Thursday, December 06, 2018

Lumps of coal: 'Clean coal' plants emit more smog; coal is increasingly unprofitable; UMW sues feds over mine safety

Here's a trio of coal-related items for the interested among you:

Taxpayers have spent billions of dollars subsidizing chemically treated and refined coal in an effort to reduce air pollution, but a analysis of Environmental Protection Agency data shows that some "clean coal" plants regularly emit more nitrous oxides, not less. Nitrous oxide is the main contributor to smog and acid rain, Tim McLaughlin reports for Reuters.

Coal is increasingly financially unsound, according to a new report by independent energy-market think tank Carbon Tracker. About 42 percent of the world's coal operations are likely operating at a loss in 2018, it found, and predicts that number will rise to 72 percent by 2040, "independent of additional climate or air-pollution policy," Douglas Perry reports for The Oregonian. Within 12 years, the report estimates, none of the United States' coal capacity will have lower long-run operating costs than renewable energy options. "Over the long-term coal power will become a net liability . . . and those politicians in regulated markets who remain wedded to high-cost coal will be forced to choose between subsidizing coal generation and power prices (which will impact the fiscal health of the state) or increase power prices (which will hurt consumers and undermine competitiveness)," the report says.

The United Mine Workers of America has sued the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration after the agency reduced heightened regulatory scrutiny of a West Virginia coal mine with a history of repeated safety violations. Two miners were killed in separate incidents within two weeks at the Pocahontas Coal Company's Affinity mine in October 2013, Brittany Patterson and Becca Schimmel report for Ohio Valley Resource.

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