Constant grift

 And the Constitution isn't worth the paper it's written on.

Utterly insane

 

We won't go into the future of alternative, ecologically sound, sources of energy - let China and Europe do that.  We'll go back into the past of finite coal energy where coal mining communities live in poverty and death while the earth is raped and scarred for no good reason, the air is polluted, and a few coal barons get rich.  Great plan.

UPDATE 05:23 pm:  You have got to be kidding...

UPDATE 02/12/2026:  And in tandem...

MAGA

In 2022, the Biden administration earmarked billions of dollars to help revitalize and strengthen former coal communities. The objective was to lay down building blocks for the region to transition from extractive industries like coal and timber to a hub for solar and other advanced energy technologies, with a view to long-term economic, climate and social resilience.

But on his first day in office, Donald Trump scrapped Biden’s clean energy and environmental programs, which he lambasted as woke, anti-American, liberal hoaxes.

  Guardian

Continue reading.

MAGA - bring back coal

 

We don't need no steenkeen clean air

 

"Clean coal."

We just didn't heed the warnings

"A few" centuries.  Or one.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Joe doesn't care about actual coal miners

His money is in abandoned coal mines.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Some people are actually maggots

In Sen. Joe Manchin III’s hilly West Virginia home county, his family’s business has made millions by taking waste coal from long-abandoned mines and selling it to a power plant that emits air pollution at a higher rate than any other plant in the state.

That enterprise could have taken a hit under a key part of President Biden’s climate agenda, a $150 billion plan to push coal plants toward cleaner energy. One lawmaker, though, played a central role in killing that proposal: Manchin, who has earned hundreds of thousands of dollars annually from the family coal company while using his role as a Democratic swing vote in a 50-50 Senate to dictate Biden’s policies.

[...]

When pressed about whether he has a conflict of interest, Manchin bristles. “I have been in a blind trust for 20 years. I have no idea what they’re doing,” the senator told reporters in September, referring to his family’s coal firm. “You got a problem?”

  WaPo

As a matter of fact, I do.

Manchin’s latest financial disclosure report says that the West Virginia family coal business that he helped found and run, Enersystems, paid him $492,000 in interest, dividends and other income in 2020, and that his share of the firm is worth between $1 million and $5 million. He signed a sworn statement saying he is aware of these earnings, underscoring that he is not blind to them.

[...]

Manchin set up a blind trust with $350,000 in cash in 2012. In his latest financial disclosure report, the senator reported that the Joseph Manchin III Qualified Blind Trust earned no more than $15,000 last year and is worth between $500,000 and $1 million. By design, it is not possible to know precisely what’s in the blind trust. But the financial disclosure records show that it doesn’t include all of Manchin’s income from Enersystems.

Well, what a surprise.

[I]t calls into question the impartiality of a senator who in October forced Biden to drop the plan in his Build Back Better bill to phase out the same kinds of coal plants that are key to his family company’s profitability.

[...]

“The question I would ask him would be, when he says it’s in a blind trust, ‘Well, your public financial disclosure report that you sign and swear is true does not have Enersystems in the blind trust,’ ” Fox said. “And if the blind trust is truly blind, how do you know what’s in it?”

[...]

It is legal for Manchin to make millions of dollars from his coal interests even as he chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and legislates on matters affecting the industry. That is because members of Congress are not required to divest their assets to avoid a potential industry conflict.

[...]

Between 2011 and 2020, Manchin earned $4.8 million from Enersystems, according to a tally by the Center for Responsive Politics. His net worth as of 2020 was between $4.4 million and $12.8 million, the center said.

[...]

Compared with ordinary coal plants, power plants that burn waste coal, or what the industry calls “gob,” are dirtier and don’t generate as much electricity. The Grant Town plant emits more greenhouse gases and the main components of acid rain — nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide — into the air per megawatt-hour of electricity produced than any other power plant in West Virginia, according to the Environmental Protection Agency’s most recent data. Only a handful of waste-coal-burning plants still operate nationally. They are such heavy polluters that the Trump administration created a separate category for them, weakening the air pollution standards they had to meet.

[...]

Holman said Manchin’s financial position is one of the most conflicted of any member of Congress he has studied because so much of the senator’s financial stake is in the coal industry while he is playing a key role on climate policies. Nonetheless, he said, “what Manchin is doing is not illegal. The conflict of interest code for Congress is just way too weak.”

What say we fix that? No wonder they haven't wanted to press Trump for all his shady self-dealing.

West Virginia’s embrace of coal power over less expensive alternatives like gas, wind and solar has contributed to a decade of rising electricity bills. According to Van Nostrand’s analysis, between 2010 and 2019 West Virginians’ electricity costs increased about five times more than the national average.

