Timothy Birdnow

Peabody Coal, the nation's largest coal company and a major employer in the St. Louis area, has filed for bankruptcy.

"The Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing from St. Louis-based Peabody, the world's biggest private-sector coal producer, ranks among the largest in the commodities sector since energy and metal prices began to fall in mid-2014 as once fast-growing markets such as China and Brazil started to slow."

[...]

"Shares of Peabody, whose stock trades under the symbol BTU — which is also a basic unit of energy, the British thermal unit — closed Tuesday at $2.06, leaving the company's market capitalization at a measly $38 million. Shares have plunged more than 99 percent from their 2008 peak and from where they stood just five years ago. Dividend payouts to shareholders were halted in July 2015."

End quote.

Peabody joins it's St. Louis-based brother Arch Coal Co. in the bankruptcy court as Mr. Obama's war on coal heats up.

In 2008 Barack Obama promised to bankrupt coal companies through draconian emissions regulations:

"So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can; it’s just that it will bankrupt them, because they’re going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted,” Obama told the San Francisco Chronicle. Hear it from his own lips here.

Obama meant he would use the EPA to strangle coal through regulations and charges for emissions,And he has tried his best, with the Clean Air Act pushing expensive regulations on power generation systems.

Here is an interaactive map showing the many power plants being affected by Mr. Obama's dirty little war. Thirty two mostly coal fired plants were expected to close immediately with another 36 on the chopping block.

Coal and natural gas are responsible for 70% of the nation's electricity. It should also be pointed out that the United States holds the largest reserves of coal in the world with fully 28% of the world's total. We are swimming in energy if the government would only allow us to use it. 

Any wonder that two giants in the coal industry have now failed? Naturally there is an effort to downplay the influence of the government here, with the case being made that coal is suffering from low prices and low priced natural gas, all of which are technically true, but the fact is that investors have no reason to buy coal because it is in the crosshairs of government.

And this is ostensibly to stop "Global Warming" or "Climate CLhange", or "world carbon flatulence' or whatever they are calling it today, but the reality is there has been no statistically significant warming of the planet since 1995 and this draconian regulatory anaconda is absolutely unnecessary, in fact it is costing jobs at an alarming rate.

See here for a list of EPA regulations and an analysis of why they are destructive courtesy of the U.S.. Chamber of Commerce.

Obama Promised it. Why is anyone surprised?

Posted by: okbet at April 22, 2023 01:05 AM (70UAe)

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