Report says claims of European coal power “comeback” are overstated: A report by Ember, a climate policy think tank, argues that decisions by Germany, Austria, France and the Netherlands to add 13,500 MW of retired coal plant capacity back into the system will have only a marginal impact on greenhouse gas emissions. None of the countries has changed their coal phase-out dates. The four countries seek to increase coal backup capacity and divert gas from the power sector to storage and for use by households and industry. Germany, which adopted an emergency energy law, has increased its renewable energy target to 80 per cent by 2030 and placed 6300 MW of coal plants and 1900 MW of lignite capacity in a reserve facility. The lignite capacity can only be activated if other coal capacity is insufficient. Ember estimates that if all the plants operated in 2023 at 65 per cent of capacity, they would emit about four per cent of the European Union’s (EU) 2021 power sector emissions or 1.3 per cent of total EU greenhouse gas emissions. (Euractiv, Ember)

New UK minister to decide on Cumbria mine by mid-August: The decision on planning permission for the proposed Whitehaven metallurgical coal mine in Cumbria has been delayed and must now be made by August 17. Prime Minister Boris Johnston sacked Communities Secretary Michael Gove on the day he was due to announce his decision. Johnston appointed Greg Clark as the new Communities Secretary, who will need to make a new decision on the application for planning permission. Friends of the Earth (FOE) and South Lakes Against Climate Change appeared at a Planning Inquiry hearing in September 2021 to oppose the project. They argued the mine would increase greenhouse gas emissions, would not displace Russian coal, and would produce for the export market, not local steel mills. Before Gove was sacked, both Johnston and the Environment Secretary, George Eustice, had indicated support for the mine. FOE coal campaigner, Tony Bosworth, said the delay “gives ministers extra time to ensure they make the right decision.” (BBC, Friends of the Earth UK)

Australian minister asked to review 19 coal and gas projects: Environment Justice Australia, acting for the Environment Council of Central Queensland, has requested the new federal Minister for Environment, Tanya Plibersek, reconsider decisions on 17 coal and two gas projects, including some that were finalised up to a decade ago. While the initial decisions may have considered the impact of the projects on specific “matters of national environmental significance”, the group argues there was no consideration of how they would contribute to climate change. The group has collated over 3000 documents detailing the impact of climate change on 2121 species, places and ecological communities of concern. (ABC News, Environment Council of Central Queensland)

Teck Coal claims on selenium pollution dismissed by US regulator: The Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has rejected claims by the Canadian coal mining company Teck Resources challenging the scientific basis of new selenium pollution standards designed to protect fish in Lake Koocanusa and further downstream. Teck has run a major lobbying campaign to have Montana legislators overturn the standard of limiting selenium concentrations to below 0.8 parts per billion (ppb). DEQ Director Chris Dorrington said the standard was adopted after a thorough eight-year-long process. He said he had repeatedly requested Teck, which has four metallurgical coal mines in the headwaters of the Elk River in British Columbia, to send scientists to meetings with the department not lobbyists and lawyers. He wanted Teck to commit to transparent data reporting for the next six years and a firm schedule for water treatment at its mines. He also said that even if Montana regulators weakened the state standard, the Environmental Protection Agency has also adopted the 0.8 ppb standard for the lake, which would leave the state in violation of the Clean Water Act. (Missoulian)

Chinese company in dispute with Pakistan over Afghan coal price: Huaneng Shandong Ruyi has warned Pakistan’s National Electric Power Regulatory Authority that it will abandon plans to import coal from Afghanistan unless the regulator controls coal prices. Huaneng Shandong Ruyi owns the 1320 MW Sahiwal power station in Punjab province in Pakistan. After prices for South African coal increased rapidly, power utilities cut generation rather than run at a loss. As utilities began importing coal from Afghanistan at US$90 per tonne, the export price was increased to US$200 per tonne. The Afghan central government wants to boost coal to generate revenue to compensate for the loss of international aid, but local groups have clashed with the Taliban over control of the mines. The Chinese Government is also pressing to be allowed to establish a security force to protect Chinese workers and projects developed as part of the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor. Pakistan has rejected the proposal. (Business Recorder, Foreign Policy, Foreign Policy)

South African President backs just transition plan: South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has endorsed the Just Transition Framework developed by the Presidential Climate Commission to guide the long-term transition to net-zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2050. South Africa’s coal industry is estimated to directly employ about 93,000 people with 80 per cent of coal produced in Mpumalanga province, with a heavy concentration of coal industries in just four major towns. South Africa is seeking to negotiate an US$8.5 billion funding agreement for a just transition with the UK, US, Germany, France and EU. It is intended that a draft investment plan based on the Just Transition Framework will be completed in July with an agreement reached with the international funding consortium by early November. (BusinessTech, Presidential Climate Commission, Presidential Climate Commission[Pdf])

Australia: Analysis by the Sunrise Project estimates the new Australian Government could face decisions on applications for up to 27 coal mining projects.

Australia: Flooding disrupts coal railway to the world’s largest export port, increasing pressure on prices.

Australia: AngloAmerican granted permission to increase annual greenhouse gas emissions from its Grosvenor coal mine from 1.39 million tonnes to 3.31 million tonnes per year without any penalty.

Israel: Power price to increase by 9.6 per cent from August to cover the increased cost of imported coal.

New Zealand: Conservation NGO Forest & Bird’s legal challenge against a decision by Southland District Council to grant a subsidiary of Bathurst Resources the right to explore for coal on council land will be heard on July 18–19.