Jesus Christ. Not just polluting West Virginians, but shafting them as well.

Around the time Manchin helped kill the clean electricity provision, he was asked during a walk with reporters on Capitol Hill about whether he has a conflict of interest and was pressed on the fact that his son runs the family coal company. Manchin responded, “I’m very proud of my son. He does a good job. You’d do best to change the subject now.”

And West Virginians would do best to recall their senator.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:  

Exactly.

How does Joe Manchin keep getting elected?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

In other karmic news...

Robert Murray, a coal CEO who for decades ran the nation's largest privately held coal mining company, has filed to obtain benefits from the Labor Department for black lung disease.

[...]

The request is notable because Murray, the former CEO and president of Murray Energy, for years opposed regulations aimed at making mining safer for workers, and that were intended to prevent people from getting the disease.

  The Hill

Burn it all down

This pisses me off more than a lot of things because they known damned well that coal is not the energy source of the future.  The fucking coal industry knows that. 

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Gee, what happened to bringing back all those coal companies?

A coal company owned by one of President Trump's donors, the largest privately owned U.S. coal company, filed for bankruptcy Tuesday.

[...]

[Robert E. Murray, the head of Murray Energy Holdings,] previously spoke out against former President Obama’s clean air regulations, calling Obama “the greatest enemy I’ve ever had in my life.” The coal company head reportedly gave $1 million to a political action committee supporting Trump's agenda in the 2018 election.

  The Hill

That was money ill spent.

Murray Energy says it came to a restructuring support agreement to manage $2.7 billion in debt with lenders who own more than 60 percent of a $1.7 billion loan. The agreement also funds operations to continue operating with $350 million.

Murray has advocated for miners to Trump’s administration, asking it to help the workers in the struggling industry, Bloomberg reported.

I'm pretty sure their donations to Trump were Hail Mary last ditch efforts to stave off bankruptcy. Not even coal company bigwigs really thought coal mining had a future.

Coal firms are struggling, with four other major companies filing for bankruptcy. Murray had cautioned in 2017 that bankruptcy could be on the horizon for his company because of the changing nature of the industry, with natural gas and renewable energy becoming cheaper alternatives to coal, according to Bloomberg.

The company, with 5,000 employees, including 2,400 union members, said it also has an $8 billion bill in liabilities for pensions and benefit plans, Bloomberg reported.

Well, those folks are going to get stiffed, no doubt.  Trump got their money.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

The guy from Monopoly shaved his mustache.  Wonder where he stashed his tophat.

Ditch Mitch, Kentucky

America first

He's looking out for you, Trump voters.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed lifting some regulations on coal ash, the residue left after burning coal, which is filled with hazardous substances that can leach into the water supply and cause health problems.

[...]

Coal ash is used in a variety of ways, largely as a replacement for soil. It can be used to create level ground for construction projects or sprinkled over landfills as a protective cover.

But coal ash has been deemed responsible for contaminating water with arsenic, which is linked with some types of cancer.

The latest proposal from the EPA would eliminate restrictions from 2015 that limited coal ash use to 12,400 tons per site.

[...]

“Today the Agency is proposing sensible changes that will improve the coal ash regulations and continue to encourage appropriate beneficial use,” EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said in a statement. “These proposed changes will further responsible management of coal ash while protecting human health and the environment.”

The proposal includes some features that would make reporting requirements more accessible to the public, but environmentalists ultimately see the move as a bow to industry.

  The Hill

You think?

The great negotiator & his henchman have pulled another fast one

Regardless of what His Lardship says and putting aside the fact that everybody knows coal companies are not making a comeback, because this country has no future in coal, the reality is that, if a handful of coal jobs have been saved, coal miners have been thrown under the bus.

From the Lexington Herald-Leader:

About 12,000 former miners nationwide rely on the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund to cover costs and make ends meet, but a recent report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office showed that the fund is $4.3 billion in debt, and a tax on coal which funded the trust fund was cut in half in January. Many advocates for the fund worry it may soon become insolvent. There is no cure for black lung disease, which is caused by the inhalation of dust particles in mines leading to severe lung damage. Cases of the deadly disease have surged in recent years in Eastern Kentucky and Central Appalachia.

[...]

