Category: coal

Polish Miners Block Coal for Power Plants to Demand Pay Hike

WARSAW, Poland—Miners employed by Poland’s largest coal company blocked deliveries of the fossil fuel to state-run power plants Tuesday to demand higher pay to keep pace with surging consumer prices. Groups of protesters were stopping trains leaving the Halemba mine and other mines of the Polish Coalmining Group in the southern Silesia region. They demanded…


4 Syrians Die After Burning Coal for Heat in South Lebanon

BEIRUT—A Syrian mother and her three children died in their sleep after inhaling toxic fumes from burning coal to heat their room in a village in southern Lebanon, a rescue group said Sunday. Youssef al-Dor, an official with Resala Health Ambulance Association, said he transported the bodies to be buried from a hospital where the…


China Fires Up New Giant Coal Power Plant in Face of Calls for Cuts

As the world seeks to phase down use of coal, China’s biggest coal-fired power plant has just finished construction and entered operation on Dec. 28. The Shanghaimiao plant, located in the country’s top coal-producing region of Inner Mongolia, said on Tuesday that its first of four 1,000-megawatt units was online after passing a 168 hour…


Environment Minister Has Full Plate as Trudeau Ramps up Climate Agenda

Canada’s new environment minister Steven Guilbeault has a lot on his plate as the  government seeks to tackle what it says is the existential threat of climate change. Guilbeault received his mandate letter from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Dec. 16, which contains twice as many issues to pursue compared to the former minister in…


Australia Must Address Technical Electrical Grid Concerns As Coal Retires

Australia’s rapid transition to more renewable energy sources and the projected early retirement of coal power stations will introduce new technical vulnerabilities into the grid, the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) says. The 2021 System Security Report released by the AEMO has outlined that critical power system requirements will need to be addressed in New…


Flood From Illegal Coal Mining Traps 21 People in China

BEIJING—Rescuers on Thursday were trying to reach 21 people trapped by a flood because of illegal mining for coal in northern China, authorities said. The accident happened about 11 p.m. Wednesday in Xiaoyi city in Shanxi Province, a major coal-producing region southwest of Beijing. Water was being pumped out of the mine, and the water…


Flood From Coal Mining Traps 21 People in China

BEIJING—Twenty-one people were trapped by a flood in a coal mine in northern China, authorities said. The accident happened about 11 p.m. Wednesday in Xiaoyi city in Shanxi Province, a major coal-producing region southwest of Beijing. The actual number of casualties is difficult to verify, as the Chinese regime routinely suppresses or alters information. Police…


Climate Policy and the Expansion of Government Power

News Analysis Christmastime is here—well, almost—but talk of global warming hasn’t slowed down with the cooling weather. In fact, it seems like concern about the climate influences everything these days. In Washington, the solidly Democratic House has given a divided but Democrat-controlled Senate an expensive new piece of legislation. The $2 trillion “Build Back Better…


US Coal Stockpiles Hit Record Low

U.S. coal stockpiles dipped to just 80 million tons in September, the lowest monthly total since the Energy Information Administration (EIA) began tracking such information in 2001. U.S. coal stocks fell 4.8 percent over the course of the previous month, according to the EIA. The record-breaking low came as a national and global energy crunch has…


How a Growing Energy Crisis Hobbles China

Commentary How seriously does the arrival of “peak coal” in China impact its strategic viability? China’s coal reserves, the essence of its energy security, are now in decline. More than half of China’s energy is delivered by coal. Domestic oil production had already peaked in 2013. In 2020, China produced 3.9 million barrels a day of…