Admin note: This article takes a look at the broader impacts of implementing the EPA’s MATS rule. It is a fair review of the costs and expected closures/outages that will result from the move to make extensive capital investments to the existing coal fleet. This article was originally published on GenerationHub.com and is reprinted with [...] … [Read more...]
Tariffs on Chinese solar
May 18, 2012 By
Cato President, David Boaz, discusses the Obama administration’s move to impose import tariffs on Chinese solar panels and solar cells. Boaz likens the US solar industry’s demands for protection from foreign competition to Fredric Bastiat’s “Candlemakers Petition.” (I enthusiastically embrace any opportunity to link to or recount Monsieur Bastiat’s thoughts, so …) You are on [...] … [Read more...]
The ‘hockey stick’ may be faltering
May 17, 2012 By
The ‘hockey stick‘ graph produced by Michael Mann, at Penn State may have suffered the final blow to its credibility. As more original data sets are released to the public and other scientists and statisticians have the opportunity to recreate Mann’s work, their findings are lacking the distinct 20th century uptick in temperatures. But at [...] … [Read more...]
Sierra Club moves beyond coal to target natural gas
May 4, 2012 By
This article demonstrates something that I have been telling listeners in my writing and public speaking for years. When the environmental industry feels comfortable in its ability to attack and suppress one form of energy, they inevitably move on to the next. For those who believed the stories that green groups viewed natural gas as [...] … [Read more...]
King Coal Still Reigns
May 4, 2012 By
This article by the Australian describes the rush to use coal across the planet as renewables fail to fill gaps and European natural gas prices remain stubbornly high. Despite high hopes for renewables, the figures show the world to be on the cusp of another fossil fuel boom. King Coal is refusing to die and, [...] … [Read more...]
EPA earning a reputation for abuse
May 4, 2012 By
The EPA is earning a reputation for abuse … Interestingly, this short article doesn’t discuss the EPA’s regulations targeted at the coal industry when there is a host of other examples to pick from there. … [Read more...]
Time for the EPA to stop putting politics before facts
May 3, 2012 By
Lance Brown with PACE has a good editorial in the Houston Chronicle where he argues that it is time for the EPA to quit with the political games and move back to regulation that is based in science and reason. Brown recounts the story of Al Armendariz, former EPA Region 6 Administrator who joked about [...] … [Read more...]
Maria’s Place – rising energy costs are hitting the average Joe … & Maria … hard
May 3, 2012 By
Maria Tworek’s story is the same story being told by millions of American’s over the past few years. Maria is a small business owner that is working hard to provide her customers with a good product and her family with a roof over their heads. But small business owners like Maria are struggling to deal [...] … [Read more...]
CORESafety
May 2, 2012 By
Because mining safety is EVERYBODY’s business. NMA Core Safety from SPARK Experience Design on Vimeo. … [Read more...]
CORESafety
May 2, 2012 By
Because mining safety is EVERYBODY’s business. NMA Core Safety from SPARK Experience Design on Vimeo. … [Read more...]
Why can’t we be treated like everybody else?
May 2, 2012 By
This is a powerful video of Rep. Hal Rogers (KY) questioning EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson on the EPA’s refusal to approve Appalachian mining permits. It’s instructive to see Ms. Jackson and her staff struggling and scrambling to find one out of her claimed “many” approved permits, when Mr. Rogers asks her to give him the [...] … [Read more...]
EPA Official explains his department’s “philosophy of enforcement”
April 26, 2012 By
This video of Al Armendariz, EPA’s Region VI Administrator provides a very clear view into the mind and intentions of at least one high-ranking EPA official – Armedariz states that he is responsible for 150 EPA agents and for enforcement activities across five states. While answering a question in a public meeting, Mr. Armendariz likens his [...] … [Read more...]
EPA Official explains his department’s “philosophy of enforcement”
April 26, 2012 By
This video of Al Armendariz, EPA’s Region VI Administrator provides a very clear view into the mind and intentions of at least one high-ranking EPA official – Armedariz states that he is responsible for 150 EPA agents and for enforcement activities across five states. While answering a question in a public meeting, Mr. Armendariz likened his [...] … [Read more...]
Rep. Davis (KY): The EPA is Wrong on Coal
April 18, 2012 By
We are reprinting this Weekly Column by Congressman Geoff Davis with permission. Rep. Davis makes some excellent points regarding the damage that the EPA’s continued assault on coal will have on our economy, American jobs, and energy users across the country (read: all Americans). Rep. Davis also touches on the very real problems that will [...] … [Read more...]
America’s Power: Salsa Todd
April 18, 2012 By
Now’s the time to stand up for the benefits of affordable, abundant, secure, domestic energy. It’s the thing that keeps small businessmen like Todd going. By shutting down that flow of that energy, the war on coal has become a war on small businessmen like Todd. … [Read more...]
Exxon CEO defends the benefits of energy
April 17, 2012 By
While this Forbes.com article is looking at natural gas, the pride that Rex Tillerson, CEO of Exxon Mobile, shows in his company’s ability to provide abundant, affordable, domestic energy to this country, is an excellent pattern for the coal industry. Tillerson brushes aside environmental concerns as manageable and overblown. He regards the shale surge as [...] … [Read more...]
