The Souring of Vietnam’s Coal Dream“A tidal wave of toxic coal waste slurry has flooded shin-deep through houses in Cam Pha City in northern Vietnam following the collapse of an coal mine tailings dam after torrential monsoonal rain. The widespread flooding of coal mines in Quang Ninh province along with part of the coal stored at the Quang Ninh Thermal Power Plant being washed into a river are likely to result in the pollution of the Ha Long World Heritage site. The flooding of major coal mines has many of the country’s coal-power stations facing the prospect of running out of fuel within two weeks,” writes Bob Burton in RenewEconomy. Suggested Tweet: #Vietnam’s floods send avalanche of #coal waste into iconic Ha Long Bay #worldheritage http://bit.ly/1OYQEN5 @bobburtonoz @renew_economy Obama Didn’t Kill Coal, the Market Did“Critics of the [US] Environmental Protection Agency’s new Clean Power Plan are describing it in apocalyptic terms … The overblown political rhetoric about the plan tends to obscure the market reality that the coal industry has been in steady decline for a decade, partly as a result of the natural gas boom, but mostly because consumers are demanding cleaner air and action on climate change. Communities across the US have led the way in persuading utilities to close dirty old coal plants and transition to cleaner forms of energy,” writes Michael Bloomberg in Bloomberg. Suggested Tweet: Obama didn’t kill #coal, the market did @MikeBloomberg http://bv.ms/1DqdawU Investors have lost their shirts on Peabody; now taxpayers are in the line of fire“Peabody continues to tank for the main reasons many other major coal producers continue to tank: it made too many top-of-the-cycle, multibillion-dollar debt-funded acquisitions and its executives have continued to pretend that they can’t see the oversupply in a seaborne coal market that is in structural decline … The reality … is that if Peabody is unable to cover the cost of its mine rehabilitation, that burden will be shifted to taxpayers,” writes Tim Buckley in RenewEconomy. Suggested Tweet: Investors have lost their shirts on @peabodyenergy; now taxpayers are in the line of fire http://bit.ly/1DoH4C7 @ieefa_institute #coal |