In a long-awaited action against coal producers, the Biden-Harris administration is halting new coal leases in the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Montana, the largest coal mining region in the United States, which produces 40% of the nation’s power-generating coal.
Coal generates 16% of the nation’s electricity, second only to natural gas. This is the same electricity that not only lights and heats homes, hospitals, and businesses, but that charges up the electric cars that the Biden-Harris Administration wants everyone to drive.
The final decision by the Bureau of Land Management follows a court order to revisit its environmental review. The BLM will prevent extraction of 48.12 billion short tons of coal across 413,250 acres.
An analysis found existing reserves sufficient to meet demand until 2041, after which no more coal would be produced.
Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon blasted the federal overreach and its potential impact on coal production and jobs. His administration will pursue legal action, arguing that the decision undermines the federal BLM mandate is to manage lands for multiple uses. The BLM under the Biden Administration now emphasizes only preservation and recreation.
“Coal production in the low sulfur, subbituminous coal Powder River Basin has been declining since the beginning of the Obama Administration when onerous regulations were placed on coal power plants and when low-cost and abundant natural gas was replacing much of its generation,” says the Institute for Energy Research.
The Biden-Harris administration is speeding up coal plant closures through EPA regulations requiring coal and natural gas plants, which together provide 60% of U.S. electricity, to implement costly and experimental carbon capture technology.
By 2032, coal plants must cut carbon emissions by 90% or face shutdown, despite the technology being unproven and economically impractical at scale. Critics argue this jeopardizes grid reliability and the role of these plants as backups for renewable energy sources.
Read an analysis of this Biden-Harris action against coal energy at Institute for Energy Research.
Alaska has one operating surface coal mine, the Usibelli Mine, which produces about 1 million tons of coal per year, most of which is used by coal-fired power plants and commercial and institutional users, such as the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fort Wainwright and Eielson Air Force Base, Healy Unit #1 and Unit #2 power plants, and Aurora Energy. Some coal is was exported to Asia through the Seward Ore Terminal until 2016.
It’s unknown how federal requirements that require carbon capture will impact smaller operations like Usibelli, which would have to absorb greater costs than might be economically feasible.
If you have ever been to Butte, Montana and saw the aftermath of the rape of the land, coal producers might find an alternative source of fuel.
No actually Greg it was COPPER not coal do some research! The Berkeley Pit you speak of had nothing to do with Coal. Not every hole in the ground is a coal mine! Comments like this show you don’t know what the hell you are talking about! The only thing they take out of the ground in Montana is minerals like Copper and Silver!
Of course it’s copper. It’s a big ugly hole in the ground. Like what strip mining coal does. You backed up yet?
Greg, You don’t appear to know what the heck your talking about. Why don’t you ask me what you would like to know, as a mining engineer who has worked a few mines in my day, i might be able to help you better understand. Do you know why they call it strip mining? Are you aware that surface coal mines using the strip method are performing congruent reclamation right behind their mining. I can take you into areas of Wyoming out on the plains and you would never be able to even know that the area was “strip” mined a few years prior.
Butte Montana is a copper deposit by the way.
Yes I know.
And what do you purpose on where the United States is going to recover 40 % of its fuel now ?
Montana could probably find a way to reuse that land amd make production of something else to re-beautify the land..
Line mining where a narrow long strip is mined then next to it another with the overburden filled into the previous. No open pit mining like the defunct pebble which Trump will not allow anyway and is with the vast majority of Alaskans. Also, coal does not have to go through messy ore reduction like the metallics.
Have you seen a Lithium mine?
Some lithium “mines” directly extract lithium from the waste brine from bromine production. After the extraction the waste brine is reinjected into the Smackover formation from where it came.
If you are interested check out Standard Lithium (SLI).
Exxon also has leases in the area.
Insert foot into mouth!!
What, pray tell, is this alternate source of fuel? Is this alternate source of fuel here in the room with you?
Yes. Hydrogen.
Wow.
You named a source of energy that actually uses more energy to extract than you can get out of it. Net energy loss.
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Got something else?
H3.
Oh, yeah… Plenty of that just floating around in the atmosphere.
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Just where, exactly, are we going to get a sufficient amount of H3 that we can stop mining coal?
The moon.
And until then?
Oh… the moon.
Right. Easily obtained. After all, we have dozens of manned bases on the moon, and regular cargo shipments happening.
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Let me guess, you think the solid state battery and room temperature superconductors are out there as well.
Shhhh. People reading this. I’m not saying aliens are helping us, but its aliens.
Ah yes. Rely on aliens for our energy needs. Perfect.
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Or, we could just rely on the Chinese. Probably easier. Less of a language barrier.
And, what a typical leftist response.
There is some other technology that is decades in the future. Let’s stop using what works now, because that will make the laws of physics stop applying to the universe and we will have it sooner.
There you go with that leftist c*** again? I don’t know how many times I need to tell you, but I have never once voted for a Democrat. I voted for Trump twice. I voted for Ford and Reagan and the Bush family
I don’t know where you get this leftist thing from other than it’s your feeble attempt at an insult, but you are so far off base that you’re not even in the ballpark.
