January 27, 2011

While Western countries are working to try and limit the burning of coal in an attempt to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere, coal remains the fuel of choice for a wide range of applications in the developing world and it use world wide is on a sharp uptick. China alone plans to build 600GW of coal-fired electrical generation in the next 25 years, an amount equal to the current coal-fired electricity industry in North America. This rate of growth means that, in spite of China’s large coal reserves, China will not be able to expand its mining capacity sufficiently to meet demand, increasing its dependency on coal imports.

China is not alone in its conundrum. Russia has vast reserves, but no infrastructure to get them to port. India has few reserves and those it has are of poor quality. Indonesia, a powerhouse in the Pacific, has only 17 years of reserves remaining. The result? Uncertainty, predicted record prices (e.g. $170/ton for thermal coal up from $110/ton), record numbers of mergers and acquisitions within the coal industry, and a world whose emissions keep drifting further from the levels recommended by the Kyoto protocol.

Read article at http://www.economist.com/node/18010727?story_id=18010727

January 26, 2011

A leaked proposal for reducing coal mining impacts on streams has the Obama administration’s own experts predicting the elimination of thousands of coal mining jobs and a reduction of coal production in much of the country. In 22 states, production levels would remain flat or decrease, but in North Dakota, Wyoming and Montana, production is predicted to climb 15%.

Read article at http://wvgazette.com/News/MiningtheMountains/201101280708

January 24, 2011

Canadian coal producers are furious at the governments decision to award long-term export privileges to three US coal producers. Last week Ridley Terminals signed export contracts with Arch Coal, Cloud Peak and Enserco, large American coal companies hoping to export coal from their Powder River Basin mines to Asian markets. But Canadian coal companies like Teck Resources, Western Coal and Grande Cache Coal say that the terminal is already overloaded and American exports will block terminal capacity that they for their current and future operations.

The Canadian companies are especially incensed because Ridley is a Canadian Crown corporation: completely owned by the government. “A federal Crown corporation just chose American jobs over Canadian jobs,” Teck chief executive officer Don Lindsay told a Vancouver mining conference on Monday. “Hundreds of B.C. jobs are on the line.”

Read article at http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/coal-producers-decry-ridley-terminals-decision/article1881479/

January 21, 2011

A lawsuit against the Seward Coal Loading Terminal alleging Clean Air Act violations for fugitive coal dust will be allowed to proceed. The lawsuit, filed by Trustees for Alaska on behalf of the Sierra Club, Alaska Center for the Environment and Alaska Community Action on Toxins, claims that coal dust exiting the coal piles and conveyor belts spreads widely into Resurrection Bay and that coal dust on snow on the land is being improperly disposed of and is ending up in the bay as well.

The loading terminal was originally built in 1984 as an economic development project to sell coal to world markets. Last July it was fined $220,000 for its fugitive coal dust emissions; most of that fine was directed towards reducing those emissions. According to Alaska Railcorp, one of the owners of the terminals, an additional $540,000 in improvements are planned for 2011 to increase dust surpression.

Read article at http://www.alaskajournal.com/stories/012111/oil_cwasp.shtml

January 20, 2011

150 people showed up at a public hearing in Kenai held by the Alaska Department of Natural Resources to determine whether the land of the proposed Chuitna coal mine should be declared unsuitable for mining. Among the crowd were recreational and commercial fishermen, lodge owners and Alaska Native subsistence users.

Concerns centered primarily on the plan to completely bury 11 miles of prime salmon streams for up to 25 years while the coal is being mined out. “I’ve looked at many, many projects of this magnitude, and none of them have been able to restore the environment back to the original conditions,” said Debbie Oudiz, a Homer resident and retired environmental toxicologist who worked for the California Environmental Protection Agency for more than 25 years.

Read articles at http://www.peninsulaclarion.com/stories/012011/new_773556035.shtml and http://www.adn.com/2011/01/20/1658877/alaska-coal-strip-mining-plan.html

January 20, 2011

The Usibelli Coal Mine has reached a settlement with the EPA to resolve numerous Clean Water Act violations. From April 2007 to July 2010, Usibelli was accused of eleven unpermitted discharges into neighboring waters, as well as exceeding the allowed levels of discharges in another ten cases.

“By simply using and maintaining best management practices, we believe this penalty could have been avoided. Mining responsibly means making water quality protection a top priority.” said Mr. Edward Kowalski, Director of EPA’s Regional Office of Compliance and Enforcement.

Read press release at http://yosemite1.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/d0cf6618525a9efb85257359003fb69d/e8887310a95a422b8525781e006943c9!OpenDocument

January 19, 2011

Investigators have found the source of ignition of the blast in Massey’s Upper Big Branch mine that killed 29 miners on April 5, 2010. MSHA announced that they have determined that a small amount of methane gas was ignited by the shearer (the cutting tool) on the longwall machine in the mine. But there were many different controllable factors that could have prevented the ignition or caused it to be small instead of a massive explosion.

MSHA has identified a number of ways that the shearer was out of compliance: water spray nozzles designed to reduce coal dust were broken, malfunctioning or disabled; drill bits were worn down to nubs that were far more likely to spark than sharp bits; and there was far too little rock dust applied to the mine to keep coal dust from building up to explosive levels. Kevin Stricklin, the head administrator for coal mining at MSHA, said “This was preventable.”

Read more at http://blogs.wvgazette.com/coaltattoo/2011/01/19/msha-upper-big-branch-disaster-preventable/

January 18, 2011

Today brought mixed results in a suit brought by the National Mining Association against the Environmental Protection Agency. The suit tries to block a more thorough standard of review that the EPA has started applying to new coal mining permits. The NMA claims that the changes did not go through the public hearings and studies required by law; the EPA says that the changes are not in fact new rules.

U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton in Washington, D.C. ruled that the NMA was likely to prevail on the merits of their case, essentially stating he believed that the changes were de facto rules. However, he turned back the NMA’s request for an injunction, stating that the association had failed to demonstrate that they would be irreparably harmed by the ruling standing until a final decision is reached in court.

Read article at http://wvgazette.com/News/201101181302 and the judge’s decision here

January 18, 2011

Arch Coal has signed a five year deal with Ridley Terminals Inc. to allow 2-2.5 million tons of coal through a port near Prince Rupert, British Columbia. The announcement follows up Arch’s investment last week in the development of a proposed new coal terminal in Cowlitz County by Ambre Energy that may start operations next year. Both are designed to help Arch route more coal from its mines in the Powder River Basin to emerging markets in Asia.

Read article http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/article_5de746ee-2353-11e0-b52c-00127992bc8b.html

January 17, 2010

A report obtained through a Freedom of Information Act shows that Arch Coal knew of an alternative plan for mining the Spruce #1 mine that would have reduced stream burial by more than 50% at an increased cost of production of only %1. The report, prepared for the Environmental Protection Agency by mining consultant Morgan Worldwide, outlined several alternatives including dumping overburden on an adjacent watershed that was already going to be buried.

Arch Coal has not answered questions related to whether they could or should have done more to try and minimize damage to streams.

Read article at http://wvgazette.com/News/201101171363