All Solar, Et Al, In 12 Years?

[Randolph Kinney]

I am neutral, can't you tell? Your position on a job criteria is whether it loses money. Steel jobs make money but not in the U.S. Why is that?

The rules are the final, tougher versions of proposed regulations that the Environmental Protection Agency announced in 2012 and 2014. If they withstand the expected legal challenges, the regulations will set in motion sweeping policy changes that could shut down hundreds of coal-fired power plants, freeze construction of new coal plants and create a boom in the production of wind and solar power and other renewable energy sources.

The most aggressive of the regulations requires the nation’s existing power plants to cut emissions 32 percent from 2005 levels by 2030, an increase from the 30 percent target proposed in the draft regulation.

 

[Randolph Kinney]

California Has a Plan to End the Auto Industry as We Know It

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...-mary-nichols-may-transform-the-auto-industry

More green jobs on the way!

 

[ucbruin]

I'm also neutral.

 

[Randolph Kinney]

I'm also neutral.

Nice move for the tune that is played as to which job your prefer.

 

[ucbruin]

Nice move for the tune that is played as to which job your prefer.

I learn from the man who has probably been dancing on the AF for over a decade!!!

After 10 years of dancing you must be very tired or have some very toned calf muscles.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

Why not have both? Coking coal is an absolute necessity to create high temperatures necessary to melt steel. No one suggests we start building car frames from renewable wood are they? Look at your desk. What percentage of it is non-renewable? Metal, plastic (from oil), glues (from oil usually) that hold the particle board together if you don't have a solid wood desk (and few of us do).

We can mine coking coal here, or we can let them mine coking coal somewhere else. Does it matter? It is going to be mined and used and in the process the environmental impact upon the entire planet remains the same. Stopping pollution in America means nothing if it only shifts the sources off shore.

 

[Meandering]

It means shifting the jobs off shore, and the money too.

Foreign aid. Notice how we don't complain about it anymore?

 

[Meandering]

Coal Miner Alpha Natural Resources Files for Bankruptcy

Alpha Natural Resources Inc. filed for bankruptcy in Virginia Monday, becoming the latest victim of the coal industry’s worst downturn in decades.

The second-largest U.S. coal company has lost almost all its market value since 2011, when it bought Massey Energy Co. for about $7 billion. The deal made it the biggest U.S. producer of metallurgical coal, used in steelmaking -- and steeped it in debt -- right before prices began their plunge.

“The change and challenges the U.S. coal industry has experienced over the last several years are greater than any in the past three decades,” Kevin Crutchfield, Bristol, Virginia-based Alpha’s chairman and chief executive officer, said in a statement. “There is no doubt more uncertainty ahead, but also transformational opportunity in the coal sector for those who make proactive, strategic decisions.”


Alpha’s bankruptcy comes the same day as President Barack Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency plans to issue measures that force states and utilities to use less coal and more wind, solar and gas power.

Details emerging ahead of the release show pressure from Washington to curb coal’s use will only intensify over the next 15 years, escalating the industry’s fight for survival. The plan could go into effect in the next month or two.

Research firm SNL Energy says more than three dozen coal operations have been forced into bankruptcy in just over three years. Most have been small, but some of the biggest firms have also succumbed, including Walter Energy Inc., Patriot Coal Corp. and James River Coal Co. -- Patriot and James River for the second time.

The combined market value of U.S. coal company shares shrank to about $12 billion in late July from $78 billion in 2011, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

In July, Alpha said it had drawn $445 million from a revolving loan, mostly to fund its business, and it warned investors that it wouldn’t pay $109 million on notes related to the Massey deal due in August. The company said in Monday’s statement that it had secured $692 million in bankruptcy financing, arranged by Citigroup Inc.

U.S. coal companies invested billions of dollars to expand their reserves in 2011 as prices for “met” coal went as high as $330 a metric ton. Then demand from China suddenly slowed and the price of natural gas dropped, cutting into their business. Met coal now sells for $93 a metric ton. A strong dollar has also kept exports in check.

Alpha listed assets of $10.1 billion and debts of $7.1 billion in its Chapter 11 filing Monday in Richmond.

The company’s advisers include law firm Jones Day, Rothschild Group and Alvarez & Marsal Holdings LLC.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...-alpha-natural-resources-files-for-bankruptcy

This is what happens when the government targets your legitimate industry for extinction.

.

 

[Randolph Kinney]

Aluminium, plastics and composite materials are replacing steel in cars in the U.S. 60 percent of the car weight is made from steel. Most of the steel and aluminium production occurs outside of the U.S. and for good reasons too.

 

[Meandering]

I wouldn't call it GOOD reasons.