Renewable sources account for more generation than does coal.
In the coal industry’s long decline, the years 2017 and 2018 were pretty good ones. But instead of stashing away cash for tough times, coal producers spent billions of dollars in dividends and stock buybacks to benefit their investors.
Now, the industry is facing “historically bad” conditions, according to a bankruptcy filing by Murray Energy Corp., the nation’s largest private coal producer.
Electricity demand has collapsed as the coronavirus pandemic has swept the U.S. That has added to the industry’s difficulties as competition from natural gas and renewable energy sources has pushed coal’s share of U.S. power generation below 20% for the first time in 50 years, according to IHS Markit. Coal generated half of U.S. electricity as recently as 2008.
Electricity generation from coal-fired power plants is forecast to decline 20% in 2020 from a year ago. Plants powered by historically cheap natural gas will see a dip of just 1%, according to the Energy Information Administration. Renewable sources solar, wind and hydropower topped coal for the first time on a quarterly basis in the first quarter, according to the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. U.S. coal production in the first quarter was down 17% from a year ago, according to the EIA.
This was extracted from an article in this morning's WSJ:
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty” ---Sir Winston Churchill "Political extremism involves two prime ingredients: an excessively simple diagnosis of the world's ills, and a conviction that there are identifiable villains back of it all." ---John W. Gardner “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” ---C. S. Lewis
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty” ---Sir Winston Churchill "Political extremism involves two prime ingredients: an excessively simple diagnosis of the world's ills, and a conviction that there are identifiable villains back of it all." ---John W. Gardner “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” ---C. S. Lewis
My wife was raised a Coal Miner's Daughter in small rural towns in Utah, California and Wyoming. Some of the towns were so small they ceased to exist once the coal boom ended. In fact, she was born in a town that no longer exists - Dragerton Utah. She was born in the mine's clinic. Her father gained a Masters in Mining Engineering from the University of Utah. Both of her parents were born at home (a fact I found very interesting).
Any ways, we pay attention to the mining industry - which has been going under in Utah for decades. It's actually sad to visit the coal towns in Utah's Carbon County, where the home High School team is the "Fighting Dinos." Yep, her High School mascot was a dinosaur. It's important to note coal mines and dinosaur fossils go together. You find one, and the other is there as well. Her father had a fossil collection worthy of a museum.
We have not seen the coal mines Trump said he was saving. Just the opposite, they're still sinking - forgotten and flooded (which is usually what happens to old mines). I've been on excursions to mining towns that closed in the 1950's. It's amazing how fast they crumble and fall. They are officially closed and off limits - but there's no one to stop you or keep you out. As a result, we've visited most of them on Jeep and motorcycle excursions.
This thread really has me re-living those old times. And, I have Dave to thank for it.
Thank you, Dave.
Hunter
I don't care if it hurts. I want to have control. I want a perfect body. I want a perfect soul. - Creep by Radiohead
I am about 50 miles south of the coal fields in PA---all anthracite on this end of the state---but they played a large part in our lives as a kid. We heated with coal and we would always go to the mines to get a truck load, which as I recall did it for the full heating season.
As a young engineer I was sent out to survey a stream in the coal regions. The abandoned mines "wept" highly polluted mine drainage which devastated every stream receiving that cocktail. We were working on abatement of that waste stream and as part of that we had to closely map all sources. By degree I am a mechanical engineer but they taught me to survey and I was sent out to "capture" the Shenandoah. Having just returned from 4 months at the Brooklyn Navy Yard I was ready for such a "pristine" assignment. My dreams were shattered by noon on the first day! The miners "shacks" that bordered the stream had no septic tanks--it was just a straight run to the stream. The "head water" of one branch was a laundromat. My rod-man, who had to follow the center of the channel, had to keep dodging the missiles coming at him!
Today there are virtually no mines still operating. Sadly, life has not moved on for many.
Our cottage is in the bituminous fields. When the drillers came knocking they wanted nothing to do with the coal rights---they bought only the gas rights. In theory I could still sell the coal rights---but that isn't about to happen.
Added in edit:
Prior to drilling they tested our well to establish a baseline. I was amazed at the extent of the tests they did. I think the total samples were in the 40s and amounted to about 6 gallons of water. They sampled the well at multiple levels and then at different points in the house. The results were like a small book. It turns out that we have methane in our water, as well as a few other gases in minute amounts--but they are there. They all seem to be from the coal deposits beneath us a few hindered feet. The wells closest to the cottage are just over 6,000 feet. We have another well site and those wells are just over 5,000 feet. Since we do not have a water well (or any buildings on that site) they did not do any baseline water testing.
On the way to our cottage we go through Carbon County PA.
Last edited by Dave Grubb; 05-04-2020 at 07:45 AM.
