GLG News by Northern Appalachian Coal Experts

    New Jersey vs. EPA was filed by several states and environmentalists against the EPA’s removal of power plants from the list of mercury sources subject to a Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) standard and that mercury cannot be regulated by a cap and trade system under...

    The Citigroup reports states U.S. coal supply is ample and coal plant inventory levels are adequate such that the higher coal prices of the last several weeks will not hold.  The discussion in the commentary section addresses U.S. coal supply and coal plant inventory and...

    The anticipated export of Eastern U.S. coal in 2008 and 2009 will need to be sourced in great extent from the Powder River Basin (PRB).  This is in addition to the new coal plants coming on in 2008 and 2009 using PRB coal. The discussion below provides a forecast on...

    The global coal availability and price has provided the opportunity for U.S. Eastern coals to be placed in export to Europe.  This has dramatically increased Eastern coal prices.  This provides an opportunity for Western Powder River Basin (PRB) coals.

    The increase in coal prices will obviously increase the electricity generating costs at a coal plant exposed to these price increases.  The impact to Independent Power Producers (IPPs) and their potential margins is understood.  Regulated utilities, on the other hand,...

    The global coal availability and subsequent coal price explosion has provided a great benefit to Eastern U.S. coal producers.  The Western U.S. coals may not be able to appreciably directly-participate in the export surge.

    If low water levels used for cooling caused nuclear plants to operate less or back-off entirely at certain locations, this would be bullish for coal-fired (and natural gas-fired generation) and mitigate or cancel the concerns of an economic slowdown on coal-fired electricity...

    Discussion has been made that a U.S. recession will cause a decline in coal consumption by the electric power sector.  This is unlikely based on coal’s relative cost to generate electricity and the historical coal consumption by the electric power sector in previous economic...

    Coal generators have been taking efforts to reduce sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions from coal-fired power plants.  Regulated utilities are required to treat the reduced SO2 emissions differently than unregulated utilities, merchant generators, and independent power producers...

    The Pacific Northwest has a tremendous amount of installed hydroelectric capacity.  The first and second quarter earnings of the investor owned utilities in the Pacific Northwest very greatly with hydroelectric conditions.  Preliminary reports are robust for the snowpack...