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PCMIA/SME Pittsburgh Joint Meeting Highlights Net-Negative CO2 Baseload Power

What a wonderful and uplifting meeting it was! The 2021 PCMIA/SME Pittsburgh Section Annual Joint Meeting, which drew nearly 200 was held last week, October 21-22, at its traditional home, the Hilton Garden Inn – Southpointe, Canonsburg, PA. This was the first face-to-face meeting since 2019 and everyone was pleased to see their friends once again!

One of the highlights of the meeting, which drew great interest from all attendees, was a presentation “Net-Negative CO2 Baseload Coal Power Technology” given by Bill Reid, Managing Editor, CoalZoom.com. The PowerPoint presentation, presented at the meeting explained the technology as well as the Act H.R. 4891, and can be found here.

Bill Reid

“Stand up and fight for coal!“ Reid urged PCMIA and SME members who were present. “Coal remains a vital industry for the Nation and we must not be ashamed of it but instead fight for our industry; fight for our coal miners who have done so much for America; and fight for our own jobs and for the future of PCMIA and SME.”

Reid explained that an article had been posted on CoalZoom homepage (click here) to enable PCMIA and SME Pittsburgh Section members to make a difference by supporting the effort in getting H.R.4891 introduced in the Senate. A bi-partisan contact list of twelve Senators is included with a sample email that can be used to model an individual email message.

To continue reading, click here to view the full article on CoalZoom.com. 

CoalZoom.com - Your Foremost Source for Coal News

  

Construction Underway on Coal-to-Products Facility in Wyoming

Construction on a large-scale facility that will be home to technology developers in coal-to-products research is well underway in Wyoming.

Officials broke ground in June on the Wyoming Innovation Center, located in the heart of the Powder River Basin. Built on 9.5 acres in the Fort Union industrial park, the WyIC will provide seven pads, or locations, where pilot plants can be built, operated and monitored.

This drone image of the construction at the Wyoming Innovation Center shows an almost complete materials handling building, the foundation for the main building and the water tank and support building. In the background is site development for the pilot plant pads. 

Photo courtesy of Energy Capital Economic Development

The entire center is dedicated to developing advanced carbon products using coal and coal byproducts as the primary raw material, and is a “research-to-commercialization facility intended to accelerate research from lab level to pre-commercialization,” according to Energy Capital Economic Development, the economic development group for Campbell County and Gillette.

On site, a 4,000-square-foot building will provide office, lab and workspace for tenants, in addition to a 1,500-square-foot materials handling building, where incoming raw materials can be sized for the processes being evaluated. Lab research demonstrates the possibility of refining coal into products such as carbon fiber, asphalt, fuels of all types, activated carbon, char for agricultural use and other uses, according to the ECED. But, in many cases, the research has stayed in the lab and has never developed into marketable commercial products.

To continue reading, click here to view the full article on CoalZoom.com. 

CoalZoom.com - Your Foremost Source for Coal News.  

 

Allegiance Coal to Acquire Short Creek Underground Mine

Allegiance Coal Limited has announced the acquisition of the Short Creek Mine located 25 km west of Birmingham, Alabama, and 27 km southwest of the Black Warrior Mine (acquisition).

Highlights

- Allegiance has entered into an agreement with Drummond Coal Inc. (and related entities) to acquire the Short Creek Mine located west of Birmingham, Alabama.

- The mine is a tier 1 asset, a deposit with scale and premium hard coking quality coal, that consolidates and complements Allegiance’s investment in Alabama and Colorado.

- The acquisition will complete upon Marshall Miller & Associates delivering a JORC compliant resource statement and upon completion of the transfer of land and fixed assets, existing permits, and the coal lease to the Mary Lee, Blue Creek and Newcastle coal seams.

- While mine permits exist and are in good standing for opencast production and the operation of the wash-plant and the barge load-out, Allegiance will have to permit the underground mine estimated to take 6 – 9 months after completion of the acquisition.

