“King Coal” Is Dying; Prince Oil & Gas Is Next

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out– Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out– Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out– Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me–and there was no one left to speak for me.  -Martin Niemöller

Several years ago, during a period of time when some in the oil and natural gas industry were engaging various environmentalist organizations in discussions on how to promote and better regulate natural gas as a fuel for power generation, a very wise man took me aside and said, “Don’t kid yourself.  These groups are focused on killing coal right now, but once they’re done with them, they’re coming after us.”

Now that the environmentalist lobby, working in concert with the Environmental Protection Agency – which is largely populated by folks who came out of these same environmental organizations – has almost succeeded in killing the nation’s coal industry for all intents and purposes, it is obvious that truer words were never spoken.  Anyone paying attention to what is happening today in the U.S. energy space can clearly see that the focus of the radical environmental movement is indeed turning very quickly to efforts to do the same with oil and gas.

St. Patrick’s College’s Grave Yard (Photo credit: infomatique)

The final two-plus years of the Obama Administration will be a very precarious time for this industry, as the EPA ramps up its efforts to overlay as many cumbersome new regulations as it possibly can before 2017. That’s what the Administration’s stepped-up effort to regulate methane emissions at various steps throughout the natural gas supply chain is all about, it’s what the EPA’s proposed “Waters WAT +1.21% of the United States” regulatory regime is all about, and it’s what efforts by the EPA and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) related to regulation of hydraulic fracturing and well completions are all about.  It’s what ballot initiatives to ban hydraulic fracturing in Colorado, Texas, California and Ohio are all about.  It’s what fake documentaries like Gasland and Gasland Too are all about.

Add into all of that the fact that the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service must make listing decisions on hundreds of additional plants and animals nominated for listing under the Endangered Species Act over the next two years in response to the “Sue and Settle” racket engaged in by radical groups like the Center for Biological Diversity, and you clearly have a multiple-front assault on one of the nation’s few remaining great industries.

The irony of this final two-year push by the Administration against oil and natural gas is that this is the industry that has literally carried the Obama economy on its gargantuan back and kept it afloat throughout the entirety of the President’s time in office.  Were it not for the Shale Revolution’s creation of millions of jobs and hundreds of billions of dollars in annual economic impact, the nation’s economy would almost have certainly been mired in an unending deep recession for the last six years.

Whatever golden eggs this Administration can brag about have been laid by the oil and gas industry’s proverbial goose.  And it has all taken place on private and state lands, since the Administration has done its best to strangle new oil and gas development on federal lands.  Even more ironic is the fact that the use of more natural gas in the power generation sector has enabled the Administration to brag about the fact that U.S. carbon emissions have fallen to their lowest levels in more than 20 years under the President’s watch, a fact the environmentalist lobby tends to forget whenever the truth is inconvenient for them.

The efforts by the radical environmental community and the Administration continue to be predictably supported by the usual suspects in academia and a compliant news media.  Most recently we’ve seen yet another report assaulting natural gas from Anthony Ingraffea and Robert Howarth at Cornell University, at least the third such highly-suspect report these fellows have produced over the last few years.  Like their previous reports, this one is easily debunked, funded by the same groups and foundations that fund the anti-fracking movement, and was completely dismantled here by Katie Brown at EnergyInDepth.

But these fellows are quite clever:  while they even admit some of the shortcomings of their “research” in the bowels of their own report, they know they can rely on sympathetic reporters and editors at many of the nation’s media outlets to publish uncritical stories on the report which contain only the things they want to highlight along with sensational headlines.  They also know that the headlines are all most people ever read, and that even reports that contain balancing information will go largely unnoticed.  The whole point is to create a sense of alarm among the populace, and to demonize natural gas as an energy source, a threat to the air, the water, and the public health.  Exactly the strategy that has crippled the nation’s coal industry.

It’s a very effective strategy, and one the oil and natural gas industry ignores at its own peril.  A couple of years back, the industry put out a study that showed that oil and natural gas supports 9.2 million jobs in this country, a number that has only grown significantly since then.  Everyone reading this needs to understand that the radical environmentalist lobby and regulatory community will not be satisfied until each and every one one of those 9.2 million workers are unemployed.

That’s the goal – the”King” is almost dead, and they’re coming for you next.  Don’t kid yourself otherwise.

19 Comments on "“King Coal” Is Dying; Prince Oil & Gas Is Next"

J-Gav on Sat, 19th Apr 2014 12:18 pm 



Radical environmentalist lobbies have infiltrated the Administration? What has this guy been smoking?

