If Trump wants to bring back coal

[ScienceRocks]

If Trump wants to bring back coal he's going to have to subsidize it as it it far more expansive than natural gas...Natural gas is the reason that it is dying. Solar and wind have also become much cheaper and are cutting into its market.

 

[Manonthestreet]

No he just needs to undo the regs Obama wrote to make it more expensive

 

[The Sage of Main Street]

If Trump wants to bring back coal he's going to have to subsidize it as it it far more expansive than natural gas...Natural gas is the reason that it is dying. Solar and wind have also become much cheaper and are cutting into its market.

We can export coal. Natural gas needs a pipeline.

 

[Old Rocks]

Really? The people on the West Coast will have something to say about that.

 

[strollingbones]

coal is dead....it would be like trying to revive the buggy whip industry

 

[MisterBeale]

coal is dead....it would be like trying to revive the buggy whip industry

Do people research and get educated before they make such blanket ignorant statements, or just shoot off the cuff politicized BS?

The Naked Cost of Energy -- Stripping Away Financing and Subsidies
The Naked Cost of Energy -- Stripping Away Financing and Subsidies

These costs are for the entire life-span of the units, after running them to death. These costs are separate from investments, taxation, subsidies, loan structure, and other costs that are associated more with pricing and financing than with what the actual costs are to produce that energy.

Costs not captured include electrical grid upgrade, connectivity of renewables and buffering of their intermittency by rapid cycling of fossil fuel plants as presently practiced in this country, and non-carbon-tax externalities such as pollution and health care costs associated with energy sources, especially for coal. Costs for coal are highly dependent on the cost of gasoline, and the costs for wind are highly dependent on material costs like steel and concrete as wind requires about 10 times the amount of steel, concrete and copper per kWhr than any other energy source. These, in turn, are also highly dependent on the cost of gasoline. All decommissioning and waste disposal costs are relatively small compared to other costs, 0.1¢/kWhr or less, even for nuclear.

 

[Missourian]

"Weakening regulations on emissions would make it easier and cheaper for companies to mine, and less expensive for power plants to burn coal, helping coal companies to stay profitable. In addition, a Trump-nominated Supreme Court justice could cast a deciding vote to overturn the Clean Power Plan, which is currently held up in a lower court."

Trump Victory Raises Hopes of Coal Making a Comeback
​

And it is in our best national interests to KEEP coal companies profitable. Natural gas is plentiful today, but it may not always be that way.

 

[HenryBHough]

Trump has a simple and effective plan to bring back coal.

He'll provide seed money to liberal groups who, when they raise matching funds, will be allowed to erect statues of The Obamessiah in ever town square. Then when they set off their routine riots and fire-bombings the statues will be consumed and they'll have to start over.

Guaranteed minimum eight years work for every miner wanting it. Better, since the left will be so thoroughly addicted to pillage/riot, they'll just stick up those effigies out of habit! And the beat goes on......

 

[Old Rocks]

Exactly, the graph does not include the cost of externalities. Like what it costs to deal with the nuclear waste, or the vast piles of fly ash. It does not mention the ruined ecological systems in the Appalachians from mountain top mining. Also, I would challenge the cost estimate of solar and wind as presented by that graph. The present costs are lower than that.

 

[Old Rocks]

"Weakening regulations on emissions would make it easier and cheaper for companies to mine, and less expensive for power plants to burn coal, helping coal companies to stay profitable. In addition, a Trump-nominated Supreme Court justice could cast a deciding vote to overturn the Clean Power Plan, which is currently held up in a lower court."

Trump Victory Raises Hopes of Coal Making a Comeback
​

And it is in our best national interests to KEEP coal companies profitable. Natural gas is plentiful today, but it may not always be that way.

Bullshit. It is in the interest of all life on earth to permanently close all the coal fired plants.

 

[xband]

If Trump wants to bring back coal he's going to have to subsidize it as it it far more expansive than natural gas...Natural gas is the reason that it is dying. Solar and wind have also become much cheaper and are cutting into its market.

I want Trump to re-start the Canada oil pipeline that Obama stopped funding. I want Trump to abolish the Department of Education. I want Trump to build The Wall. etc. etc. and so on and so on

 

[Lewdog]

IF, and that is a HUGE IF... Trump is able to get increased steel production, it would provide a greater need for coal. Coal is essential in making coke, and coke is essential for feeding the blast furnaces to make steel.

