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The “Perfect Storm” continues to pound the coal industry here in West Virginia and across the country. The anti-coal policies of the Obama Administration and the EPA along with the lingering impacts of a worldwide economic downturn and a mild winter continue to push U.S. coal production lower, while West Virginia production resumes its decline.
According to NMA, coal production is off nationally by 1.4 percent year-over-year for the 52 weeks ending April 7. In West Virginia, production decline by 3.3 percent for the same period – with state mines producing 131.4 million tons compared to 135.8 million tons a year ago.
Railcar loadings are off 16 percent measured year-over-year. Meanwhile, electric production is off 1.9 percent across the country for the same period. Raw steel production in the U.S. continues to trend upward slightly, up approximately 6.7 percent year-to-date.
Exports of met coal are up 16.7 percent year-to-date from this time last year, however exports of steam coal remain down 9.3 percent year-to-date for the same period. As an antithesis of what’s happening here, Reports from India indicate that their coal-fired electric generation plants have less than four-days of supply on the ground, with many having no reserve stockpiles at all.
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When the EPA published their new GHG rules they claimed they would be subject to review before implementation, but this was a ruse. It is now obvious that the new rules go into effect as soon as they are published in the federal register and the damage done by these rules may be felt much sooner than even previously thought.
“This EPA is apparently willing to conceal the truth, to fabricate fact, if it serves their goals. They continue to claim these GHG standards are not final but it is now clear that they consider them final upon publication and they are moving forward to implementation. The damage is already being felt. Have you looked at your electric bill recently? Unfortunately, the EPA continues to ignore the real impact their rules will have on American families and businesses by driving up energy prices and destroying jobs.”
EPA regulations are responsible for the announced closure of more than 140 electricity generating units in 19 states.
“How can this not impact the grid?” Raney said. “This threat isn’t one, two or 10 years in the future. This threat is now. It is here. They are imposing their agenda by regulation when they couldn’t get it passed by legislation.”
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FACES of Coal and the West Virginia Coal Association joined to host Senator Joe Manchin, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin and other state and local political and business leaders for a roundtable discussion about the Obama Administration’s “War on Coal” and the EPA’s multiple front assault through air rules and the uncertainty of the NPDES situation.
The discussion took place at Walker Machinery in Belle. The group discussed the specifics of the EPA’s rules, policies and efforts to kill Appalachian coal both, mining and burning. Follow-up strategies are being developed.
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Fluid bed coal gasification - Gulf Oil Corporation
As we've previously reported and commented, there exists in the technical literature, especially in the records of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, an immense body of demonstrated knowledge clearly establishing the fact that Coal, and just about any other Carbon-based substance, including all sorts of Carbon Dioxide-recycling organic or botanical materials, and even Carbon Dioxide itself, can be transformed into what is known as synthesis gas, more simply just "syngas", a blend of Carbon Monoxide and Hydrogen, which can then be transformed through a variety of well-known and, within the petroleum industry, widely-used catalytic reaction processes into both liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons,
That knowledge base concerning the catalytic transformation of Carbon Monoxide with Hydrogen, and even of Carbon Dioxide with Hydrogen, into various hydrocarbons, is, in fact, almost vast; but, such chemical transactions, as we've pointed out in many of our reports, is often "lumped" under the generic label of Fischer-Tropsch" synthesis, named after the German scientists who, as seen in our report of:
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By Brian Keane
President, SmartPower
The Bush Administration and, yes, the Obama Administration, have both acknowledged that coal will continue to be a vital and valuable piece of our energy portfolio. After all, our nation is sitting on 500 years worth of coal – we’re not likely to just ignore it.
But at the same time, the President is focused on diversifying our nation’s energy portfolio. This isn’t designed to kill coal, but rather to increase the production of other types of energy. The strategy is not simply to replace one type of energy for another. At the rate Americans use energy, the reality is that we simply need more energy to power our lives, our communities and our nation.
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