A VIEW fROM THE OTHER SIDE.....Coal is Now on the Same Official List as Lithium, Nickel, and Cobalt.
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As of Q2 2025, coal-fired generation in the U.S. is up 14% year over year. Even as climate lobbyists pound the podium, utilities across the country are quietly postponing coal plant retirements and restarting mothballed facilities. Why? Because when the chips are down and AI needs to stay up, coal delivers. From Punchline to Powerhouse: Coal Named a “Critical Mineral” In April, President Trump dropped a bombshell that shocked the global energy markets… Coal, particularly metallurgical coal, is now a U.S. critical mineral. https://www.wealthdaily.
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Trump signs orders to allow coal-fired power plants to remain open. Move aimed at addressing the rise in power demand for data centers, AI and EVs, but environmentalists call it a step back.Guardian Oliver Milman Tue 8 Apr 2025 Donald Trump signed four executive orders on Tuesday aimed at reviving coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel that has long been in decline, and which substantially contributes to planet-heating greenhouse gas emissions and pollution.Environmentalists expressed dismay at the news, saying that Trump was stuck in the past and wanted to make utility customers “pay more for yesterday’s energy”. The US president is using emergency authority to allow some older coal-fired power plants scheduled for retirement to keep producing electricity. The move, announced at a White House event on Tuesday afternoon, was described by White House officials as being in response to increased US power demand from growth in datacenters, artificial intelligence and electric cars. Trump, standing in front of a group of miners in hard hats, said he would sign an executive order “that slashes unnecessary regulations that target the beautiful, clean coal”. He added that “we will rapidly expedite leases for coal mining on federal lands”, “streamline permitting”, “end the government bias against coal” and use the Defense Production Act “to turbocharge coal mining in America”.
The first order directed all departments and agencies to “end all discriminatory policies against the coal industry” including by ending the leasing moratorium on coal on federal land and accelerate all permitted funding for coal projects.The second imposes a moratorium on the “unscientific and unrealistic policies enacted by the Biden administration” to protect coal power plants currently operating. The third promotes “grid security and reliability” by ensuring that grid policies are focused on “secure and effective energy production” as opposed to “woke” policies that “discriminate against secure sources of power like coal and other fossil fuels”. The fourth instructs the justice department to “vigorously pursue and investigate” the “unconstitutional” policies of “radically leftist states” that “discriminate against coal”. Trump’s approach is in contrast to that of his predecessor Joe Biden, who in May last year brought in new climate rules requiring huge cuts in carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants that some experts said were “probably terminal” for an industry that until recently provided most of the US’s power, but is being driven out of the sector by cheaper renewables and gas.
Trump, a Republican, has long promised to boost what he calls “beautiful” coal to fire power plants and for other uses, but the industry has been in decline for decades. The EPA under Trump last month announced a barrage of actions to weaken or repeal a host of pollution limits, including seeking to overturn the Biden-era plan to reduce the number of coal plants.The orders direct the interior secretary, Doug Burgum, to “acknowledge the end” of an Obama-era moratorium that paused coal leasing on federal lands and to require federal agencies to rescind policies transitioning the nation away from coal production.'......A creature from the underworld issues underworld policies......read on https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/08/trump-executiver-order-coal-power-plants
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The Prognosis......The first step in the compassionate treatment of a terminal health condition is helping the patient and loved ones come to terms with the reality that the patient is very sick, is possibly dying, and needs extreme care. Three sets of considerations motivate a terminal prognosis for the fossil-fuel industry.
Left unabated, climate change will likely cause global economic damage at an estimated present-discounted value as high as $22.5 trillion by 21005 in lost labor productivity, declining crop yields, food shortages, early deaths, property damage, breakdown of infrastructure networks, water shortages, air pollution, flooding, fires, and more. The Bank for International Settlements, an umbrella organization for the world’s central banks, warned in 2020 that climate change could generate one of the largest economic dislocations in history......Wish everybody would realize this!....read on https://ssir.org/articles/entry/time_to_put_the_fossil_fuel_industry_into_hospice
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Emissions from Fossil Fuels Continue to Rise NASA Earth Observatory 2023 Carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels rose again in 2023, reaching record levels, according to estimates from an international team of scientists. The continued rise in emissions from the burning of oil, coal, and natural gas is impeding progress to limit global warming, the scientists said. The finding is part of an annual checkup on Earth’s carbon cycle called the Global Carbon Budget. In this annual assessment, scientists quantify how much carbon was added to the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels and land-use change, and how much carbon was removed from the atmosphere and stored on land and in the ocean. Scientists’ early analysis of 2023 data shows that emissions from fossil fuels rose 1.1 percent in 2023 compared to 2022 levels, bringing total fossil emissions in 2023 to 36.8 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide. When including other sources—such as deforestation and the extreme wildfire season in Canada—total emissions in 2023 were estimated to be 40.9 billion metric tons. Both 2023 and 2022 saw record increases in carbon dioxide from fossil fuels, according to the analysis.
“Emissions are heading the wrong direction that we need to limit global warming,” said Ben Poulter, a co-author of the report and scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased from approximately 278 parts per million in 1750, the beginning of the industrial era, to 420 parts per million in 2023. The rise in heat-trapping carbon dioxide—and other greenhouse gases—is the primary reason for the planet’s soaring temperatures. The global surface temperature in 2023 was 1.2 degrees Celsius (2.1 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than the average for NASA’s baseline period (1951-1980), making it the hottest year on record.
