Eastern Railroad Discussion > Patriot Coal shutters another WV mine

Low prices and regulatory issues for thermal / electric plant coal.

>>Patriot Coal Corporation (PCXCQ.OB) (OTC: PCXCQ) today announced plans to idle its Logan County complex located near Man, West Virginia, reducing thermal coal production by approximately two million annual tons. Pursuant to the WARN Act, the Company gave 60-day notice today to affected employees. The operations expected to be idled include the Guyan surface mine and the Fanco preparation plant and rail loadout with a total of approximately 250 employees being impacted.<<

more

http://seekingalpha.com/news-article/7546072-patriot-coal-to-idle-logan-county-thermal-coal-complex

This is on CSX branch down to Gilbert, right? I saw a picture a year or to ago that there is a very small loadout just north of Gilbert. Does anyone know if that is still active, or if there is any other loadout south of this Man, WV loadout?

This is patriot's 'Fanco' operation, which is on the Buffalo Subdivision east of Man. The line from Man down to Gilbert is a continuation of the Logan Subdivision.

inCHI Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> This is on CSX branch down to Gilbert, right? I
> saw a picture a year or to ago that there is a
> very small loadout just north of Gilbert. Does
> anyone know if that is still active, or if there
> is any other loadout south of this Man, WV
> loadout?

I went through Gilbert this summer and the small load out along the road was still active.

From the Article it sounds like the power companies are changing over to Natural Gas,This might be a cleaner way to make Electric,which would be better for all of us......Scoob

scoobydoobydoo Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> From the Article it sounds like the power
> companies are changing over to Natural Gas,This
> might be a cleaner way to make Electric,which
> would be better for all of us......Scoob


Up until about six months ago, the general plan was to convert larger, newer coal fired plants to modern pollution requirements. Older plants, and some smaller plants would be mothballed, but not destroyed. That way, if gas prices went up and coal prices went down, the utilities could re-fire the mothballed plants. That's why the railroad and grid connections remained in place.

What changed was the realization that EPA would continue to change the rules and make it more difficult for coal to compete. That changed the cost of updating the plants, and confused the owners about when the next changes would be coming. Spend a billion of new updates, and then have to spend another billion five years from now? No way.

This will have a profound effect on many railroad lines, coal mines, etc

Bloomberg has a description of new coal plant regulations which may be released in the next two weeks. These rules were apply to newly constructed coal fired generating plants. At this point, there's no indication that existing plants will be brought in under the rules.

Basically, the rules will cap the release of carbon dioxide from the stack at more than 1,000 pounds but less than 1,800 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt hour of electricity produced. A modern coal plant comes in at about 1,800 pounds, so this is a significant reduction in allowable pollution. Natural gas already qualifies under the lower threshold.

This proposal doesn't appear to add in the carbon impact of the trains, barges, etc which bring coal to the plant. An early version referenced total carbon footprint, but that seems to be absent in the discussion.

It's another nail in the coffin of a profitable railroad line haul.


http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-11/obama-said-to-ban-new-coal-plants-without-carbon-controls.html