 

[xband]

IF, and that is a HUGE IF... Trump is able to get increased steel production, it would provide a greater need for coal. Coal is essential in making coke, and coke is essential for feeding the blast furnaces to make steel.

Today they use electric blast furnaces that could be powered by electric wind turbines. To make steel you need to add carbon to the iron and coke is a pure form of carbon.

 

[DOTR]

Now lets hear from the Kenyan...

 

[Nosmo King]

No he just needs to undo the regs Obama wrote to make it more expensive

No. He will have to roll back the regulations implemented during the George H. W. Bush administration set to prevent acid rain.

Hmmm... The "War on Coal" began under a Republican President.

 

[Old Rocks]

If Trump wants to bring back coal he's going to have to subsidize it as it it far more expansive than natural gas...Natural gas is the reason that it is dying. Solar and wind have also become much cheaper and are cutting into its market.

I want Trump to re-start the Canada oil pipeline that Obama stopped funding. I want Trump to abolish the Department of Education. I want Trump to build The Wall. etc. etc. and so on and so on

How does it feel to want?

 

[Old Rocks]

There will be uses for coal, but it will never be the powerhouse that it has been. In fact, many of the big coal companies are going out of business, for lack of demand. And, as usual with energy companies, we, the taxpayer, are getting stuck with the cleanup costs.

Mine environmental risk grows with bankruptcies in big coal


CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — As more coal companies file for bankruptcy, it's increasingly likely that taxpayers will be stuck with the very high costs of preventing abandoned mines from becoming environmental disasters.

The question is not if, but when, where and how many more coal mines will close as the industry declines, analysts say. Many mines already operate at a loss, and there's not enough money in the fuel anymore to enable their owners to keep their promises to clean up the land.

"It's sort of a situation where nobody, really, is going to end up looking good," said James Stevenson, director of North American coal for analyst firm IHS. "The states have I think a significant risk — the federal government does as well."


This reclamation crisis looms because of a practice called self-bonding, which allows coal companies to promise to eventually cover the cost of cleaning up abandoned mines without first setting aside the necessary money.

Because of self-bonding, billions of dollars in legally required reclamation funding exist only as IOUs, without dedicated assets or bonds backed by third-party investors.

Nationwide, self-bonding in the coal-mining industry tops $3.3 billion. That includes $2.3 billion in IOUs that the three biggest bankrupt coal companies — Alpha Natural Resources, Arch Coal and Peabody — owe in five states, according to an Associated Press analysis of bonding obligations in the top 16 coal-mining states.

 

[Lewdog]

There will be uses for coal, but it will never be the powerhouse that it has been. In fact, many of the big coal companies are going out of business, for lack of demand. And, as usual with energy companies, we, the taxpayer, are getting stuck with the cleanup costs.

Mine environmental risk grows with bankruptcies in big coal


CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — As more coal companies file for bankruptcy, it's increasingly likely that taxpayers will be stuck with the very high costs of preventing abandoned mines from becoming environmental disasters.

The question is not if, but when, where and how many more coal mines will close as the industry declines, analysts say. Many mines already operate at a loss, and there's not enough money in the fuel anymore to enable their owners to keep their promises to clean up the land.

"It's sort of a situation where nobody, really, is going to end up looking good," said James Stevenson, director of North American coal for analyst firm IHS. "The states have I think a significant risk — the federal government does as well."


This reclamation crisis looms because of a practice called self-bonding, which allows coal companies to promise to eventually cover the cost of cleaning up abandoned mines without first setting aside the necessary money.

Because of self-bonding, billions of dollars in legally required reclamation funding exist only as IOUs, without dedicated assets or bonds backed by third-party investors.

Nationwide, self-bonding in the coal-mining industry tops $3.3 billion. That includes $2.3 billion in IOUs that the three biggest bankrupt coal companies — Alpha Natural Resources, Arch Coal and Peabody — owe in five states, according to an Associated Press analysis of bonding obligations in the top 16 coal-mining states.

Here in Kentucky they want to build a new Federal prison in Letcher County. The problem? They are dealing with lots of environmental problems because the water in the area is contaminated from being a former coal mining site.

 

[miketx]

Really? The people on the West Coast will have something to say about that.

The ones who are seceding?

 

[Old Rocks]

What the mining industry has left us will be a burden to the rest of us for many generations. And regulations are going to have to be made from now on concerning money being put in trust for cleanup.