Coal news and updates

Don’t be fooled: there’s no denying that BOTH regulations and low natural gas prices have combined to reduce the use of coal. Even though coal has been the basis of electricity since its inception, the U.S. power industry has been announcing coal retirements at an unprecedented rate. And there’s simply no question that the election of Donald Trump will help coal, although coal won’t regain its dominance.

 

Announced retirements or extended shutdowns have been attributed to high compliance costs associated with EPA regulations, namely the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) and Regional Haze programs, with the Clean Power Plan (CPP) policy on the horizon. SNL has determined that MATS alone could retire 46,000 MW of coal from 2012-2022, an entire Pennsylvania’s worth of power capacity taken offline in a nation adding 35 million people and $4-5 trillion in real GDP every 10 years (here). 

 

The Obama administration’s CPP, facing legal challenge from 27 states, was supposed to be the clincher, but that’s now in doubt with the election Donald Trump as U.S. President. As stated by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), our most important (and non-partisan) energy reporting agency:

Source: forbes