1. Coal industry bankruptcies prompt concern that taxpayers will end up paying for clean up

The war is still on. Although the U.S. Supreme Court has issued a stay against the Obama administration’s draconian Clean Power Plan, the administration is still determined to price coal-fired power out of the range of ordinary Americans.

And the death of Justice Antonin Scalia puts even the court’s status in question.

“Even if the CPP is ultimately struck down, affordable power remains under siege,” said Terry Jarrett, a former Missouri Public Utilities commissioner. “That’s because the president has made it a priority to replace coal with solar and wind power, even though neither one has demonstrated real ability to generate robust power or cost efficiency.”

That Supreme Court stay was great news – as far as it went. But as Jarrett said, that may not be very far.

President Obama’s “hostility to coal was clearly on display during the president’s final State of the Union address, when he announced a moratorium on federal coal leases,” Jarrett wrote. “If the president can’t stop coal through the CPP, he will simply order it to remain in the ground. Sadly, federal coal leases provide much of the nation’s affordable power supply, and generate whopping annual revenues, thanks to the hefty 40 percent royalty and tax fees applied to mining claims.”

Though we’re in oil-and-gas country, much of the electricity in East Texas is generated by coal-fired power plants.

“The great problem with this war on coal is that it ignores coal’s pre-eminence in generating roughly 37 percent of U.S. electricity (compared to less than 5 percent for wind and solar),” Jarrett said.

Limits on coal now would result in significantly higher electricity costs.

“Not only would this harm America’s already troubled economy, but it would disproportionately affect the country’s most vulnerable populations, like seniors and low-income communities,” he wrote. “Americans on the poverty line, and rural residents depending on electricity co-ops, already pay an outsized percentage of their income for energy. Without affordable coal power, they will be significantly affected by higher monthly electric bills.”

The Texas Public Policy Foundation warns that the current war on coal is every bit as dangerous as the Clean Power Plan.

“The U.S. Congress has repeatedly rejected giving federal agencies the authority to kill coal,” said TPPF’s Kathleen Hartnett White. “As a result of the Administration’s now many executive actions to supplant coal, U.S. coal companies file for bankruptcy, coal-fired power plants shutter, and thousands of jobs are lost.”

Adds the Foundation’s Doug Domenech, “It is no surprise to anyone that this Administration wants to regulate out of existence coal mining and the use of coal in energy production. While the climate benefits of such a move are questionable, there has been a clear real impact on coal communities, families and associated industries that rely on the production and use of this plentiful, efficient, low-cost natural energy source.”

The Supreme Court is to be commended for issuing that stay of the Clean Power Plan. But that’s not going to save coal.

Coal can only be saved at the ballot box in November.