The Kentucky Republican, who the miners and their advocates see as key to passing any sort of Congressional assistance, told the group of miners in a brief statement “that they were going to be taken care of,” said Kenny Fleming, a former Pike County miner who suffers from black lung. “We just have to take him at his word and then we also have to keep him at his word, which I think that’s what we’re after,” Fleming said. “Hopefully he will come through.” Fleming said McConnell was “kind of vague” and didn’t provide much detail on how the miners would be assisted. Jimmy Moore, the head of the Letcher County Black Lung Association, said he found McConnell’s conduct “rude.” After the meeting, he said McConnell wouldn’t do anything to reinstate the tax which funded the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund.

The miners' big mistake was in not coming to McConnell with fat checks in their pockets, instead of oxygen tanks by their sides. Don't they know how democracy works? When you're all done coughing, get with the program, people.

He doesn’t care.

  Charles P Pierce

And he's up for re-election in 2020. Ditch Mitch, Kentucky. Show some sense and some gumption.

In his afternoon session with the House Intelligence Committee, Mueller sounded the alarm about foreign ratfcking of American elections—both the foreign ratfcking of the 2016 elections, and the ongoing ratfcking that is out there, ratfcking the 2020 election already. The Republican members of both committees demonstrated that they are perfectly fine with the situation. Not long after Mueller was finished, at the behest of Mitch McConnell, the Republicans in the Senate demonstrated that they're perfectly content with foreign ratfcking, too. From The Hill:

Democrats tried to get consent to pass two bills that would require campaigns to alert the FBI and Federal Election Commission about foreign offers of assistance, as well as a bill to let the Senate Sergeant at Arms offer voluntary cyber assistance for personal devices and accounts of senators and staff. But Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) blocked each of the bills.

Ms. Hyde-Smith [...] isn't bright enough to order breakfast by herself, so there's little question that she stepped in here to do McConnell's bidding any more than there's a question that McConnell was doing the White House's bidding.

You remember her - she's the one who said if so-and-so invited her to a public hanging, she'd be on the front row.

But election interference bills face an uphill climb in the Senate, where Republicans aren't expected to move legislation through the Rules Committee, the panel with primary jurisdiction, and have warned about attempts to "federalize" elections.

[...]

Quite simply, Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, Majority Leader of the United States Senate, doesn't give a damn about the future of America, and very little of a damn about the majority of Americans, even the Americans coughing up their lungs in his own state. On Thursday, in his opening remarks, McConnell talked about how the new budget deal is beefing up American military might. This is what he said:

So, Madam President, every member of this body knows the threats we face are serious and getting more serious. The resurgence of great power competition with nations like Russia and China, the destabilization influence of state-sponsored terror and regional aggression from bad actors such as Iran, and the testing of historic a lines—alliances. Amidst the growing international chaos, the pre-eminent addition of the U.S. government is to provide for the common defense.

He didn't immediately burst into flames. There is no god.

What? The future ISN'T coal powered???

Another scam campaign promise being revealed for what it was.

It's the place where John Prine tells the story of his youth and strip mining; now the last plant at TVA Paradise is facing an uncertain future.

The Tennessee Valley Authority has asked for public input on a reviews of the potential environmental and socioeconomic impact of closing two plants, one at Bull Run in Anderson County, Tennessee and Unit 3 at Paradise in Muhlenberg County.

Unit 3 is the last coal-fired generator still operating at Paradise. The other two generators were retired last year when a new natural gas plant began operating on site which is considered to be more energy-efficient. The gas plant was constructed at a cost of more than a billion dollars.

TVA has shut down 32 of the 59 coal-fired plants it once operated.

  WBKR

Muhlenberg County, Kentucky

Given the projected need for energy over the next several years, where flat to declining demand combines with more renewable energy resources and higher load swings, TVA must continuously evaluate all generating assets to ensure portfolio flexibility and fiscal responsibility to the people of the Valley. With less need for base load resources, assets that have relatively high projected future maintenance cost and environmental compliance expenditures, high forced outage rates and poor generation portfolio fit are now the focus of more detailed study for potential retirement. The Tennessee Valley Authority’s Paradise Fossil Plant (PAF) Unit 3 falls into this category of assets.

[...]

On February 11, 2019, after consideration of all comments received on the draft EA, TVA issued the final EA and Finding of No Significant Impact on the potential retirement of PAF Unit 3.

  TVA

Yeah, doesn't seem like the TVA is trying to hold on to coal powered generators.

UPDATE 2/14:

Deoncstructing America - and the world

The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday proposed a major change in the way the federal government calculates the costs and benefits of dangerous air pollutants, arguing that authorities should exclude some of the public health benefits stemming from new rules.

The proposal, which revisits a 2011 rule limiting mercury emissions from coal plants, argues EPA lacked justification to curb the neurotoxin in the first place because many benefits stemmed from the overall drop in air pollution that would occur once power companies adopted new technologies. The EPA is not reversing the Obama-era standards — with which the industry has already complied — the agency wants to alter the underlying calculations to set a precedent for future public health rules.

