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From the ACC Coal Trading Conference
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US Senate Majority Will Have Big Impact on Coal Industry: Speakers
By Tyler Godwin, S&P Global Platts
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HOUSTON, TX (Dec. 8, 2020) – The incoming Biden administration will have an impact on coal with more pressure and regulatory squeeze on the use of fossil fuels and a larger focus on environmental justices but the two Georgia US Senate runoff elections on Jan. 5 could create even bigger impacts for the industry, including a potential carbon tax, two speakers said at a virtual conference Dec. 8.
Speaking at the American Coal Council’s virtual Coal Trading Conference, Thomas Pyle, president of the Institute for Energy Research, said he expects the first 100 days or even more of the Biden administration will be consumed by the coronavirus pandemic but…
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Biden’s Impact on Coal Market Remains Unclear: Speakers
By Nick Georgiou, Argus Coal Daily
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WASHINGTON, DC (Dec. 8, 2020) – The potential impact of president-elect Joe Biden’s presidency on the US coal market remains murky, as control of the Senate has yet to be decided, and the Covid-19 pandemic may consume his first 100 days in office, speakers said today during the American Coal Council’s Coal Trading Conference.
House Democrats will start 2021 with the narrowest majority in decades, said Thomas J Pyle, Institute for Energy Research president, while control of the Senate remains up in the air until a runoff election in Georgia…
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From the American Coal Fall Magazine
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Energy Policy and Economic Outlook through the COVID-19 Lens
By David Holt, Consumer Energy Alliance
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The COVID-19 pandemic has shown the essential role of energy to producing electricity and supporting manufacturing, but it has also made clear the weakness of U.S. reliance on supply chains and products from unfriendly countries. Anti-energy factions blocking our energy development projects serve to increase costs for consumers rather than achieve real environmental wins. We must drop the unnecessary antics and politics that stifle affordable, reliable and resilient energy…
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ACC Education and Development
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ACC 2021 Tomorrow’s Leadership Council Program – Registration Continues!
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Soar in 2021!
The American Coal Council’s Tomorrow’s Leadership Council (TLC) is a unique program designed to advance the professional development of participants from throughout the coal supply chain. It provides a meaningful opportunity for up-and-coming executives to enhance their industry knowledge and networks through activities and projects that address industry-wide objectives as well as leadership development goals.
The TLC program, which launched in 2009, is conducted as an annual program and has had participation by more than 160 executives from more than 60 companies.
We welcome member and non-member companies to register their entry-level staff, mid-level executives, and those newer to coal for this one-of-a-kind program. They will have the opportunity to meet and engage with others in the coal supply, consumption, transportation and trading sectors, as well as those working in companies that partner with and support these business sectors.
Participants benefit from in-person or virtual events and activities: professional development seminars, ACC conference attendance and networking dinners. They also have the opportunity to work on a collaborative group project with others in the program.
Program details and registration are available on the ACC website. Please also contact ACC CEO Betsy Monseu at (202) 756-4540 or bmonseu@americancoalcouncil.org with any questions or for more information.
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NERC: Pandemic, Regional Fuel Shortages Threaten Winter Grid Operations in California, New England
By Robert Walton, Utility Dive
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ATLANTA, GA (Nov. 23, 2020) – “Extreme weather” could result in natural gas shortages and challenges to grid reliability in New England and California this winter, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) concluded in its 2020–2021 Winter Reliability Assessment issued Wednesday.
The grid operator also found that while cold snaps can pose challenges in some specific areas, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is causing increased uncertainty in electricity demand projections and “presents cyber security and operating risks” more broadly.
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Senate Approves Two Energy Regulators, Completing Panel
By Rachel Frazin, The Hill
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WASHINGTON, DC (Nov. 30, 2020) – Two nominees to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) were confirmed to the panel by voice votes on Monday.
Democrat Allison Clements and Republican Mark Christie will serve on the panel, which regulates natural gas and hydropower projects and the interstate transmission of natural gas, oil and electricity.
Their confirmation brings FERC, which isn’t supposed to have more than three members belonging to any one party, up to its full capacity. Previously, the commission had been operating with fewer than the standard five commissioners.
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Wheeler Warns of Rules by a ‘Future Administration’
By Kevin Bogardus, E&E News
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WASHINGTON, DC (Dec. 1, 2020) – EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler warned energy producers and manufacturers today to be on the lookout for increased regulation.
Speaking to the Midwest Environmental Compliance Conference in a recorded video, Wheeler said he had been asked by a reporter recently about threats to ban hydraulic fracturing made on the campaign trail. He warned that more rules could threaten the industry’s survival.
“I said, ‘You don’t have to ban something in order to regulate it to death.’ This is exactly what the previous administration did to the coal industry, and it is a road map for what a future administration could do to other fuels,” Wheeler said.
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Biden Plan to End U.S. Fossil Fuel Subsidies Faces Big Challenges
By Timothy Gardner, Reuters
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WASHINGTON, DC (Dec. 1, 2020) – President-elect Joe Biden’s promise to end U.S. fossil fuel subsidies worth billions of dollars a year for drillers and miners could be hard to keep due to resistance from lawmakers in a narrowly divided Congress, including from within his own party.
The challenge reflects just one of the obstacles that Biden will need to overcome as he seeks to usher in sweeping measures to combat climate change and transform the nation’s economy to net-zero emissions within three decades. Biden has said axing fossil fuel subsidies will generate money to help pay for his broader $2 trillion...
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Utility Customers Owe Up to $40B in COVID-19 Debt, But Who Will Pay It?
By Herman K. Trabish, Utility Dive
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WASHINGTON, DC (Dec. 3, 2020) – Shutoff moratoria across the country, allowing COVID-impacted residential and small business customers to defer utility payments without the threat of losing service, have been invaluable to millions, authorities on energy bill assistance say.
But when the vaccines are dispensed and the pandemic fades, any economic recovery will be impacted by potentially huge debts to utilities, debts that have yet to be addressed anywhere, experts said. State regulators will decide…
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Emissions Growth Slower than Worst-Case Projections
By Staff, University of Colorado Boulder, via Science Daily
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BOULDER, CO (Nov. 30, 2020) – Under the worst-case scenarios laid out in the United Nations’ climate change projections, global temperatures would increase more than 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius) by 2100, leading to at least 1.5 feet (0.5 meters) in global sea level rise and an array of disastrous consequences for people and planet. But new research from the University of Colorado Boulder finds that these high-emissions scenarios, used as baseline projections in the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) global assessments, have not accurately reflected the slowing rate of growth in the global economy and we are unlikely to catch up to them anytime soon.
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Balanced Supply and Demand in Seaborne Thermal Coal Market Driving Prices Up: Platts Analytics
By Olivia Kalb, S&P Global Platts
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HOUSTON, TX (Dec. 7, 2020) – Supply and demand in the seaborne thermal coal market has returned to balance, driving up export spot prices over the last few weeks, S&P Global Platts Analytics said in its weekly report Dec. 7.
“We have seen over the past two weeks a surge in spot physical and coal futures prices across the board,” Platts Analytics said in its International Coal Markets Scorecard, adding that the speed and delta of the rise has been “somewhat surprising from a fundamental standpoint.”
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