Coal news and updates

DIRTY COAL

 

U.S. policy is turning against coal. Last week the Supreme Court ruled in favor of enforcing regulations that require power plants in 28 states to cut coal emissions that blow across state lines.

 

This could affect 1,000 power plants in the eastern U.S. that might need to install additional pollution controls or cut back on coal consumption.

 

Happily for miners, there are ready markets for America’s black stuff across the globe. Illinois and Indiana coal, shunned in some places in the U.S. because of its high sulfur content, offers a less-expensive alternative than coal from nearby European mines—even including transportation costs—for plants like Drax in the U.K.

 

The Wall Street Journal’s John W. Miller visited the plant, recently placed as the seventh-worst polluter in Europe, and found that cheap, high-sulfur U.S. coal has been a saving grace (Appalachian coal, although not as cheap, is also finding a market).

 

That’s not great news for the domestic industry—the Journal’s Selina Williams reports on how the U.K. coal industry is at the point of fizzling out. European deep-mined coal can’t compete without subsidies that are unlikely to be forthcoming from green-minded governments.

 

Coal is so cheap, in fact, that it is likely for many years to be the cornerstone for many nations’ energy policies. In Japan, billions of dollars are to be spent on new coal-fired plants, while coal is likely to be the fuel of China, the world’s most populous and polluted country, into the foreseeable future.

 

INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY

 

That last point leads to an investment opportunity.

 

The Chinese government, aware that pollution levels are way above what is acceptable and that public opinion is darkening quicker than a Beijing smoker’s lung, is pushing nuclear energy as a cleaner, greener alternative.

 

China National Nuclear Power Co., one of the country’s biggest nuclear-power operators by capacity, plans to raise up to 16.25 billion yuan ($2.6 billion) in an IPO to help finance four nuclear-power projects.

 

The offering could be the largest on mainland China since August 2010, the Journal reports.

 

MARKETS

 

Brent WTI crude futures recovered somewhat Tuesday after falls in the prior session, but with limited upside apparent in a well-supplied global market. 

 

 

Source: http://blogs.wsj.com/