Gaw-Lee!! Coal Decline Caused By Market Forces, Not Evil, EVIL EPA - New Study

[hatrack]

EDIT

In contrast, a new study released Oct. 6 by the Center for American Progress, a nonpartisan, independent educational, public policy research and advocacy organization, argues a War on Coal isn't to blame for the rapidly declining Appalachian coal market. Instead, the report, written by Alison Cassady, director of Domestic Energy Policy at the Center for American Progress, points to cheap, abundant natural gas and competition from cheaper, more efficient coal seams for the decline.

EDIT

Between 2007 and 2012, natural gas production from shale increased fivefold in the United States, Cassady's report states, driving natural gas prices down from a 10-year high of $8.86 per million Btus in 2008 to an average of $2.75 per million Btus in 2012 and $3.72 per million Btus in 2013. Such low prices have “eroded” coal's position as the go-to energy source for power generation, the report continues.

Additionally, the West Virginia Economic Outlook for 2014, conducted by the West Virginia University College of Business and Economics, argues that coal continues to face serious long-term obstacles, both in supply and end-user demand. On the demand side, natural gas prices fell to near-record lows in 2012, which caused a temporary shift away from coal as a fuel for power generation.

Low gas prices, combined with significantly lower capital costs, have made natural gas generation cost-competitive with coal, the Economic Outlook states. Levelized costs for advanced natural gas combined cycle plants are now $65.6 per megawatt-hour, which is about 35 percent lower than the cost for new coal-fired generation. These investment costs indicate that natural gas plants will likely constitute the majority of capacity additions in the near future. Of the power generation capacity additions proposed for the next 10 years, more than half are from natural gas generation, compared with less than 1 percent from coal, the Outlook continues.

EDIT

http://www.statejournal.com/story/26883400/report-market-forces-not-epa-to-blame-for-coal-decline

[shenmue]

1. Clean energy

Wind, solar and other technologies would help the environment and the job market.

[gladium et scutum]

2. I am sure

that thousands of UMW members in Eastern Kentucky, West Virginia and South Western Virginia will celebrate this news.

[Nihil]

3. Aww ....

Little fossil fuel promoter haz a sad ...

[GliderGuider]

4. Now get with the program, man!

In the conflict between the economy and the environment, the economy wins every time.

Until it doesn't, of course.