company in order to get access to U.S. fracking technology. Democrats continue to “sell out” American businesses for their Global Projects (Globalism) IMO. I’m sure they will use their “profiteering” from other countries against U.S. energy companies especially coal companies.
Just a thought.
CHEERS!
Coal plants are shuttering because they are multi decade investments. Favorable administration in 2019 means nothing against the near certainty of another Obama type shiv in the back eventually. And don’t forget their customers. They are influenced to not purchase dirty electrons. Unless you are the Los Angeles DWP which is bust belching in three adjoining states.
LADWP can still virtue signal because they aren’t purchasing ‘dirty’ power in California. The customers don’t care because the ‘dirty’ power isn’t in their back yard.
Utility companies are switching from coal to natural gas. Natural gas is a great fuel; clean burning, easy to use. And in a combined cycle plant efficiencies of nearly 60% are achievable. And thanks to fracking, natural gas is not too expensive either. But I think the big question is how much of it do we have? We need gas for home heating. Coal was used in the past for home heating, but they didn’t worry about the smoke in those days. Today it would be very difficult to heat homes that way. We have enough coal to fuel electric power plants for 100’s of years. But if we use gas instead we might use it all up and not have any left for home heating. That would be a problem.
NG will last as long as we can frack. Byproduct. We can also get NG off of rotting waste. Renewable, in that manner.
So the central fact is Trump hasn’t saved coal, or done anything substantial to save coal?
No.
Is that
No he has not
Or
No you are wrong, he has.
in answer to a question like that rather than oui or non the French use Si to indicate the latter, unlike their verbs this bit of French is simple and clear.
The answer is no, the central fact is not that Trump hasn’t saved coal since any rational human being would understand there is not a single factor involved in the decline of coal. The central fact is there are many factors which cannot all be addressed by a president. Of course, SOME people want a dictator, and in that case, we could save coal. Not that this would ever happen in a dictatorship, of course.
“The closures have actually slowed since 2015 during former President Barack Obama’s final term in office, according to EIA data.”
“More than 50 coal plants have shuttered since 2015, when Trump began campaigning to save the industry from former President Barack Obama’s so-called war on coal. ” (i.e. many of these closures were before Jan 2017, and some after that were still before Trump could get regulations changed.)
No – your ‘green energy’ allies have continued to commit sabotage.
Ever get tired of being so self-serving, Grift?
Griff,
Please see my comments above. Sheri and Jeff are correct, my response is just more verbose so may be easier for a liberal to understand. With liberals, when they are on the wrong side of the facts, it is always about the “nuance”. I think I may have provided that for you.
Drake
Once again a leftists demonstrates that it has no concept of how federalism works, or the limits on the power of the presidency when you have a president that follows the constitution.
Bwahahaha! I doubt Donald Trump can even spell “Constitution”…let alone that he has any knowledge or care about what it says:
https://www.redstate.com/diary/southernconstitutionalist/2016/03/30/profound-ignorance-donald-trump-thinks-that-judges-sign-bills-conduct-investigations/
Donald Trump has worked pretty hard to save coal, but has faced ferocious opposition so it has been far from easy. All the wrestling over the EPA, for example, and court decisions blocking progress (POTUS does not have absolute power). Coal has also faced a resurgence in gas, which is a further headwind.
These things do take time, and I think the tide is turning in the USA. Worldwide, coal is holding its ground. For example, the BP Strategic Review of World Energy says that coal’s share of power generation is the same as in 2010. There’s hope for the world yet.
You deny other people the benefits coal brought to you and YOUR family? That smells of hypocrisy to me.
Coal plants are not coal producers or companies. They are electric producers and coal consumers.
At first, the fisheries were forced to get permits…then the permits were subject to regulations…and restrictions…and environmental compliance. And with each round of rules and regs, each layer of bureaucratic red tape, the permits were first leased or then sold to fewer and bigger fishing concerns until the vast majority of biomass landings permitted were held in just a few large corporations. Then, voila, a plant-based diet is best for us and the government, with a wave of their hand revoke the permits, compensate the corporations, save the oceans and the planet and we’re all vegans. Bravo
I think people should take a look at the coal processing company Arq. It seems they have worked out a way to grind coal into a powder that is finer than the toner used in a laser printer. The result, they say, is a pure hydrocarbon that can be directly to liquid fuel. Their first efforts are aimed at cleaning up big, ugly piles of coal waste (vs. processing coal coming right out of the ground). I think they are sounding a hopeful note for coal.
Besides the arbitrary EPA regulations, there are market forces of extremely cheap natural gas and cheap Australian coal closer to the Asian market which the U.S. coal industry must contend with. If African nations get over the hump of creating an order based society and Asia continues to develop, then American coal will eventually see a resurgence, but I wouldn’t go betting on those contingencies.
Natural Gas is cheap enough to prevent building of new coal burning power stations. I wonder why Alberta tar sands are cheaper still?
Alberta doesn’t have “tar sands”. We have oil sands. It isn’t very cheap. Natural Gas from Alberta doesn’t come from the oil sands.
Trump has tried.
Under Rick Perry the DOE proposed a 90-day rule to grant ‘market easement’ to electricity generation utilities able to stockpile 90 days’ worth of fuel on site. This is the first time in history that the President has declared that having fuel on site was a national priority, indeed with the original definition of National Security. Except, perhaps, the establishment of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
Of course, Trump’s opponents claimed this move that would benefit coal and nuclear energy and no others, was a transparent ruse of favoritism.