Leftists do exactly what you have just done.
Claim there is some perfect replacement for a known and abundant energy source (when there isn’t). And, the advice is ignore the currently available energy.
I do not see the difference.
Your two dimensional thinking is redundant at times.
Beats single dimensional thinking every time.
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Tell me, Greg…
Do conservatives or leftists decide to stop shutting down conventional power plants before solar and wind are capable of providing the energy needed? Was it the leftist, or the conservative governments in Europe that shut down nuclear without a viable replacement?
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In California, are they outlawing the sale of internal combustion engine vehicles before the capability of EVs is capable of taking on the transportation needs. Action on the part of Conservatives, or Leftists?
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And, here you are, pushing for an energy technology that is not capable of sustaining a single room cabin, forget a city, and the fuel is on another celestial body.
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How is that not acting like a leftist?
I meant helium……
Absolutely … CRIMMINAL // TREASONOUS!!!
However, Trump will and can fix this, despite Lisa!
Halts them until January 21, 2025 that is.
The fact remains that we are being monitored and or helped by factions unknown to the majority of the residence on this planet. It would be pretty naive for us to think that we can go from the Wright flyer, to scramjet, stealth technology and even black budget technologies that are fifty years beyond what you can even imagine in just seventy five years. Let alone from the morse code.Two smartphones in the same time frame. The government is working with these entities, and, unbeknownst to you, it will take a few generations before the truth is entirely exposed. I’m so sorry that you’re not as forward thinking as you think you are, yours is a closed and as such, an empty mind.
Greg…
I thought you were a teacher of the year, or something like that.
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And, you come back with this comment? Please…
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The examples you use just demonstrate how completely and totally clueless you are. Wright flyer to scramjet? Why is that so unbelievable? Morse code to cell phones? Simply because you are ignorant of the underlying technology does not mean “…factions unknown to the majority of the residence on this planet.” are involved.
That’s not what Reagan said. You ever seen a craft with no wings fly? I have. So did Reagan.
I see them fly every day.
They are called helicopters.
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Exactly how close were you to this magical wingless flying craft? Yeah… I thought so.
Reagan said they exist. Oh… proof enough for me. What this before or after he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s?
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There is an old adage about how digging should stop when you hit bedrock. Perhaps you should consider that adage.
Okay, sparty pants. I will tell you. I was traveling south of Crown Point New Mexico in 1995. I had just crossed over the continental divide. To my left was a V-shaped Dry Creek pad with a outcropping. That’s separated, where it is branched in different directions, sort of like time square and the
Flatiron building. I noticed a metallic
Cigar shaped craft headed up the valley, about 20 feet off the creek bed. It was headed north
It didn’t have wings, and I can’t tell you if it was saucer shaped or not because of my perspective was looking at it, almost head on it flew up the right. Branch of the draw and disappeared from sight behind this flatiron shaped rock.
As I continued further south, I got to a vantage point a few seconds later, where I could look up that draw.
And when I did so, it was gone. I question whether I really saw anything at all. But in reality, I did see it, because something made me turn and look trying to figure out where it went. Reagan his first u f o flying in a Cessna when he was governor. Well before any alzheimer’s affliction. It followed them for quite some time and during the flight, him, the pilot and someone else that was there talked about it as it happened. Another time while he was governor him and Nancy. We’re driving up the coast 2. Go to a party at William Holden’s house.
They were about 2 hours late, and everyone was beginning to get worried. Finally, Reagan and Nancy showed up, and they have no recollection of that 2 hours that is missing. And if you look back at reagan, addressing the UN, after multiple attempts of his chief of staff and speechwriters to take it out of his address, he insisted that it be put back in and that part of the speech was when he was talking about how the countries of the world would all come together, if an Alien force attacks. And then he told everyone in the room….. Aren’t they among us now? So I have first-hand experience
And so does Reagan.
And so does Jimmy Carter, I believe as much as you try to discredit that you can’t just like you try to act like millions of people aren’t dead because of COVID, go ahead and stick your head back in the sand new Yorker. And go back to counseling, perhaps get some counseling yourself too.
Flatiron building is no where near Times Square.
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So, let me see if I have this right.
You were driving. Saw something out of the corner of your eye. When you were able to stop is was not there.
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Well, that is good enough for me. Super intelligent superior beings are definitely living among us. No wonder we went from the telegraph to the phone to radio in only a few decades.
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You are not exactly increasing your credibility.
No. I was driving and off to my left, It was coming towards me and it got parallel to me as I looked over and saw it.
And I drove a few more seconds, and while still driving turned and looked over my shoulder up the now visible draw, and it was gone.
You were driving?
Got it.
And, obviously something you see well off the road is proof of reality.
And, the thing you saw was not there when you were actually able to focus on it.
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The proof just keeps getting more and more compelling.
So you’re doubting president reagan now too? Research, the black pyramid just west of denali.
I do not doubt President Reagan saw something. Nor do I doubt you saw something.
It is proof of nothing. Plenty of people see things that are optical illusions every day.