Russia: Regulator suspends operations at Evraz’s Raspadskaya-Koksovaya mine for 90 days after two workers were killed and two injured by a rockfall believed to have been triggered by earth tremors.

UK: Seven arrested after 60 Extinction Rebellion supporters occupied the Aberpergwm mine site in protest against the Welsh Government’s silence over approval to produce a further 42 million tonnes of coal.

UK: Drax extends the life of two coal units by six months to March 2023 at the government’s request.

US: US Department of Labor says railroad company CSX could be fined up to US$121,000 after an explosion at its Curtis Bay coal terminal in Baltimore.

Indonesia’s reliance on coal power comes to haunt smelting companies: A senior official with the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) has revealed companies proposing to build energy-intensive metal smelters are finding it hard to gain finance due to the power grid’s heavy reliance on coal power. The Indonesian Government banned the export of nickel ore in 2020, with bans on tin ingot and bauxite set to come into effect by the end of 2022 and June 2023, respectively. Rizqi Darsono from Kadin said increasing bank restrictions on coal lending also applied to smelters powered by coal plants. Government data indicates renewables account for only 13 per cent of installed capacity in the Indonesian electricity grid and are projected to grow to one-third by 2030. (Jakarta Post)

Shareholder resolutions draw support at Japanese utilities meetings: Shareholder resolutions submitted to two of Japan’s major electric power companies, Chubu Electric Power Company (Chuden) and Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), calling for stronger climate action have attracted significant support. The resolutions called on the utilities to develop business plans consistent with the Paris Agreement and to disclose assessments of the risks to existing power projects to the transition to the net-zero target. Chuden reported that 19.9 per cent of the shares voted supported the resolutions while 9.9 per cent of TEPCO’s did. With 54 per cent of TEPCO’s shares held by the Japan Nuclear Damage Liability and Decommissioning Corporation, private investors could have accounted for over 20 per cent of the shares voted in support of the resolutions. (Kiko Network)

Analysts say US coal is on its way out despite Supreme Court ruling: Most analysts think the recent US Supreme Court ruling on the Environmental Protection Agency’s power to regulate greenhouse gas emissions in the power sector, which favoured power utilities and coal states, most analysts think it will make little difference to the pace of coal plant retirements. S&P, a financial services firm, estimates 145,000 MW of coal capacity will close by 2030 and predicts that 145 gigawatts of coal capacity will retire this decade, with coal’s share of US power generation falling from its current share of 22 per cent to 5 per cent in 2030. The Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign aims to have all plants closed by 2030. As of January 2022 the Global Coal Plant Tracker estimated there was 226,978 MW of operating coal plants. The chief policy officer at America’s Power, a power industry lobby group, said that the Environmental Protection Agency can still regulate coal power plants in ways that could cause more retirements. (ClimateWire)

The Petra Nova CCS plant will remain mothballed for now: The US power utility NRG has confirmed there are no immediate plans to restart the operation of the mothballed Petra Nova carbon capture and storage (CCS) plant on a 240 MW unit of the W.A. Parish power plant in Texas. The plant, which was commissioned in December 2016, was mothballed in May 2020 when the oil price dropped about US$29 per barrel after the outbreak of COVID-19. At the time, NRG said the project could be brought back online “when economics improve”. In 2015 NRG said the project made economic sense when the oil price was US$75–100 per barrel. Despite the oil price currently being over US$100 per barrel, an NRG spokesperson said, “there is a long lead time to restart the carbon capture facility, and it is not economic to operate for short periods based solely on fluctuations in oil prices.” (E & E News)

India increases power prices to cover the cost of imported coal: India’s Minister for Power, RK Singh, said power utilities should increase power prices by 0.6–0.7 rupees (0.8–0.9 US cents) per kilowatt-hour to cover the cost of power utilities blending domestic coal with 10 per cent of imported coal. Domestic coal costs power utilities about US$25 per tonne, while imported thermal coal costs about US$214–227 per tonne. Singh said importing coal to blend with domestic production is aimed at avoiding blackouts as power demand has increased by 25 per cent, with peak demand growing by 15 per cent compared to 2021. (Outlook)

Transition to coal-free steel could pose challenges to iron ore supply: A report by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) notes that one potential constraint on producing coal-free steel from direct-reduced iron (DRI) using hydrogen is the availability of sufficient volumes of high-quality iron ore in the seaborne market. The report notes that direct-reduced grade iron ore ideally has an iron content of 67 per cent or more. Brazilian iron ore company Vale estimated that in 2020 about three per cent of global seaborne iron ore was over 66 per cent iron content. IEEFA estimates that DRI-based steel may require an additional 40–100 million tonnes of high-grade iron ore. Other options include upgrading lower quality iron ore through processing or improvements in green steelmaking technology to accommodate lower iron ore grades. (S & P Global, Institute for Energy Economics & Financial Analysis)

“How three brothers captured a country”, Financial Times, July 7, 2022.

This article provides a good overview of how the Gupta family profited from its close ties to the South African Government during South African President Zuma’s reign, including decisions made by government-owned utilities such as Eskom and Transnet.

GenCost 2021–22, CSIRO, July 2022. (Pdf) (A media release on the report is here.)

This 87-page report provides a detailed assessment of comparative Australian power generation costs, including assessments of renewables, the prospects for carbon capture and storage, small modular nuclear reactors and the level of backup required for a high-renewables grid.