Unfortunately FERC — an organization hissing and stinking of natural gas — declined that the grid as it is being built out has any reliability issues. Meanwhile there ever more are grid-feeding gas plants perched on the edge of long haul high pressure pipelines. The issue of rationing and cutting off consumers IF a shortage threatens these plants’ supply, is an unresolved issue. And the United States is one trivial terrorist attack away from cascading grid failure. Remember the Hindenberg!
FERC now under new management. Maybe they will reconsider.
Coal fell victim to the boom/bust oil cycles. This is their first bust. Since they generally spent money like there was no tomorrow, when the downturn started, there was no reserve to tap, nothing. It’s not surprising. Obama didn’t help, but eventually, coal was going to lose its “cheapest fuel out there” title and this would happen. It was just a matter of time. Plus, mines are huge employers and make a lot of noise when they close. Oil and gas seems to be many small companies and it may be the same number of companies and workers, but people don’t notice. Oil and gas has been like for decades. Oil and gas has boom and bust, but the “entitlement” feel of coal is not there. Layoffs are frequent, companies close, yet no outcry. I guess it’s that squeaky wheel thing.
In looking at the chart of US coal prices, the high was 130 in 2011.
Coal is now at 73.
Most industrial commodities have been declining since that huge peak.
In 2008 crude oil (WTI) soared to 147, now at the 52 level.
No point in producing anything if it is unprofitable.
Hmm… that’s torturing the English language slightly. Modern day environmentalists don’t “pushback”. They are firm believers in getting their retaliation in first.
The article and the headline both mention 50 coal companies being shut down. But the quote supporting the article mentions 50 power plants.
So unless each power plant is it’s own company, then the number of coal companies being shut down is less than 50.
Exactly Mark. According to CBSnews the number of coal companies going bankrupt is: Eight.
some additional coal industry information, according to the EIA:
2017:
U.S. coal production increased 6.4% to 774.6 million short tons (MMst) from 2016 levels (which was 728.4 MMst)
U.S. coal consumption decreased 1.9%
The average # of employees at U.S. coal mines increased by 1,256
coal exports increased by 36.7 MMst
2018:
U.S. coal production decreased 2.4% to 756.2 MMst (down from 2017 but still up from 2016)
U.S. coal consumption decreased 4.0%
The average # of employees at U.S. coal mines increased by 532
coal exports increased by 18.7 MMst
So not quite the dire situation for the U.S. coal industry that the article headline would lead you to believe (average employment in coal is up two years running. While U.S. coal consumption – mainly from the electricity sector – have been decreasing, exports have been increasing. production is mixed but still overall up from 2016 numbers).
While I fully support the pushback against the climate do-gooder fools, black lung disease is on the rise. Coal companies need to do much better with regard to their employees health and well-being. It is criminal negligence that air quality for mine workers is so bad.
https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/updates/upd-07-20-18.html
Here in New Hampshire, we have a perfectly good coal power plant which had a huge upgrade about a decade or so ago which sits idle most of the time, being pressed into service only when absolutely needed (such as during a prolonged heat wave, or cold spell). What a waste! The Greenie monster is going to be tough to get rid of I suppose. We’ve still got that RGGI stupidity. Meanwhile the climate numpties and assorted eco-fascists have managed to halt the expansion of NG pipelines through Connecticut and Massachusetts, as well as a high transmission line from Canada, powered by hydro. A lot of that was nimbyism, because the towers would be somewhat taller, but putting way taller bird choppers on ridgetops was OK, because “climate”. It’s enough to make one weep for the stupidity of humans.
Is this simply a case of economics, being that natural gas is far cheaper than coal.
Is coal mined by deep mines as against for example Australia where our minerals are right on the e
surface thus open cut which is a lot cheaper.
Perhaps the solution is to not burn coal, lots of good stuff in coal, but extracting such materials may be a lot cheaper from oil.
While natural gas is cheap then coal for the time being is on the back burner. It is a stand by fuel for the future.
MJE VK5ELL
Coal has some natural advantages over NGL.
Create a scenario, where there is no atmospheric CO2 issues (anthropogenic emissions did not cause the CO2 rise or planetary temperature issues (the rise in CO2 did not cause the temperature rise). Under this scenario there is no temperature or CO2 issues with burning hydrocarbons or coal.
With a neutral scenario what are the advantages of coal vs natural gas?
Coal has a significant transportation advantage and cost advantage for developing countries that do not have local natural gas and cannot afford the infrastructure for natural gas. Say most African countries and many other developing countries.
Coal is a solid that has a great deal of energy per kg and can be transported via truck or rail.
Natural gas requires a large amount of energy to transport. A long distance pipeline burns roughly 30% of the transport gas. Pipelines are expensive.
It takes a large amount of energy to liquify and then gasify the natural gas. Roughly 30%. LNG facilities are very expensive. Again, this gives an advantage to coal over natural gas particularly for developing countries.
NGL is the clear winner over coal if there is close local cheap source of natural gas and/or for developed countries in highly populated regions based on pollution.
What is the “neutral” infrastructure building rate?
Neutral permit attribution?
It just isn’t a thing. There is always at least some politics and some energy strategy.