Obama's plan to cut imported oil by one-third: Drill, baby, drill?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Winehole23

seeking alpha: new EPA regs don't drive demand

http://seekingalpha.com/article/8397...ng-coal-demand

---

why drive demand?

the EPA goal is to protect environment and health.

Quote:

---

the Texas Public Policy Foundation ($100,000)

---

is basically a force for the good wrt to criminal justice issues in Texas in my book.

what do those other stink tanks do that's so horrible?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by boutons_deux

why drive demand?

the EPA goal is to protect environment and health.

---

is that what they're doing here, or are the new coal regs just toothless posturing, absent an epochal rise in the price of natural gas?

btw, way to duck a direct question.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Winehole23

is that what they're doing here, or are the new coal regs just toothless posturing, absent an epochal rise in the price of natural gas?

---

discourages/preempts dirty plants and dirty coal mining when NG price inevitably does rise, as it will when US NG is exported at world price via the upcoming LNG export ports seeking permitting and under construction. And as US coal gets exported for higher prices, domestic coal prices will also rise. Why would NG or coal producers sell domestically if they can make more money exporting?

making regs isn't expensive, so why not do it? It's the EPA's job. ENFORCING regs is the expensive part.

in other words, the articles's characterization of the new regs as being without any significant effect right now, is completely accurate

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Winehole23

in other words, the articles's characterization of the new regs as being without any significant effect right now, is completely accurate

---

who said it wasn't, "right now"?

your manner of agreeing with shameless, unrepentant VRWC shills was somewhat elaborate, is all

You Lie

I wasn't agreeing with the VRWC shills, I was quoting an NPR article.

Coal-dependent business fight to hold on, as industry shrinks

With the cost of mining coal rising and with natural gas becoming so competitive, the coal industry is in the midst of a battle.

Compared with the current affordability of natural gas, the price of coal is climbing, having gone from $43.75 per ton in 2007 to $63.78 per ton in 2011. Natural gas costs have dropped, to less than $3 per 1,000 cubic feet.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration's annual report released in June, higher coal exports provided some support in 2011, but U.S. coal production is projected to decline for four years thereafter as a result of the low natural gas prices, rising coal prices, lack of growth in electricity demand and increasing generation from renewable energy sources.

New federal environmental regulations are projected to take a toll on coal as well, including requirements to control emissions of nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide and air toxins such as mercury and acid gases. That will result in the retirement of some coal-fired generating capacity, including some here in West Virginia

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Latest-...=Google+Reader

Gecko sure knows how to make good bets on his energy winners of coal and nuclear. :lol

http://qz.com/126498/at-last-the-us-...e-to-cut-coal/

Social costs, if accounted for, make coal uneconomical


New research from a national environmental group finds that the cost of producing electricity from renewable resources like wind and solar is lower than that of conventional coal-fired generation when factoring for the adverse costs of climate change and human health impacts.

That conclusion, derived from analysis on the “social cost of carbon,” is at the heart of a study published in theJournal of Environmental Studies and Sciences by Laurie Johnson, chief economist of the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Climate and Clean Air Program, Starla Yeh of NRDC’s Center for Market Innovation, and Chris Hope of the Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.

“Burning coal is a very costly way to make electricity,” Johnson said in a statement announcing the research findings. “And yet, there are no federal limits on the amount of carbon pollution our power plants may release. That’s wrong. It doesn’t make sense. It’s putting our future at risk.”

That could soon change, however, as the Obama administration this week is expected to roll out proposed regulations that would limit carbon dioxide emissions from all newly built power plants. Sources close to the rulemaking process say U.S. EPA is expected to limit CO2 emissions to 1,000 tons per megawatt-hour for natural gas plants, while coal plants could see a slightly less stringent standard, on the order of 1,100 tons of CO2 per megawatt-hour.

http://www.midwestenergynews.com/201...-uneconomical/

'Rivers On Rolaids': How Acid Rain Is Changing Waterways


Something peculiar is happening to rivers and streams in large parts of the United States — the water's chemistry is changing. Scientists have found dozens of waterways that are becoming more alkaline. Alkaline is the opposite of acidic — think baking soda or Rolaids.

Research published in the current issue of Environmental Science and Technology shows this trend to be surprisingly widespread, with possibly harmful consequences.

What's especially odd about the finding is its cause: It seems that acid rain actually has been causing waterways to grow more alkaline.

The story started back in 1963 in a New Hampshire forest. A young scientist named Gene Likens found a stream there that was as acidic as tomato juice.

Likens eventually found the culprit: acid rain. Industrial air pollution was acidifying water that rained down from the sky, killing trees and the ecosystems of streams in the East.

Now — 50 years later — there's less acid rain. But rivers aren't neutral, they're alkaline, and that seems to be the trend in lots of places. "The real shocker to me," Likens says, "was [that] we found it from New Hampshire to Florida, and in rivers and streams that drained agricultural land, forest land and urban land."

Two-thirds of the 97 streams and rivers his team studied in the East have been growing more alkaline — from the mighty Susquehanna to small urban streams, like Gwynns Falls in downtown Baltimore.

http://www.npr.org/2013/09/13/221725...ging-waterways

Quote:

---

When a nation of 64.1 million people, the fifth-largest economy in the world, announces that it will boycott a product—any product—it has significant and immediate knock-on effects. In this case, it contributes to a largely unnoticed trend that is emerging both in the U.S. and across the globe. Increasingly, coal has become a class-based energy source. Wealthy regions, states, and cities are figuring out how to avoid using it, while poorer geographic areas are not.

---

http://www.slate.com/articles/busine...es_aren_t.html