Poordogabone on Sat, 19th Apr 2014 1:14 pm 



Wonder what the world would look like if it was not for environmentalists.

paulo1 on Sat, 19th Apr 2014 1:38 pm 



Unbelieveable. Poordog said it very well. And when things get totally effed up, the culprits always say, “why didn’t anyone say anything, why didn’t you stop it”?

I find it offensive how the beginning referenced Nazi crimes and compared it to the environmental movement. I guess there are stupid people who believe this crap.

Paulo

rockman on Sat, 19th Apr 2014 2:24 pm 



“…has almost succeeded in killing the nation’s coal industry for all intents and purposes”. Yes… what a joke. I mentioned it elsewhere: it’s almost as if such articles are written by shills for the coal industry to hide the truth. During the last 5 years the world has consumed more coal then during any 5 year period since coal mining began. In the last 10 years global coal consumption has increased 60%. And while coal consumption has deceased some in the US in recent years exports of US coal has increased 2000% in the last 5 years with the bulk of that coal coming from UD gov’t leases.

And the administration position on new coal plants was made several years ago when the Obama administration’s EPA issued the final Clean Air Permit that would allow the White Stallion coal fired power plant to begin construction in coastal Texas. The plants had sign a 30 contract to buy Illinois coal that would be shipped by rail half way across the country.

That’s right: King Coal is dead. Nothing to discuss… go back to watching American Idle. LOL.

Northwest Resident on Sat, 19th Apr 2014 3:10 pm 



Forbes ran this article in the same issue as their “Harold Hamm is here to save America” masterpiece of disinformation, also posted on this site. Forbes has always been a premiere source of information and guidance for investors and investment managers all of whom are constantly looking for ways to make better returns on their investment dollars. So, when Forbes publishes a double-decker of bullshit as they are doing with this and the Hamm articles, it tends to indicate that they are going full retard in trying to keep investors invested in oil. We all know about the CAPEX problems that shale oil companies are experiencing, so from a purely manipulative point of view, it makes sense to spread the bullshit as thick as possible at this increasingly critical point in history. This article is intended to put the fighting spirit into those investors — they want those investors to be as psychologically insulated from the realities of our energy situation as possible, because if they knew the truth they would run for the hills and THAT would be the end of the game.

Danlxyz on Sat, 19th Apr 2014 3:24 pm 



According to the EIA http://www.eia.gov/coal/production/quarterly/pdf/t1p01p1.pdf

In 2008 US coal production was 1,171,808 thousand short tons. In 2013 it was 983,964. So in 2013 it was 84% of the 2008 production.
Not quite dead yet but declining.

ghung on Sat, 19th Apr 2014 4:01 pm 



Ignoring that the pot is calling the kettle black (as usual), one wonders how much the “radical environmentalists” spend on promoting their POV versus the coal and gas industries. Follow the money and you’ll find the bigger pile of bullshit. Either way, the public will believe what they want. Confirmation bias is essentially free.

Makati1 on Sat, 19th Apr 2014 4:05 pm 



If only the environmental protection agency actually was that powerful and honest. It appears that anyone who wants to stop the current insanity is actually declared insane. Thesooner it all collapses, the better for everyone. DOW 400 anyone? ^_^

shortonoil on Sat, 19th Apr 2014 4:30 pm 



“In 2008 US coal production was 1,171,808 thousand short tons. In 2013 it was 983,964. So in 2013 it was 84% of the 2008 production.
Not quite dead yet but declining.”

If you travel through Appalachia you will find hundred’s of closed coal mines. These mines are not closed because they had no market for their coal, they are closed because they are worked out! Depletion is hitting the coal industry just like it is hitting the petroleum industry. When the distance from the temple to the mine face hit 29 miles they closed down Consol #9. The miners were spending more time traveling to, and from the mine face, they they did working it.

Forbes can not fathom the idea that perpetual growth is dead! That there are limits to our resource base, and that depletion is cutting into that base day after day. They only know one thing; push the next stock option, M&A, IPO. If things aren’t going their way they will blame it on the environmentalist, regulators, the White House. “When your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail”.

http://www.thehillsgroup.org

J-Gav on Sat, 19th Apr 2014 5:36 pm 



Ooh, Short, what you said! Anathema to the ‘BAU at all costs’ people. The NSA’s got you and thehillsgroup in their sights for sure. Well, probably all the rest of us too …

rockman on Sat, 19th Apr 2014 5:50 pm 



Dan – And if you dig thru the reports from the US public coals you’ll find their explanation: decreased profit margin from a global oversupply. Which is the same reason coal exports have boomed from strip mines on US gov’t leases on western lands: cheaper production costs. The US didn’t increase coal exports more than 2000% in the last five years because there’s a dying coal market. And the future in the eyes of the US gov’t: it is expediting the approval process for expanding coal export terminals on the Texas coast. The folks on the NW coast might not want them but Texas is just fine with them burning more diesel to rail it down here.