The visualizations in the article show the flow of carbon dioxide into, around, and out of Earth’s atmosphere over the course of 2021 (the most recent full year of available data). They rely on NASA’s Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS), a modeling and data assimilation system used for studying the Earth’s weather and climate. To depict where carbon is being emitted or taken up, researchers used data on vegetation, human population density, and the location of wildfires, power plants, roads, railways, and other infrastructure.
The carbon dioxide shown in the visualizations in the article comes from four major sources: fossil fuels (yellow), burning biomass (red), land ecosystems (green), and the ocean (blue). Though the land and ocean are both carbon sinks—which means they store more carbon than they emit by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere—they can be sources at certain times and places. The green and blue dots represent carbon that was absorbed by the land and ocean. “Amazingly, the ocean and land continue to absorb about half of the carbon we emit,” Poulter said.......great visuals- read on..... https://
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Oil giant's leaked data reveals 'awful' pollution BBC Eye Investigation .OwenPinnell 19 Mar 2025 The BBC has also obtained figures showing the company has spilled oil hundreds of times since then. Colombian energy giant Ecopetrol has polluted hundreds of sites with oil, including water sources and biodiverse wetlands, the BBC World Service has found. Data leaked by a former employee reveals more than 800 records of these sites from 1989 to 2018, and indicates the company had failed to report about a fifth of them.The BBC has also obtained figures showing the company has spilled oil hundreds of times since then. Ecopetrol says it complies fully with Colombian law and has industry-leading practices on sustainability. The company's main refinery is in Barrancabermeja, 260km (162 miles) north of the Colombian capital Bogota. The huge cluster of processing plants, industrial chimneys and storage tanks stretches for close to 2km (1.2 miles) along the banks of Colombia's longest river, the Magdalena – a water source for millions of people.Members of the fishing community there believe oil pollution is affecting wildlife in the river.Ecopetrol says it complies fully with Colombian law and has industry-leading practices on sustainability. Ecopetrol has polluted hundreds of sites with oil, including water sources and biodiverse wetlands, the BBC World Service has found.Data leaked by a former employee reveals more than 800 records of these sites from 1989 to 2018, and indicates the company had failed to report about a fifth of them.
Data leaked by a former employee reveals more than 800 records of these sites from 1989 to 2018, and indicates the company had failed to report about a fifth of them.The BBC has also obtained figures showing the company has spilled oil hundreds of times since then. Ecopetrol says it complies fully with Colombian law and has industry-leading practices on sustainability.
The company's main refinery is in Barrancabermeja, 260km (162 miles) north of the Colombian capital Bogota.The huge cluster of processing plants, industrial chimneys and storage tanks stretches for close to 2km (1.2 miles) along the banks of Colombia's longest river, the Magdalena – a water source for millions of people. Members of the fishing community there believe oil pollution is affecting wildlife in the river. In places, a film with iridescent swirls could be seen on the surface of the water - a distinctive signature of contamination by oil. A fisherman dived down in the water and brought up a clump of vegetation caked in dark slime. Pointing to it, Yuly Velásquez, president of Fedepesan, a federation of fishing organisations in the region, said: "This is all grease and waste that comes directly from the Ecopetrol refinery." Ecopetrol, which is 88% owned by the Colombian state and listed on the New York Stock Exchange, rejects the fishers' claims that it is polluting the water. In response to the BBC's questions, it says it has efficient wastewater treatment systems and effective contingency plans for oil spills.
The wider area is home to endangered river turtles, manatees and spider monkeys, and is part of a species-rich hotspot in one of the world's most biodiverse countries. Nearby wetlands include a protected habitat for jaguars.When the BBC visited last June, families were fishing together in waterways criss-crossed by oil pipelines. One local said some of the fish they caught released the pungent smell of crude oil as they were cooked. In places, a film with iridescent swirls could be seen on the surface of the water - a distinctive signature of contamination by oil. A fisherman dived down in the water and brought up a clump of vegetation caked in dark slime. Pointing to it, Yuly Velásquez, president of Fedepesan, a federation of fishing organisations in the region, said: "This is all grease and waste that comes directly from the Ecopetrol refinery."Ecopetrol, which is 88% owned by the Colombian state and listed on the New York Stock Exchange, rejects the fishers' claims that it is polluting the water.
In response to the BBC's questions, it says it has efficient wastewater treatment systems and effective contingency plans for oil spills.One database he has shared, dated January 2019, contains a list of 839 so-called "unresolved environmental impacts" across Colombia. Ecopetrol uses this term to mean areas where oil is not fully cleaned up from soil and water. The data shows that, as of 2019, some of these sites had remained polluted in this way for over a decade. Mr Olarte alleges that the firm was trying to hide some of them from Colombian authorities, pointing to about a fifth of the records labelled "only known to Ecopetrol"."You could see a category in the Excel where it lists which one is hidden from an authority and which one is not, which shows the process of hiding stuff from the government," says Mr Olarte. The BBC filmed at one of the sites marked "only known to Ecopetrol", which was dated 2017 in the database. Seven years later, a thick, black, oily-looking substance with plastic containment barriers around it was visible along the edge of a section of wetland. Mr Bayón blamed sabotage for many oil spills.
Colombia has a long history of armed conflict, and illegal armed groups have targeted oil facilities - but "theft" or "attack" are only mentioned for 6% of the cases listed in the database.He also said he believed there had been a "significant advance" since then in solving problems that lead to oil pollution. However, a separate set of data shows Ecopetrol has continued to pollute......the usual corporate flim flam- read on https://www.bbc.com/news/
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