Epoch Times:
The Trump administration finalized a new carbon emissions rule for U.S. power plants on June 19 that it said could cut pollution without damaging the coal industry, replacing a much tougher Obama-era version.
The move was a boost to coal companies facing tough competition from natural gas, solar and wind energy suppliers.
The so-called Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule gives states three years to devise their own plans to cut emissions mainly by encouraging coal-fired power plants to improve their efficiency, the Environmental Protection Agency said.
“Our ACE rule will incentivize new technology which will ensure coal plants will be part of a cleaner future,” EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said at an event at agency headquarters attended by coal-state lawmakers, White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and a dozen coal miners in uniform.
The ACE sets guidelines for states to develop performance standards for power plants to boost the amount of power produced relative to the amount of coal burned. It listed six existing “candidate technologies” plants can use to do so, including duct leakage control and boiler feed pumps. read more
The fact is a lot of coal plants have closed or converted to gas. They will not change back.
Producers in the Permian basin have been paying people to take their excess gas that is a byproduct.
No new coal plants are being built and the remaining ones will phase out naturally over the next few decades.
There is money to be made managing the decline but unless we’re going to serve a huge international market, I don’t see new coal plants coming online in the US.
On day 1 President Trump should have shut down all government scams subsidizing wind and solar power.
Such an opportunity. – the marketing of cleaner coal burning technology to other countries, better coal mining technology, let alone our incredible abundance of a fuel resource and the jobs to fill.
Trump is methodically dismantling everything that Obozo put in place. Essentially erasing every reminder of that filthy swine. He’s removing an ugly stain on the country.
Three charts, of CO2 emissions from coal, petroleum and NG use the last few years, were in today’s news.
Yes, coal emissions were dropped in half, BUT the increase from oil and NG just about levelled the cuts in this “pollution”.
CO2 is not a pollutant, and scrubbers reclaim many useful resources from the emissions.
Similarly, when the environmental ‘benefits’ from corn ethanol in our fuel supply are touted, they must be equally condemned in consideration of the enormous environmental damage to the Gulf of Mexico, from erosion, runoff of nitrogen fertilizers and pesticides.
Apparently many government scientists are as bogus as government lawyers.
Muh Legacy!!!!!
The fact is coal = energy.
If there is energy in the ground someone is going to dig it up and use it.
If it’s in our land it might as well be us.
No one agrees with me? Ok. Not the first time. Won’t be the last.
But I’m not wrong. Coal is used for power plants or steel mills. Power plants have to run 24 hours a day and use different types of coal, depending on the BTUs to align with power needs of customers.
You can turn natural gas on and off. It’s not as good in a deep cold snap so it’s good to diversify power sources but coal has dropped from providing over 50% of US power 20 years ago to under 25% today.
Watch what the Peabodys, Archs or Conturas are doing:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/arch-coal-peabody-energy-to-form-coal-joint-venture-11560948644
The gas that runs the new or converted plants is so cheap that hydraulic frackers are either flaring it or paying people to take it because there aren’t enough pipelines to carry it away yet.
I’m not trying to shit on anybody’s parade here. Coal miners will have jobs as long as coal plants are in operation but many are on a path to obsolescence or cost prohibitive to switch.