Exxon CEO defends the benefits of energy
April 17, 2012 By
While this Forbes.com article is looking at natural gas, the pride that Rex Tillerson, CEO of Exxon Mobile, shows in his company’s ability to provide abundant, affordable, domestic energy to this country, is an excellent pattern for the coal industry. Tillerson brushes aside environmental concerns as manageable and overblown. He regards the shale surge as [...] … [Read more...]
50 Senior NASA experts decry “advocacy of extreme climate position” at NASA
April 10, 2012 By
Wow! The ship is apparently sinking a lot faster than was previously thought. (Hat tip to NoTricksZone.) Fifty senior NASA executives, astronauts, scientists, and engineers, with a combined professional experience of over 1,000 years, have come out openly in opposition to the “extreme climate position” of the Agency – as advanced by climate activist and [...] … [Read more...]
50 Senior NASA experts decry “advocacy of extreme climate position” at NASA
April 10, 2012 By
Wow! The ship is apparently sinking a lot faster than was previously thought. (Hat tip to NoTricksZone.) Fifty senior NASA executives, astronauts, scientists, and engineers, with a combined professional experience of over 1,000 years, have come out openly in opposition to the “extreme climate position” of the Agency – as advanced by climate activist and [...] … [Read more...]
50 Senior NASA experts decry “advocacy of extreme climate position” at NASA
April 10, 2012 By
Wow! The ship is apparently sinking a lot faster than was previously thought. (Hat tip to NoTricksZone.) Fifty senior NASA executives, astronauts, scientists, and engineers, with a combined professional experience of over 1,000 years, have come out openly in opposition to the “extreme climate position” of the Agency – as advanced by climate activist and [...] … [Read more...]
Pardon us if we don’t believe you
April 6, 2012 By
A new Politico.com article may have inadvertently let a post-election cat out of the bag. “Uttered in 2008, still haunting Obama in 2012″ looks at the political fallout suffered by the Obama campaign when then-candidate Obama gave an unguarded comment on his plans for coal-fueled energy. The article then touches on potential plans for energy [...] … [Read more...]
Robert Bryce: It’s Not ‘All of the Above’ After All
April 5, 2012 By
Robert Bryce, who was the keynote speaker at the ACC 2010 Coal Market Strategies Conference in Tucson, AZ, has a new NationalReview.com article describing the recent EPA GHG rule proposal. Bryce argues that the proposed rule is a wasteful and damaging sham that fails on a variety of fronts. He focuses on two reasons in [...] … [Read more...]
An “all of the above” energy policy – it’s just words.
April 4, 2012 By
On March 27th, the EPA released its Clean Air Act standard for greenhouse gas emissions from new power plants. This rule will effectively require that all new coal-fueled generation meet emissions standards of new natural gas generation technologies. As noted in the recent Electric Reliability Coordinating Council remarks on this proposed standard, The GHG rule [...] … [Read more...]
Spring Coal Forum Keynote presents listeners with four choices
April 3, 2012 By
A rousing Spring Coal Forum (SCF) keynote speech, given by Dr. Phil Burgess, the founding Executive Director of the American Coal Council (ACC), encouraged listeners to defend the American electricity consumer and the benefits of electrification around the world. Burgess urged the industry to take a stand, recognizing that the war being waged against coal [...] … [Read more...]
Global Warming Policy Foundation: “Why Wind Power is so Expensive”
April 2, 2012 By
A March 2012 report by the UK-based Global Warming Policy Foundation is taking renewable energy to task, claiming that in addition to causing its own share of environmental damage, wind energy “is an extraordinarily expensive and inefficient way of reducing CO2 emissions” that will consume a “staggering £130 billion” in subsidies by 2030. The study [...] … [Read more...]
EPA loses second major case
March 25, 2012 By
The EPA may have to soon admit that they have overstepped their bounds as court cases are beginning to pile up against them and their regulatory assault on property rights and their legal jurisdiction. A March 21 SCOTUSblog post detailed the recent Supreme Court decision where all 9 Justices – Yes! Even Ginsburg and Alito [...] … [Read more...]
Speaking of death spirals
March 25, 2012 By
A few months back, I debunked the view that news of closing older coal plants and replacing them with “readily available alternatives” entailed a “death spiral” for the U.S. coal industry. The notion that coal was spiraling into oblivion was pushed strongly by the author as they suggested that solar would be able to assume [...] … [Read more...]
First Solar: Subsidies to export solar panels to itself
March 19, 2012 By
Honestly, you can’t make this stuff up. A heavily subsidized solar company received a U.S. taxpayer loan guarantee to sell solar panels to itself. … First Solar is an Arizona-based manufacturer of solar panels. In 2010, the Obama administration awarded the company $16.3 million to expand its factory in Ohio — a subsidy Democratic Gov. [...] … [Read more...]
Bezdek & Wendling: “Not-So-Green Superhighway”
March 7, 2012 By
Roger Bezdek and Robert Wendling, authors of “the Impending World Energy Mess” have added to their list of publications with an interesting look into the “unforeseen consequences of dedicated renewable energy transmission.” Published in the February, 2012 issue of Public Utilities Fortnightly, Bezdek and Wendling’s delves into the taboo subject of whether so-called green energy [...] … [Read more...]