December 15, 2010

The Northern Cheyenne tribe and Great Northern Properties informed Montana’s Governor Brian Schweitzer that they have agreed on a deal to swap mineral rights. The Northern Cheyenne will gain mineral rights on all the lands within its borders in exchange for mineral rights the tribe held outside its borders; the tribe says the decision is about autonomy not developing the rights. Great Northern will gain rights adjacent to the recently leased Otter Creek coal reserves as well as the Signal Peak mine.

The deal must be approved by Congress. Tribal leaders hope that they will become eligible for an additional $70 million in compensation for the rights they are releasing.

Read article at http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/article_a1e3c604-0884-11e0-a451-001cc4c002e0.html

Correction the original article erroneously stated that the Northern Cheyenne did not intend to develop the coal rights that they just acquired. See details at http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Correction-Montana-Coal-apf-763443444.html

December 14, 2010

While coal keeps driving China’s economy by leaps and bound, China may be on the verge of hitting “Peak Coal” where their coal production is maxed out and imported coal can not keep up with domestic demand. China currently burns 47% of the world’s coal, and has burned 10% more each year for the last decade, yet only holds about 15% of the world’s reserves.

In spite of this huge demand, China has moved to cap domestic coal production, presumably because it feels it needs to protect its limited reserves. Thus future economic growth in China will be dependent on China’s ability to import more and more coal, driving up coal prices worldwide.

Read article at http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/14/does-china-face-a-peak-coal-threat/

December 14, 2010

WV state lawmakers are considering a permanent ban on underground slurry injection while providing for economic incentives to coal mining companies to develop alternative techniques for disposing of the slurry.

Slurry is the water that is left over when coal has been washed with water and chemicals to remove undesirable chemicals from the coal so that it burns cleaner. Of course those undesirables stay in the slurry, which is then many cases pumped underground into abandoned coal mines. However, a recent rise in the number of ground water wells that have been contaminated by the slurry led to a moratorium on the issuance of new injection permits, which this legislation would make permanent.

Read article at http://wvgazette.com/News/201012141052

October 20, 2010

Tennessee Riverkeeper has notified the operators of the Meredyth Mine in northeastern Alabama of their intent to sue over 2052 different clean water act violations between August 2008 and June 2010. According to the document, Meredyth, owned by National Coal of Alabama and formerly owned by Hope Coal Inc., discharged suspended solids at a rate of up 24x above the permitted amount. These suspended solids can contain high concentrations of heavy metals like lead, mercury, selenium and arsenic, and the solids can kill fish by plugging their gills.

Meredyth first obtained its discharge permit from the Alabama Department of Environmental Management in November 2007.

Read article at http://www.timesdaily.com/article/20101020/articles/310209993

November 17, 2010

Reed Mineral has applied to the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) for a water discharge permit for a new proposed mine, the Reed Mineral No. 5. The proposed mine would discharge into the Mulberry Fork of the Warrior River just upstream from a major water intake for the city of Birmingham.

In October, the Shepherd Bend mine received a permit that also allowed it to discharge into the Mulberry Fork just above the same water intake. The Birmingham Water Works Board (BWWB) has opposed the Shepherd Bend permit on the grounds that it is illegal and would contaminate the city’s water supply. A spokesperson for the BWWB said they are planning to appeal the Shepherd Bend discharge permit, and that the BWWB opposed the Reed Mineral No. 5 permit as well.

Read article at http://blog.al.com/birmingham-news-stories/2010/11/2nd_mine_sought_at_mulberry_fo.html

December 12, 2010

Big changes at the Four Corners Power Plant outside Farmington, NM will bring significant changes to the Navajo Mine that supplies it with coal. The Arizona Public Service Company (APS) announced last month that it will shut down the oldest three of five boilers at Four Corners and install significant new pollution control measures in the remaining two. But those two are projected to remain in use until 2041.

Four Corners consumes about 30% of all coal mined by Navajo, so mine production is expected to decrease. However, the bigger concern is where the coal will come from. Broken down into four major areas, area I and II are essentially exhausted, and a federal judge recently remanded the permit for area IV because he ruled that the Office of Surface Mining and Reclamation and Enforcement failed to follow the law when issuing the permit last year.

Read article at http://www.daily-times.com/ci_16844113

December 11, 2010

Betty Sue Whitaker, a former mine safety analyst for the state of Kentucky has pled guilty to 28 counts of tampering with public records for her actions in fabricating coal mine inspection reports. As an analyst, Whitaker was responsible for observing and interviewing miners to identify dangerous habits and situations before people got hurt.

Whitaker was discovered when one of her supervisors noticed that she claimed to have interviewed two employees in a particular visit, when mine records showed that the employees were in fact not working on site that day. As part of the plea bargain, prosecutors are recommending a jail sentence of five years plus additional fines to cover the cost of prosecution.

Read article at http://www.kentucky.com/2010/12/11/1561554/former-kentucky-mine-safety-analyst.html

December 10, 2010

The Colorado Public Utilities Commission has adopted a $1.4B plan to discontinue all coal-fired generation from the Denver area by closing four coal-fired plants, converting one to natural gas and building a new natural gas-fired power plant. As a result of the closures and conversions, the nitrous oxide (a key component in smog) during electrical generation will drop by 86% and consumer rates are projected to rise by a total of 2.4% over the next 10 years.

The Colorado Mining Association and Peabody Energy have opposed the move and are exploring other legal options to oppose the plan. Stuart Sanderson, president of the CMA, said “this thing is far from over.”

Read article at http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_16822421

December 10, 2010

Massey Energy’s outgoing CEO Don Blankenship has decided not to cooperate with MSHA investigators looking into the causes of the Upper Big Branch Mine disaster that killed 29 miners in April 2010. Unlike all of Massey’s other managers who had plead the fifth in the MSHA investigation, Blankenship had said that he intended to testify.

Read articles at http://wvgazette.com/News/201012100802 and http://blogs.wvgazette.com/coaltattoo/2010/12/10/breaking-news-blankenship-to-take-the-5th/

December 10, 2010

In the wake of the decision by the Cowlitz County, Oregon officials to allow Australia-based Ambre Energy to move forward on constructing a coal export terminal for coal from the Powder River Basin, one question that hasn’t been answered well is why Cowlitz County? This article goes through some of the economic analysis of why that port is much more advantageous than others on the West coast or more distant options like running coal through a Gulf Coast port.

Read article at http://daily.sightline.org/daily_score/archive/2010/12/10/cooooooal-train