BTW despite the 500% increase in US coal exports to China the majority of our coal is shipped to our environmentally conscious cousins in Europe.

DC on Sat, 19th Apr 2014 7:19 pm 



Funny how forbes uses Martin Niemöller to make…well, we cant call it a ‘point’ exactly, because there is little connection between that well-known quote and mining coal, but anyhow….

The funny part is, thanks to the 1%ers(Forbes target audience and patrons), that in, the Corporate States of Perpetual War,

-There are no ‘socialists’ left for ‘them’ to come for.(extinct)
-There are few ‘trade unionists’ left for ‘them’ to come for.(On the verge on extinction).
-As for the jews, no one is ‘coming’ for them at all, if anything, its never been a better time or place to be a jew, the United States is Jewsrael, than it is right now, today.

Even more offensive, is the idea Forbes is subtly(?) implying here that subsidized and regulation free uS coal corporations are, in some way equivalent to an oppressed minority somehow being carted away in the middle of the night to a gulag or concentration camp somewhere by some brutal police state.

‘Killing’ Coal-according this trashy Forbes article? Killing them with kindness, if anything. And that doesn’t even include subsidized for-profit railways that move all the stuff from field to plants.

From Sourcewatch-section on coal.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Federal_coal_subsidies

Coal
The study singled out the following major subsidies benefiting the coal industry:

Credit for Production of Nonconventional Fuels (annual subsidy: $14 billion)- IRC Section 45K. This provision provides a tax credit for the production of certain fuels. Qualifying fuels include: oil from shale, tar sands; gas from geopressurized brine, Devonian shale, coal seams, tight formations, biomass, and coal-based synthetic fuels. This credit has historically primarily benefited coal producers.
Characterizing Coal Royalty Payments as Capital Gains (annual subsidy: $986 million) – IRC Section 631(c). Income from the sale of coal under royalty contract may be treated as a capital gain rather than ordinary income for qualifying individuals. (The 2011 report, “What Would Jefferson Do?: The Historical Role of Federal Subsidies in Shaping America’s Energy Future” calculated this subsidy totaled over $1.3 billion in government tax expenditures from 2000 – 2009.)
Exclusion of Benefit Payments to Disabled Miners (annual subsidy: $438 million) – 30 U.S.C. 922(c). Disability payments out of the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund are not treated as income to the recipients.
Exclusion of Alternative Fuels from Fuel Excise Tax (annual subsiy: $343 million) – IRC Section 6426(d). This section applies to liquified petroleum gas (LPG), P-series fuels (defined at 42 U.S.C. 13211(2)), compressed natural gas (CNG), liquefied natural gas (LNG), liquefied hydrogen,3 liquid coal, and liquid hydrocarbon from biomass.
Other-Fuel Exploration & Development Expensing (annual subsidy: $342 million) – IRC Section 617. Identical provisions as applied to oil and gas (above). Including, for example, the costs of surface stripping, and construction of shafts and tunnels.
Other-Fuel Excess of Percentage over Cost Depletion (annual subsidy: $323 million)- IRC Section 613. Taxpayers may deduct 10 percent of gross income from coal production.
Credit for Clean Coal Investment ($186 million)- IRC Sections 48A and 48B. Available for 20 percent of the basis of integrated gasification combined cycle property and 15 percent of the basis for other advanced coal-based generation technologies.
Special Rules for Mining Reclamation Reserves ($159) – IRC Section 468. This deduction is available for early payments into reserve trusts, with eligibility determined by the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act and the Solid Waste Management Act. The amounts attributable to mines rather than solid-waste facilities are conservatively assumed to be one-half of the total.
The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program ($6.3 billion) – The main structure of the program is to provide low-income households with the means to make their utility payments, the vast majority of which is energy generated by fossil fuels. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has tabulated the percentage of households using fossil versus non-fossil heating fuels in 2001, and ELI used the percentage as a proxy for fossil versus non-fossil expenditures for 2002-2008.
Black Lung Disability Trust Fund ($1 billion) – pays health benefits to coal miners afflicted with pneumoconiosis, a long-term degenerative disease from constant inhalation of coal dust, also known as “black lung.” Created in 1978, it is funded through an excise tax on coal to support a trust fund covering health costs of affected workers, however the tax is not sufficient to cover all costs, and the BLDTF was given “indefinite authority to borrow” from the U.S. General Fund. By the end of FY 2008, the BLDTF had accrued nearly $13 billion in debt. In 2008, Congress partially “bailed out” the BLDTF, which ELI tabulated as a subsidy to coal.
A 2012 Treasury Department report estimates that eliminating three federal government tax preferences for coal would save $2.6 billion between 2013-2022: 1. Expensing of exploration and development costs; 2. Percentage Depletion for Hard Mineral Fossil Fuels; and 3. Capital Gains Treatment for Royalties.[10]

Bobby on Sat, 19th Apr 2014 8:18 pm 



Holy sh** ya’ll have a lot of free time! What the hell are you gonna do when there is no more cheap energy to allow your fat as$$ to sit and peck away at these letters all day….!!!! Don’t come to my place for free handouts….!!!