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty” ---Sir Winston Churchill "Political extremism involves two prime ingredients: an excessively simple diagnosis of the world's ills, and a conviction that there are identifiable villains back of it all." ---John W. Gardner “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” ---C. S. Lewis
Ahhh... yes, I too remember getting the coal deliveries at home. And, all the fireplaces in Carbon County were built for burning coal. Families found out the hard way if their fireplace wasn't coal friendly. But those deficient fireplaces did not last long before burn-thru occurred. My wife and I recently sold her parents Carbon County home. It had a coal chute leading right into the basement for ease of deliveries.
Thank you, Dave, for the opportunity to walk down memory lane.
Hunter
I don't care if it hurts. I want to have control. I want a perfect body. I want a perfect soul. - Creep by Radiohead
16 miles west of the White House, Northern Virginia..
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My Grandparents in Palisades Park NJ had a coal furnace when I was small.. The coal bin had a hopper with a worm feed into the furnace so you could fill the hopper and the worm gear would feed the furnace all night.. they converted to fuel oil in the mid 50s (had gas in the house but went fuel oil)
At Fort Belvoir Virginia.. the Colonels?Generals quarters, on the road to the Officers Club (lunch buffett) still have coal chute doors on the side of the house.. kids don't know what they are..
The only coal I have ever burned is some I picked up off the rail road tracks. It was some really stinky stuff and I have always wondered how people burned it in their homes.Nasty!
The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible - Arthur C. Clarke
There is no nostalgia about burning coal in me. There was always a coal gas smell in the house after we would tend the fire. Tending the fire meant first you "shake down" the ashes. The grates moved via a hand crank and you rotated the grates, which had a triangular shape to them, until you started to get live coals falling into the ash pit. Then you threw coal onto the fire. During the day we didn't put as much on as at night. At night we had to "bank" the fire. That meant we would throw on a specific number of shovel fulls---normally dictated by my father, based on outside temperature. That amount would cover the existing fire entirely. You had to open up a hole where the flames could come through---if not the coal gas could kill you! Once the fire was showing we would set the draft to correspond to the temperature. Eventually we added a thermostat in the LR which would automatically control the draft.
We had a large coal bin in the basement, large enough to hold about 6-8 tons. When we would get a load of coal we had a coal chute that we would put in place and then shovel the coal off the truck and send it down the chute. I always looked forward to going to the mine---but not the unloading that followed.
Hunter---a question for you: in one of my weekend travels I went east to the high plains, as I recall I passed through Vernal. As I started home I actually went through a coal fired generation plant, the plant was on one side of the road and the coal pile on the other. Shortly after that I ended up in a valley. Along the stream in that valley there were RR tracks. I stopped just to walk around and I could hear a train winding it's way up that narrow valley. Soon the train appeared coming around a bend. I still have pictures of that train, there were four GE 1600 HP engines in the lead and two more pushing---it was one of those times that I wish I was a different kind of engineer!
Does any of that sound familiar---I looked on a map but wasn't sure of where I was.
Last edited by Dave Grubb; 05-05-2020 at 11:40 AM.
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty” ---Sir Winston Churchill "Political extremism involves two prime ingredients: an excessively simple diagnosis of the world's ills, and a conviction that there are identifiable villains back of it all." ---John W. Gardner “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” ---C. S. Lewis
There are many ways the Big Boy impressed me with it's size---but I think one the most impressive of them all was standing next to the drivers---and looking up at the top of the dive wheels. They are 68", add to that the height of the rail and it clearly makes a statement
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty” ---Sir Winston Churchill "Political extremism involves two prime ingredients: an excessively simple diagnosis of the world's ills, and a conviction that there are identifiable villains back of it all." ---John W. Gardner “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” ---C. S. Lewis
I have a buddy in Vernal who is a Federal Probation Officer. He loves living there in Vernal and mostly supervises Native Americans. I went through the Peace Officer Academy with him in Draper Utah when we were both 26 years old. When I retired at 46, he went to the Feds - who also have a 20-year retirement system for Law Enforcement. One of the reasons he left state employment was he did not like working with sex offenders once his three daughters were born.
Watching those steam trains work is fascinating. I have a neighbor who's a "Trainee" and we would regularly visit the local Heber Creeper for fun. And, I'm pleased to see the Big Boy show up in this thread (thanks to our friend TG). Back in the day, they would regularly run those up over Soldier Summit because of the relatively steep grades between Carbon County and Provo Utah. Sadly, I've never seen a Big Boy in operation. I'll need to remind myself to get on that this year.
Hunter
I don't care if it hurts. I want to have control. I want a perfect body. I want a perfect soul. - Creep by Radiohead
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