Coal

[Parihaka]

Prediction

My prediction is that, barring a Republican president who stops and reverses Obama’s anti coal jihad, bankrupt coal companies and their assets will be snapped up in bankruptcy by politically-correct and politically-favored Wall Street takeover firms. Unlike current coal industry management, the new coal owners will be Democrat-friendly.

The rest is obvious in an Orwellian way. The new coal industry will flood the coffers of politicians and coal will be magically rehabilitated as a “clean” or at least as a “necessary evil.” The new coal industry will flourish as never before. The crime will have paid off handsomely.

http://www.breitbart.com/big-governm...train-robbery/

Outcome

Billionaire investor George Soros has opened new equity stakes in Peabody Energy Corp. and Arch Coal Inc., the country's top two coal producers, according to a Form 13F-HR filed Aug. 14.

Soros acquired more than 1 million shares of Peabody and 553,200 shares of Arch in the second quarter, according to the filing. He reported no other coal holdings in the period.

Soros makes investments through his Soros Fund Management LLC fund. Soros' holdings may have changed significantly since the end of the second quarter ended June 30.

http://www.snl.com/MobileX/UI/Pages/...7&FreeAccess=1

Soros last invested in the coal sector in 2014 when he opened a large stake in coal and gas producer CONSOL Energy Inc., but he later liquidated it.

Both Peabody and Arch have seen their market values plummet amid extremely difficult operating conditions for domestic producers caused by competition from cheap natural gas, new environmental regulations and a slowing export market.

[astralis]

lol...so the point of Obama's "anti-coal jihad" is simply to install a coal industry run by Democrats and then make lots of money?

let me know when Soros finishes his single-man takeover and then Democrats start pushing for relaxed environmental regulations on coal, lol...or when the coal industry undergoes this renaissance given its decline over the last, oh, sixty years.

given the one-day lag between "prediction" and "outcome" this former coal executive is a real fortune-teller alright.

these conservative attacks against Obama are so confusing. one day he's a stupid idiot and a complete pushover by Iran, the next day he's the reincarnation of Machiavelli playing the long political game.

[Jimbo]

lol...so the point of Obama's "anti-coal jihad" is simply to install a coal industry run by Democrats and then make lots of money?

let me know when Soros finishes his single-man takeover and then Democrats start pushing for relaxed environmental regulations on coal, lol...or when the coal industry undergoes this renaissance given its decline over the last, oh, sixty years.

given the one-day lag between "prediction" and "outcome" this former coal executive is a real fortune-teller alright.

these conservative attacks against Obama are so confusing. one day he's a stupid idiot and a complete pushover by Iran, the next day he's the reincarnation of Machiavelli playing the long political game.

I have to disagree with coal in a decline for 60 years. East coal perhaps but western coal not at all. Coal was up and down from the 40's through 60's in terms of annual production in the U.S. before a continous climb from the 1960's until 2010's. Even with natural gas at low prices Powder River coal was profitable and competetive until these regs. The firm I work at does coal mine permitting and the difference between before and after the anti-coal regulations is night and day.

[SteveDaPirate]

The US has dramatically increased domestic energy production under Obama through hydraulic fracturing, increasing adoption of renewables, and now the opening of some of the arctic to drilling.

As other sources of domestic energy production ramp up, it becomes much harder to justify the continued operation of the dirtier sources of energy when several cleaner options are not only viable, but cost competitive. Slowly squeezing coal via regulation will start easing people out of the coal business by making it harder to turn a profit for companies that are less efficient.

Coal won't go away entirely any time soon, but I expect it to decline significantly as natural gas becomes king.

[Doktor]

Tax it 300% nd you wont see any coal produced energy. Problem solved. If coal is the problem. The thing is to produce one wind turbine you need coal.

[kato]

Isn't this a bit ridiculous? I mean - the two coal companies being taken over are pretty endangered given how small they are. Anyone could snatch them up.

What's more interesting about Soros' involvement is that he's apparently currently picking up smaller shares of a number of mining companies (today: Alcoa) with a lot more global diversification.

[Parihaka]

The problem with natural gas Is the methane components of its emissions. Of coal vs natural gas, modern coal burning (prior to latest legislation) actually is far cleaner GHG-wise than natural gas. This is also covered by the latest EPA regs.
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/3d320...as-nearly-half

[SteveDaPirate]

Natural gas releases significantly lower GHG emissions when burned compared to coal or oil. The time natural gas runs into trouble is if it is burned incompletely (not an issue for power stations) or more commonly, during production and transportation when methane is allowed to escape. The article you linked is an attempt to cut down those methane releases that occur during production and transportation of natural gas.

Coal just can't get much cleaner without becoming cost prohibitive. (carbon sequestration etc.) Meanwhile, natural gas has the advantage of burning very clean to start with, and the industry has a lot of room to continue to improve on GHG emissions without seriously impacting the price of energy.

Personally I'd prefer to see the US double down on nuclear power as a form of dense, reliable, and emission free energy until renewables have truly matured.