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Saturday, December 2nd, 2017

Coal subsidies derail the Texas clean energy market

Author:     ELIZABETH LIPPINCOTT
Source:     Star-Telegram
Publication Date:     NOVEMBER 29, 2017 05:17 PM
 Link: Coal subsidies derail the Texas clean energy market
Stephan:   One thing Red value Texas seems to have gotten right is the transition out of the carbon energy era. But working against this, as this report explains, is the benighted attempt to preserve and strengthen carbon energy, particularly coal, and its effects on non-carbon energy technologies.

Luminant’s Big Brown Power Plant is one of the coal-fueled power stations being closed in 2018.
Credit: Ralph Lauer/Star-Telegram

“Trump Digs Coal” became one of the most recognizable slogans of the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, and candidate Donald Trump’s promises to scrap the controversial Clean Power Plan (CPP) and bring back coal jobs struck a chord in Midwestern mining states.

The vision of an unfettered, resurgent U.S. coal industry resonated with working class voters, helping to tilt the electoral map Trump’s way.

The Trump Administration is following through on its promises to scuttle the CPP, withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement, and abolish other environmental regulations that are odious to the coal industry. However, the coal industry has continued to struggle against strong economic headwinds, primarily market competition from sustained low (sub-$4/mmBtu) natural gas prices.

Wall Street analysts agree that long term economic forces are working against any federal effort to rehabilitate the U.S. coal industry.

They identify the advanced age and inefficiency of many […]

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