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In 2008, then-presidential candidate Barack Obama said, “So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can. It’s just that it will bankrupt them,” in an interview for the San Francisco Chronicle.
In the same interview, Obama also warned that under his cap-and-trade plan, “electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.” Keep in mind that his cap-and-trade system is meant to save us from “climate change,” which used to be called “global warming” and “the coming ice age.” This makes perfect sense, Mr. President.
Fast-forward to 2012, and we can see President Obama is making good on these promises he made.
Because of environmental regulations the Obama administration has put into place, approximately 175 coal-powered plants in America are scheduled to phase out and shut down. Not only does that kill jobs during a time when the president is pretending to create them, that is also nearly 8.5 percent of the total coal-fired capacity in the U.S.
Utility companies and consumers alike are still waiting to see what exactly is going to replace such a substantial loss of electricity production.
Just within the past couple of weeks, 1,200 individuals and families across Central Appalachia got the news they never wanted to hear: that Alpha Natural Resources will be closing eight mines across Virginia, West Virginia and Pennsylvania, rendering 1,200 people unemployed.
The chief executive officer of Alpha blamed “a regulatory environment that’s aggressively aimed at constraining the use of coal” for the closings.
Those who live in regions that do not produce coal might not be inclined to think twice about this announcement. However, there are several reasons every American should be very worried about the Obama administration’s war on coal.
First off, coal accounts for nearly half of all electricity production. As the government goes against the free market and pushes out a resource that is cheap, reliable and so abundantly available, the result is going to be increasing utility rates.
Earlier this month, PJM Interconnection, a company that operates electric grids in 13 different states, held its 2015 capacity auction. The market-clearing price for 2015 capacity turned out to be $136 per megawatt. That is eight times higher than the price in 2012, which is just $16 per megawatt. The area covering New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C. is a staggering $167 per megawatt.
A version of this article appeared in the Sep 27 issue of the Collegiate Times.
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How can you write an entire article about the decline of coal and not mention the natural gas boom coming about as a result of fracking? Did you ever think maybe capitalism is at work here, or does that not fit into the narrative?
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How can you not imagine that fracking became so prolific as an alternative spurred by the increased regulation and loss of profitability of coal. Agreed it is capitalism at work though, just forced by government regulation
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What environmental regulations regarding coal plants have been put into effect? The author mentions increased regulation but can you point to a specific regulation that is responsible for Alpha closing its mines - certainly not cap and trade, which was not implemented. Like the previous commentator noted, it's natural gas, another cheap, abundent, easily burned natural resource, that is likely displacing coal
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"maybe capitalism is at work here" Using regulations to drive the market away from coal and towards natural gas is not capitalism.
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So EPA emissions rules has nothing to do with it??? Carbon pollution standards, which prevents new coal power plants, has nothing to do with it?? The attempted Cross-State Air Pollution Rule has nothing to do with it??? Mercury and Air Toxics Standards has nothing to do with it???? Coal Combustion Residuals has nothing to do with it???? 316(b) has nothing to do with it?????
Yep, capitalism at its finest. I can see why natural gas is becoming more popular, it's because it is the markets only choice
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The author presents no evidence that the regulations resulted in losing jobs. I have seen statistics that show that even when coal production is increasing, coal jobs have consistently been decreasing. I have heard this is due to better technology to extract the coal, meaning less workers are needed
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The total amount of workers may have been decreasing overall because of better technology, but that does not have anything to do with recent layoff of 1200 people. These layoffs were because of mines being forced to shut down and permits refused for new mines. The recent unemployment of almost all of the workers are a result of implemented regulations. Capitalism would allow for competition between the energy sources, not shutting down one industry to increase another.
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The total amount of workers may have been decreasing overall because of better technology, but that does not have anything to do with recent layoff of 1200 people. These layoffs were because of mines being forced to shut down and permits refused for new mines. The recent unemployment of almost all of the workers are a result of implemented regulations. Capitalism would allow for competition between the energy sources, not shutting down one industry to increase another.
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I find it a bit disturbing that you chose to put quotes around climate-change and global warming, and then also placed them around the coming ice age to somehow tie them together. I suppose that means you find them to be fantasies. As if somehow pumping smoke into the atmosphere over the past century hasn't effected anything. However then you still cave to the fact that almost everyone with respect for science believes in it by blaming it all on China.
This is a false, Ad Hominem argument, you're just trying to point the finger at China as if we should strive to be more like them. Maybe we should slap a giant firewall around our country while we're at it. China is a massive country with a booming industrial sector, and they will get their coal whether it's from us or not.
Bottom line, coal needs to go if the United States wants to stay known as a developed country. In a few decades we'll scoff at countries without burgeoning solar industries. And for some reason you think we should be among those being scoffed at. For shame.
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Coal production has been increasing each year for the last three years. http://www.nma.org/pdf/c_most_requested.pdf. Coal consumption in the U.S. is down because of the cheap availability of natural gas. The only major coal regulations to go into effect recently are mine safety related (after the PA coal mine disaster).
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Future power is nuclear power!
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Were these regulations implemented after 2009? If not, then I'm concerned that your argument doesn't hold up.
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Nor are the use of incentives. Here is some light reading for you regarding federal energy incenives: spoiler alert, page 7 is interesting.
http://i.bnet.com/blogs/dbl_energy_subsidies_paper.pdf
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I am an underground coal miner, I have been for over 10 years. The layoffs of workers isn't due to more efficient mining, it's that the government is letting gas companies go wild without regulation and penalizing anything to do with coal.
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