Another thing.
I am absolutely convinced I saw ghosts in the house I owned in VA. No doubt about it. Oh… they were never actually there when I looked directly at them, but it would often get glimpses of them out of the corner of my eye.
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And, I bet every other person on MRAK has had EXACTLY the same experience. Convinced they saw “something.” It is proof of nothing.
Seeing is believing, I was fifty yards away from it. It was ten thirty in the morning on a bright and sunny day, and there were no objects between me and the craft. It was coming up The draw towards me at a high rate of speed, but I don’t know how fast that was. It was about twenty feet off the ground, but was not kicking up any dust.
Yep. I saw a ghost as well.
And, that proves… nothing. Certainly does not prove ghosts exist.
All it says is I saw something, likely something easily explained by floating dust, lighting, or reflection off a window/mirror.
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If you want to believe your flying object is something other than an illusion, that is your call. But, stop beclowning yourself by claiming it proves anything.
Well, I’m not from New York, but I knew the flatiron building was there. Regardless, as you’re looking towards the why of the streets, the flatiron building separates, that’s how this draw was with this rock outcropping and the craft flew up the right side of the rock, and I had to wait till I got around the point. Of the rock before I could see back up the valley, which took me just a couple of seconds..
It took you a couple of seconds to get a better view.
And, how long does it take for a rainbow to disperse? Especially when you are in a moving vehicle? (I am sure an award winning teacher such as yourself knows rainbows appear depending on your angle of observation related to the Sun, so I will not mention that.)
And, a mirage? How many seconds before that dissipates? What about a reflection? A lens flare created by your vehicle window?
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Face it, Greg. You saw an illusion. It proves you saw an illusion. Nothing more.
I could tell you about the implant I have in my left forearm, but you probably don’t want to hear about that. I can move it around between my thumb and my forefinger, and it’s about a half inch long and feels like it’s cylindrical. No I have no memory of being abducted.
I have something just like that. Left bicep area.
It is called a cyst. I monitor its size and shape and will have it removed if it grows or changes shape.
Just a realist. All you claim to do is postpone the inevitable.
so that’s a loss of how many jobs?
Isn’t the AK Railroad completely doing away with the Seward Coal Terminal?
Will get reversed in February
The area around Butte. MT was open pit mining for COPPER by Anaconda Mining. The “Hill” was the richest Copper deposit on Earth. Today one of the pits is being worked for copper/ molyndenum.
With the WITHDRAWAL of critical mineral exports from CHINA to the US the Butte source of minerals for metals is more strategic than ever.
Dig, BABY, Dig.
Drink some water there. I dare you!
I’ve had both food and water in Butte. Still here.
That means that you’ve drank some of the water that they have piped In that passes epa standards. I was referring to the couple of generations of people that drank the runoff from the mine, and their teeth are glowing now.
Greg, do you eat any of the “world class” salmon that is harvested out of the Copper River? that mine was before regulations and those fish still come back every year.
No. Too much mercury.
Maybe now I won’t get my lump of coal in my stocking this year
Why is he such a idiot
Just doing what the WEF/COP folks are telling him to do.
Just another thing that Trump will undo after January 20th. Meanwhile, just put two lumps of coal in every Democrat’s stocking and underwear.
“Some coal is exported to Asia through the Seward Ore Terminal”. No coal has been exported through the terminal since 2016, and it is slated to be demolished.
““Coal production in the low sulfur, subbituminous coal Powder River Basin has been declining since the beginning of the Obama Administration when onerous regulations were placed on coal power plants and when low-cost and abundant natural gas was replacing much of its generation,” says the Institute for Energy Research.”
Yeah, that’s been getting shut down, too.
Enstar says we’ll be out of gas by 2026 and I haven’t heard any legislators or other leaders resolve that one yet.
There are better ways, folks. Every coal mine that closes puts Alaska’s gas and LNG projects on a better footing. Coal is dirty and polluting, and you’ve got to tear up the countryside to get it in many cases. When something better comes along, go with it. You all really want to stay with coal power? Really? Or do you complain here simply because it was an action by a Democrat? Now there’s a question that answers itself.
Seems to me that solar and wind amount to a whole lot of “tearing up the countryside”, and that is even if one ONLY looks at the ground they occupy. The ground that needed tearing up to manufacture them, and to later bury them, puts them in a ridiculous clas of their own. I don’t which side of the Uniparty says they are good, or acceptable, or desirable. Taken on the whole, they are not
Chulitna Coal deposits are huge. West side of Cook Inlet. This was a potential coal mining operation back in the 1990’s. Hope it gets revived under Trump.
Already in the works, Brian.
so childish. Trump will simply reinstate it.
One step forward and two steps back.
What a petty 5y/o mentality this displays. This is very much in the vein of ” you didn’t let me win, so I break your favorite toy”! It isn’t about the environment. Curtailing future leases means little, since as soon as he is out of office, it will be reversed. It should also be interesting to find out if these lease sales are not mandate by law and canceling them illegal.
The wheels of progress turned slowly and sometimes backwards.