U.S. coal industry facing challenges

10-Mar-2009

The U.S. coal industry is reportedly facing growing challenges, many of them environmental and financial in nature.

A recent report in USA Today notes some recent setbacks for planned coal projects in various states, ranging from a scrapped project in Iowa to a project in Montana that will now use natural gas and wind power in place of coal.

"What you have right now is uncertainty," When you look at the risks around the coal plant at this time, it's very hard to justify," Entergy CEO Wayne Leonard told the newspaper.

The newspaper noted that the difficulties for the coal industry come at a time when energy demand is projected to grow as much as 20 percent in the coming years. Much of the situation is due to the Obama administration's strong interest in developing clean and renewable energy technology, along with the pollution-damaged image of the coal industry itself and its inability so far to widely deploy cleaner coal technology.

Separately, the Washington Post noted that while coal plants are still being developed in a number of states, plans for two of them were scrapped in Nevada and Iowa just in the past week alone, despite their potential to power about 1.6 million homes.

Breaking news brought to you by the Oxford Princeton Programme, specialists in oil courses. This and other related topics are part of the forthcoming course Overview of the North American Electric Power Industry on 15 May, 2009 in Houston, Texas.