Coal Use in Power Plants Falling Fast -- 50, 40, --> 30 Percent

I do believe that President Obama's rhetoric to destroy the coal industry was, to some extent, just that: rhetoric. How much his administration had in destroying America's coal industry is hard to say, but when the history books are written, the destruction of America's coal industry will be linked back to this president, the first president to be so vocal on this issue.

I do not know if market forces (natural gas prices plummeting) could have done this on its own, but there are two important data points:

• coal can compete with very low natural gas prices, except for the mandated EPA regulations on coal
• regulatory efforts by various groups to prevent coal from being exported to Asia; Australia took advantage of their coal resources (though lately, my understanding is that even Australian coal industry might be facing some challenges due to global slowdown; I forget the specifics

The point is that the coal industry in this country could remain a vibrant industry if "we" wanted it to be. I have no dog in this fight. I do not invest in coal (except, I suppose, indirectly, through shares in railroad companies, which I had almost forgotten about).

I, for one, never expected power plants in this country to switch from coal to natural gas so quickly. See linked story. 

American Oil Independence

This is a very short little article, doesn't say much, but certainly alludes to a couple of interesting data points, particularly about a) trade agreements; and, b) China's asset growth overseas.  The story is essentially an advertisement for an e-mail subscription, it appears.

Govenor New York Considering Fracking

I've linked a similar story earlier, but it might have been buried.

Regardless, here it is again, this time, linked at PennEnergy.

I've read nothing more than the headline, but I can only imagine the governor looking over at Ohio and Pennsylvania and seeing how much revenue those states derive from the oil and gas industry. I can only assume whatever oil and gas industry upstate New York had, it was mostly natural gas, and rigs are being pulled out of the state pretty quickly.

For those interesting in New York politics on this issue (I'm not), some other links:

• NYC Environmental Protection.gov
• CBS News, four days ago

RBN Energy Has Added "Part V" To Its Series on NGL and Cracking

The entire series is linked here.

This will take you directly to Part Vhttp://www.rbnenergy.com/lets-get-crackin-part5-natural-gasoline.

Electric Rates -- Nothing Directly Related to the Bakken -- But Energy Related

Back in 2008, or 2009, I forget, I was posting the "original Million Dollar Way" blog. If you think the current MDW blog has problems, that one really had problems. I loved it; my readers didn't. All three of them. So, one night, in a decision I regret, I deleted the entire blog with one keystroke. There were some great posts in that blog.

In the original blog I tracked electric rates. One of the sites I linked was this one: Michael Blue Jay's "Saving Electricity." I see that blog is still around, and this particular link has not been updated since 2004. But I don't think electric rates in this country have changed a whole lot. All-source electricity in this country is probably about 8 cents/kWh depending on the make-up of the source: coal, natural gas, nuclear, solar. So, let's call it a dime/kWh.

Look at what the Germans are willing to pay for going solar: about thirty cents/kWh.

The Japanese appear to have just announced, if I understand the story correctly, that "they" will be paying about 53 cents/kWh for solar, again, compared to a dime in the US for electricity generated from all sources.  

I see that the site I used to follow all the time for solar energy is still posting. These are their rates for solar. In North Dakota, a sunny climate state, solar would cost about three dimes/kWh; in a cloudy state like Washington State, it might cost up to six dimes. (Washington State has "dirt-cheap" hydroelectric power, but I digress.)

The following is from SolarBuzz, linked above.

For comparison, Cape Wind, the proposed wind farm off Martha's Vineyard, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, agreed to pay more than double the rate for "conventional electricity":

The price, 18.7 cents per kilowatt hour, is similar to the price National Grid agreed to pay when it signed a contract in 2010 to purchase half the power generated by Cape Wind. NStar will purchase 27.5 percent of the wind farm’s total output.

The utilities pay about 8 cents per kilowatt hour for electricity and NStar originally balked at becoming a Cape Wind customer, arguing the wind farm’s cost was just too high. That position changed last month when, after nearly a year of negotiations, state energy officials agreed to endorse a proposed merger between NStar and Connecticut-based Northeast Utilities if NStar made several concessions, including buying power from Cape Wind. 

I always get in trouble when I talk about things I don't know a whole lot about, and when I talk in averages and generalities, but this is how I understand it.

Electricity from natural gas must be down to four or five cents/kWh, here in the US (a lot higher overseas), and Japan is willing to spend over 50 cents/kWh using solar power. Japan needs to ask Spain how solar power / wind power worked out for them. Spain suspended all renewable energy projects earlier this year.