Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumBargains Galore! Obama's Interior Dept. Auctions Vast Coal Tract To Peabody For $1.10/Ton
The Obama administrations Bureau of Land Management auctioned a major tract of Wyoming coal to Peabody Energy at a bargain-basement price of $1.10 per ton yesterday.
The North Porcupine coal tract in the Powder River Basin went to the single bidder, Peabody subsidiary BPU Western Resources, for $793,270,310.80 for 721 million tons, BLM representative Beverly Gorny stated in a telephone interview.
This sale, made under the provisions of the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920, represents a massive fossil-fuel subsidy based on the assumption that the use of coal benefits the American public. However, it is likely this coal is intended for the Asian market, where sub-bituminous coal fetches a much higher price. The non-competitive leasing program is under federal investigation.
Moreover, the costs of the carbon pollution from mining and burning this coal were not taken into consideration. The 721 million short tons of sub-bituminous coal in the lease sale will generate approximately 1.1 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide when burned. With a modest estimated social cost of carbon at $65 per ton of CO2, the global-warming impacts to society of this lease sale exceed $70 billion 90 times the price paid for the lease. More than 27,000 people signed a Credo Action petition opposing the fire sale of Wyomings sub-prime carbon reserves.
EDIT
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/06/29/508585/blm-auctions-720-million-ton-north-porcupine-coal-tract-to-single-bidder-for-110-a-ton/
benld74
(9,914 posts)cant just blame Obama. That what the BLM does.
msongs
(67,509 posts)pscot
(21,024 posts)six huge coal ports on the Oregon and Washington coast so Peabody can send that coal to China.
benld74
(9,914 posts)pscot
(21,024 posts)but the story has been covered from Billings to Longview and from NewYork to LA. This is all about servicing US coal companies that export to China and India. And it's some of the dirtiest coal around, which oddly enough doesn't seem to bother our far eastern customers.
http://grist.org/coal/fighting-coal-export-terminals-it-matters/
Sure enough, there are six new coal ports (PDF) proposed for the West Coast: Coos Bay, the Port of Morrow (near Boardman), and Port Westward in Oregon; Longview, Bellingham, and Grays Harbor in Washington. If they are all built, the Pacific Northwest will export over 150 million short tons of coal a year, making it one of the worlds largest coal export regions.
benld74
(9,914 posts)joshcryer
(62,287 posts)...but production is going to go up until there's basically nothing left.
NickB79
(19,301 posts)Or not, I guess.
joshcryer
(62,287 posts)Something like $1 an acre. With no precondition that they be exploited, ever.