- The acquisition from Drummond involves:

The purchase of the land over the deposit, the fixed assets (primarily a CHPP, a barge loadout, conveyors and stackers), and all existing permits to operate.

The lease of the mineral rights to the Mary Lee, Blue Creek and Newcastle seams under the land for up to 23 years, in consideration for the payment of royalties ranging from 7 – 10% based on a sliding scale of the FOB sales price achieved.

- The acquisition cost is:

US$4.4 million in cash to Drummond and related entities to acquire the land and assets.

US$11.5 million to replace the reclamation bond with the State of Alabama that follows the land and assets.

- Allegiance has raised AUS$30 million through a placement with institutional and professional shareholders which will be applied to the acquisition, to advance the Short Creek Mine into development and to working capital.

To continue reading, click here to view the full article on CoalZoom.com. 

CoalZoom.com - Your Foremost Source for Coal News. 


Coal Mines Making Comeback as Biden and Company Head to Climate Change Summit

Next week President Joe Biden and 13 members of his cabinet will fly to Glasgow, Scotland, to attend the United Nation’s climate summit where he and other world leaders will vie to make the greatest commitments to fight so-called climate change.

The trip comes as domestic crises continue and the coal industry that Barack Obama and now Biden have tried to destroy is making a comeback. 

Taxpayer funded National Public Radio (NPR) reluctantly reported the news in a story titled “U.S. coal production is up sharply after hitting a 50-year low last year.”

NPR reported:

More than 40 percent of America’s coal comes from the Powder River Basin, a 120-mile swath along the Montana-Wyoming border.

But times have been tough for producers there. Like other U.S. coal-producing areas, the Powder River Basin has seen mine closures and job losses mount in recent years. Production hit a 50-year low in 2020, and 151 coal mines were idled or closed.

“It’s been year after year where we’ve seen decline, decline, decline,” says Joe Micheletti, an executive with Westmoreland Mining, which operates three mines in Montana. “Our hope is maybe we’ve hit the bottom,” he says, “and what we see coming is maybe … that the coal demand is going to be maybe steady.”

James Stevenson of IHS Markit, an energy consulting company, said in the NPR report surging global demand is especially the case in the Asia-Pacific region. 

To continue reading, click here to view the full article on CoalZoom.com. 

CoalZoom.com - Your Foremost Source for Coal News.

               

 

Soaring Energy Prices are Threatening to Wreck Recovery

Americans are alarmed over the rising cost of energy. According to new polling from Morning Consult, 85% of Americans are concerned about rising energy prices, with 50% very concerned. This concern cuts across party lines, with 85% of Democrats concerned and 89% of Republicans.

This soaring concern comes as the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) warns consumers will be paying significantly more to heat their homes this winter.  Those heating with propane and oil are likely to see their costs rise 54% and 43% respectively. For the half of Americans that heat with natural gas, their bills are likely to be up 30% and jump 50% if it’s a colder than average winter. From heating bills to rising electricity prices and pain at the gas pump, consumers are acutely aware of rising energy costs and policymakers should be too.

 

There’s no debate that the global energy crisis and its inflationary pressure have arrived in the U.S. Inflation is here and energy is the driver. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index, the cost of food is up 4.6% over the past 12 months with the cost of all other goods, less food and energy, up 4%. The cost of energy, however, is up a staggering 24.8% in the same period.

Soaring energy prices are exactly what the economy and American workers simply can’t afford as the nation attempts recovery. Yet, energy-induced inflation is likely to get worse before it gets better. Unfortunately, that pain will fall hardest on those who can least afford it – it’s already happening in Europe.

As energy prices skyrocket in Britain and the European Union, policymakers are struggling to keep energy poverty from exploding. European Union Labor Commissioner Nicolas Schmit recently warned of a sharp rise in energy poverty this winter, telling a German news outlet that there are already millions of Europeans unable to afford to sufficiently heat their homes and this number could jump.

To continue reading, click here to view the full article on CoalZoom.com.

CoalZoom.com - Your Foremost Source for Coal News.  

 



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