Coal news and updates

In August 2012, Gov. Steve Beshear and private-sector energy executives announced a deal that would send 9 million tons of Eastern Kentucky coal to India, holding the promise of reviving the region’s sagging economy.

 

“International markets need coal, and this private partnership is a great example of a new market for Kentucky resources,” Beshear said at the time, predicting “a long and successful partnership with many more economic opportunities.”

 

But 18 months later, the first ton of coal has yet to be shipped under the deal, according to one of two coal suppliers involved.

 

“It’s something that’s still on the table, but it has not really come to fruition as far as being a fluent shipping order,” said Jim Booth, an Inez coal operator and head of one of two Kentucky companies that are to sell the coal under the deal.

 

A news release from Beshear’s office in 2012 described the deal as a “25-year, $7 billion contract” of two Indian-owned companies to buy coal from Kentucky and West Virginia through the two Kentucky companies. “Kentucky coal companies will export about 9 million tons of coal per year” under the agreement.

 

Shipments were to begin the following month, according to reports in India’s Hindustan Times and the trade publication Coal Age.

 

But instead, coal production and jobs have declined in Eastern Kentucky. The state Energy and Environment Cabinet reported in early February a reduction of 2,232 coal-related jobs in Eastern Kentucky in 2013, and that in the final quarter of the year, only 7,332 people in Eastern Kentucky were employed in the industry.

 

That’s down from 14,285 industry jobs in the region in the third quarter of 2011.

 

Booth said the holdup with the India deal is that the price of coal on the world market has plunged and the Indian conglomerate has bought coal from other sources, as is allowed in the contract.

 

But the 25-year contract with Abhijeet Group — which essentially sets up a framework for trade — is still in place and has the potential to be as big a deal as originally announced, Booth said.

 

 

Source: http://www.courier-journal.com/