Eastern Railroad Discussion > Good news for coal

The Supreme Court, on its final day of this session, struck down certain regulatory provisions implemented by the Environmental Protection Agency which limited emissions from coal fired electric plants.The provisions of the Clean Air Act included contributions from the Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations. The conclusion held that regulatory actions which have major, sweeping impact on society, the economy, etc  must be explicitly authorized by Congress. The regulatory agency may not presume that it has the power. In this case, the Court found that  "preventing climate change"  was not authorized in the Clean Air Act

This may be a win for coal fired electric plants as the rising costs of fuel have eroded some of the previous advantages possessed by natural gas. And it may put a pause under plans to shut down, or implement expensive pollution controls in some plants.  I don't have a good sense of whether this will result in increased shipments of coal over the rails, and whether this will increase use of West Virginia, Kentucky, Illinois etc coal.

Wall Street Journal, paywall likely   https://www.wsj.com/articles/supreme-court-limits-environmental-protection-agencys-authority-11656598034?mod=hp_lead_pos1

While it may have some minor near term effects on the closing of a few older coal plants the long term trends are clearly powerful and new plants will be either natural gas or nuclear not coal. My WAG is that tewnty years from now the percentage of power generated by coal fired plants will be either zero or nearly zero. 

    IMHO-Ross Rowland 

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The Supreme Court, on its final day of this
> session, struck down certain regulatory provisions
> implemented by the Environmental Protection Agency
> which limited emissions from coal fired electric
> plants.The provisions of the Clean Air Act
> included contributions from the Obama, Trump, and
> Biden administrations. The conclusion held that
> regulatory actions which have major, sweeping
> impact on society, the economy, etc  must be
> explicitly authorized by Congress. The regulatory
> agency may not presume that it has the power. In
> this case, the Court found that  "preventing
> climate change"  was not authorized in the Clean
> Air Act
>
> This may be a win for coal fired electric plants
> as the rising costs of fuel have eroded some of
> the previous advantages possessed by natural gas.
> And it may put a pause under plans to shut down,
> or implement expensive pollution controls in some
> plants.  I don't have a good sense of whether
> this will result in increased shipments of coal
> over the rails, and whether this will increase use
> of West Virginia, Kentucky, Illinois etc coal.
>
> Wall Street Journal, paywall likely  
> https://www.wsj.com/articles/supreme-court-limits-
> environmental-protection-agencys-authority-1165659
> 8034?mod=hp_lead_pos1

This was an extremely good decision by the court against EPA overreach on many issues.  And long overdue.

I'm expecting power to start flowing back from the executive regulatory agencies to Congress.  The last time Congress declared war in 1941.

Bob Wilcox
Charlottesville, VA
My Flickr Shots

My understanding is many coal electric plants blend a mix of lower BTU coal from the Powder River with higher BTU coal from the eastern states.

The decision may allow a change in the burn mix, which will directly impact the rails.

Posted from Android