U.S. coal exports have been booming in recent years due to rising demand around the world. In fact, some European countries are already using U.S. coal to displace costly Russian gas. “Some European countries are using U.S. coal to help displace Russian natural gas and neutralize Russia’s energy influence,” Republican Kentucky Rep. Ed Whitfield said. “Coal exports are already having an impact on geopolitics and are helping to create American jobs and reduce our trade deficit. We can build on this success by increasing natural gas exports as well.” --Michael Bastasch, The Daily Caller News, 17 April 2014
The European Union sees itself leading the world in curbing carbon-dioxide emissions and doing more than any other region to mitigate climate change. But it is also increasing the share of electricity being generated by the most carbon-intensive energy source of all: coal. Coal-fired electrical-generation plants are being started up in Europe—and comparatively clean gas-fired generating capacity is being shut down. According to one forecast cited at a Brussels conference on Thursday by Fabio Marchetti, head of government affairs in Brussels for the Italian energy company ENI, 10 gigawatts of gas-power plants will be dismantled in Germany by 2015—to be replaced with seven gigawatts of coal-fired plants. That is in Germany, the Continent’s leader in heavily subsidized renewable energy. --Stephen Fidler, The Wall Street Journal, 7 February 2014
What more could one want? It is cheap and simple to extract, ship and burn. It is abundant: proven reserves amount to 109 years of current consumption, reckons BP, a British energy giant. They are mostly in politically stable places. There is a wide choice of dependable sellers, such as BHP Billiton (Anglo-Australian), Glencore (Anglo-Swiss), Peabody Energy and Arch Coal (both American). Other fuels are beset by state interference and cartels, but in this industry consumers — in heating, power generation and metallurgy — are firmly in charge, keeping prices low. Just as this wonder-fuel once powered the industrial revolution, it now offers the best chance for poor countries wanting to get rich. --The Economist, 19 April 2014
What’s a beleaguered utility to do when forced by the government to close its profitable nuclear power plants? It turns to lignite, a cheap, soft, muddy-brown colored form of sedimentary rock that spews more greenhouse gases than any other fossil fuel. The story of German power giant RWE AG (RWE) is a parable of the crisis facing the nation’s utility industry — and those of many countries across Europe — as nuclear power plants get shuttered in the wake of the Fukushima disaster. RWE now generates 52 percent of its power in Germany from lignite, up from 45 percent in 2011. And RWE isn’t alone. Utilities all over Germany have ramped up coal use as the nation has watched the mix of coal-generated electricity rise to 45 percent last year, the highest level since 2007. --Tino Andresen, Bloomberg Business Week, 15 April 2014
With increased tensions in eastern Ukraine, home of the coal basin in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, the energy future of the country seems as bleak as ever. Despite being Europe’s preferred alternative to Russian gas, coal does not often receive much spotlight. Ironically, most of Europe’s growing coal import comes from Russia anyway. If the eastern regions of Ukraine were ever to shift to Russia’s orbit, Ukraine could potentially lose control of 45.6 percent of its coal reserves. The loss of the Donets coal basin, which is three times as large as the Ruhr coalfield in Germany, would be a substantial economic blow to Ukraine. --Joe Parson, The Moscow Times, 17 April 2014
The ongoing European trepidation towards shale gas is putting Europe at an increasing economic disadvantage. The lack of energy competitiveness vis-à-vis the United States has also become the biggest concern of Europe’s industrialists. In the absence of a European supply of inexpensive shale gas, the shift to coal is a rational economic decision for European power generators. The consequences of the shift, however, are detrimental on several fronts. --Karel Cool, Knowledge Insead Blog, 17 April 2014