[...]

If adopted, the change would prevent regulators from calculating positive health effects — known as “co-benefits” — that come from reducing pollutants other than those being targeted.

[...]

Coal-fired power plants rank as the nation’s single biggest emitter of mercury. Over time, emissions of the pollutant also build up in fish, whose elevated levels of mercury are absorbed by people who eat them.

[...]

Under President Barack Obama, the EPA estimated that it would cost utilities $9.6 billion a year to comply with the new standards, while limiting mercury would translate into merely $6 million in public health benefits. But the EPA estimated at the time that other factors, such as reductions in soot and nitrogen oxide that would accompany cuts to mercury pollution, would save between $37 billion to $90 billion in annual health costs and lost workdays by preventing as many as 11,000 premature deaths and 4,700 heart attacks.

[...]

“There is no legitimate justification for this action,” Harold P. Wimmer, chief executive of the American Lung Association, said in a statement, adding that the regulation had been effective not just in limiting mercury, but also emissions of carcinogens such as arsenic, chromium and nickel, as well as toxic acid gases that form particle pollution, which causes asthma attacks, heart attacks and premature death. “EPA’s proposal to undermine the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards is one of its most dangerous efforts yet.”

[...]

“I just think it’s a little fuzzy math when you say, ‘Reduce mercury and we have all these other benefits over here,’ as the shiny object,” EPA acting administrator Andrew Wheeler said in an interview with The Washington Post this fall.

  WaPo

Moron.

EPA issued the proposal just hours before the agency is slated to shut down, at midnight, due to the ongoing budget impasse between President Trump and congressional leaders.

Here's your reminder that it's a conscious decision to let it all burn because "the planet's fate is already sealed." 

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.  There's wealth to be had before the planet dies.

Left behind

The US was not part of this.



Not all governments, unfortunately, and I wouldn't call it euphoria exactly, but that's not to say they aren't pleased.

Representatives from nearly 200 countries agreed Saturday on a set of guidelines to govern the 2015 Paris climate accord.

The decision came on the final day of the 24th Conference of the Parties or COP24 conference held in Katowice, Poland, the Associated Press reported.

[...]

The newly adopted Paris Accord Work Programme describes how countries are required to count their greenhouse gas emissions and how they will report them to the rest of the world. It also requires them to reveal what they are doing to reduce emissions.

  Weather.com

I think I hear a Trump-sounding voice saying, "You're not the boss of me."

But another rather odd note was that the conference was held in Poland, which gets nearly 80% of its energy from coal, and sponsored in part by coal companies.

Trying to signal to Trump that Poland still loves him?  Odd.

Jesus

And not too long ago, Manchin had a little meeting with Trump.  Not long after he backed Brett Kavanaugh. I don't even want to read this story.  Go ahead and read it for yourself.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Unfit for office

The Trump administration unveiled yet another rollback Thursday for a major Obama-era climate rule — proposing to ease restrictions on future coal power plants even as the industry shows little interest in building any.

The proposal from the Environmental Protection Agency comes amid dire warnings from scientists about the massive costs and devastating impacts of global warming, and as the U.S. and nearly 200 other nations meet this week for a climate conference in Poland.

Coal advocates praised the move, but energy industry experts said they see little chance that the once-dominant fuel will recover from its years of steep declines amid stagnant electricity demand and market competition from natural gas and wind. Domestic coal consumption is on track to fall this year to its lowest level since 1979 and is expected to drop another 8 percent next year, the Energy Information Administration said Monday.

[...]

One major power generator, Colorado-based Xcel Energy, said just this week that it will move to entirely carbon-free sources by 2050 after getting more than a third of its electricity from coal last year.

“Given current market conditions (plentiful natural gas supply, growing renewable energy targets in many states, increasing interest in energy storage in many states, and sluggish demand) we are not expecting new coal-fired power plant development, even without the requirement to integrate [carbon capture and storage],” Christi Tezak, managing director at Clearview Energy Partners, said in an email.

[...]

The Energy Department's projections don’t envision any new coal coming online, and the last significant coal plant to open in the U.S. was in 2012.

[...]

David Doniger, senior strategic director for the climate and clean energy at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said President Donald Trump is trying to defy an irreversible trend.

  Politico

Who are these "coal advocates"?

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) took to the floor Thursday to endorse the action.

"This is a crucial step toward undoing the damage and putting coal back on a level playing field,” said McConnell, whose state is the fifth-biggest producer of coal in the U.S.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.