Bobby on Sat, 19th Apr 2014 8:19 pm 



Bobby is awaiting moderation….I am sorry if I hurt any ones feelings….

rockman on Sat, 19th Apr 2014 8:45 pm 



Bobby – Fortunately I sell oil/NG for living so I’ll be able to sit of my fat crippled pass until I assume room temperature. You’re going to have to try a lot harder to hurt any feelings of these hard cases around here. LOL.

Davy, Hermann, MO on Sat, 19th Apr 2014 11:02 pm 



The distortions are both ways. Forbes failure to realize the reality of capex compression because of a society at limits of growth facing diminishing returns to efforts. Environmentalist believing we can construct a shiny new AltE world upon the corpse of the fossil fuel industry. The distortions are with the gas people who think the resources can be maintained and expanded to expand into many other niches like power generation, transportation and exports along with the traditional roles as chemical feedstocks and residential use. Coal and nuclear are again being distorted by the markets and environmentalist by an attempt to promote AltE and gas at these vital base generating sources expense. The harsh reality is we have a society that is going broke. We have a financial system that is increasingly unstable with debt and market manipulation causing a financial repression of normal market operations. We are already seeing most all of the new energy supply significantly more expensive to deliver to the economy. This is in effect a magnification of stress from all sides. We are very close to shortages and act like all is well. We do not have the luxury of building out new infrastructure for financial profit or environmentalist idealism. What we are facing in the very near future is the unfolding of the consequences of a predicament with no solution. If we were a smart society we would look at all the issues from a risk management point of view. The view would admit that we are very close to shortages for multiple reasons of depletion, production capex compression, costly production process, and unstable financial environment. Society is going broke for reasons of unfunded liabilities, excessive debt, ballooning governmental costs, shrinking tax base, and growing inequality. We are nearing a point where our grid will show the first signs of instability. We are at the point now where we must marshal our resources in a very tight mitigation plan that looks solely at keeping the lights on and our energy needs stable. All plans whether from environmentalist or the investor community must have grid stability to achieve results. We will need all resources available like a buffet of options to address the risk of an unstable grid caused by a failure to meet supply demands of anyone of the sources. Every one of the vital sources to the grid are under pressure. We need efficiency efforts with mitigation efforts to adapt to shortages. In a world of less all the resources will be in demand to soften the decent. We cannot distort with environmental regulations nor market lobbying for a profit motive. If anything could save us now from worse later it would be a crisis. A crisis we can live through but that yields a wake up to the truly dangerous situation we are in. The whole process is out of control for multiple reasons of distortions of greed, idealism, lack of vision.

Kenz300 on Sat, 19th Apr 2014 11:56 pm 



Forbes — a spokesman for the top 1% and the fossil fuel industry.

More propaganda by the top 1% trying desperately to hold on to their PROFITS and WEALTH.

Kenz300 on Sun, 20th Apr 2014 12:44 pm 



The cost to produce coal, oil and nuclear keeps rising and it is pricing them out of the market.

There are safer, cleaner and cheaper alternative energy sources.

The clean energy transition is unstoppable, so why fight it? – SmartPlanet

http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/the-take/clean-energy-transition-unstoppable-so-why-fight-it/?tag=nl.e662&s_cid=e662&ttag=e662&ftag=TRE383a915

Outcast_Searcher on Sun, 20th Apr 2014 10:30 pm 



Since global society, including the rapidly expanding demand for the third world, seems to consume ALL the energy from both fossil fuel and “green” sources that can be produced — it would seem that the market should be allowed to decide.

I’m all for living a simple, less energy intensive life (no kids, warm in summer, cool in winter, little mileage driven, not much consumed, etc).

However, as long as 99% of the global population yells “I want MORE” and “The OTHER group is the evil one since THEY consume stuff”, it’s not like the problem is going to be solved — BAU growth will overwhelm all, until it’s too late to react.

Don’t like coal and oil and NG? Try less flying, driving, heating, A/C, having kids, and consuming in general — a LOT less, and set an example.

Somehow, I think that Al Gore flying around the globe and shouting “Manbearpig” isn’t much more hypocritical than most of us.