Indian state wants nine coal blocks dropped from auction: The Chhattisgarh state government has written to the Secretary of Coal, Amrit Lal Meena, requesting that the auctioning of nine coal blocks in the Hasdeo Arand forest be abandoned. The coal blocks cover almost 17,000 hectares. In March, the Ministry of Coal announced its intention to auction 101 coal blocks, including the heavily forested Tara block. Six of the coal blocks in Chhattisgarh are in the Mand River catchment, which flows into the Hasdeo River. The government said coal mining would adversely affect 24 villages and critical habitats for elephants and migratory birds. Sudiep Shrivastava, a Chhattisgarh civil society advocate, said the ministry should have dropped the blocks from the list and noted that only 29 of the 141 blocks in the last round of auctions attracted sufficient bids. (Hindustan Times)

Federal prosecutors seek 15-year jail term for former Ohio speaker: The Federal Bureau of Investigation has requested former Republican Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder be sentenced to 16-20 years in prison over his role in the US$61 million campaign to legislate a US$1.3. billion bailout for two nuclear plants and two coal plants. The FBI described the campaign for House Bill 6 as “one of the largest public corruption conspiracies in Ohio history” and noted that FirstEnergy and others transferred funds to Generation Now, a dark money non-profit, and other groups involved in the HB6 campaign on more than 30 occasions between 2017 through 2020. The FBI described Householder “as the quintessential mob boss, directing the criminal enterprise from the shadows and using his casket carriers to execute the scheme.” The former Chairman of the Ohio Republican Party, Matt Borges, was also found guilty of racketeering, with the FBI requesting he serve between 5 and eight years in prison. Householder will be sentenced on June 29 and Borges the day after. (Ohio Capitol Journal, Department of Justice [Pdf])

Adani issued legal threats against two Australian journalists: Adani threatened legal action against freelance photojournalist Matthew Abbott and Adria Budry Carbo, a journalist from the Swiss NGO Public Eye, during an October 2022 visit to a protest camp near the Carmichael coal mine site established by members of Wangan and Jagalingou community. Abbott said that he and Cabo were sent a letter by lawyers for Adani warning them not to “publish any photographs, videos, or other material taken on or of our mining lease without our prior written consent.” Despite the warning, Public Eye published an article using material from the trip. Gurridyula, also known as Coedie McAvoy, said two other media representatives had attended the camp but subsequently not published any stories after legal threats. Independent Senator David Pocock tabled a statement by Abbott and copies of some of his photos in federal parliament. “I believe we have a problem when media outlets are intimidated to a point where they are self-censoring their stories,” he said. (Guardian, Senator David Pocock)

Welsh mine continues operating without planning permit: Lawyers for Coal Action Network have criticised the failure of the Welsh government and Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council to stop mining operations at the Ffos-y-fran even though planning permission for the mine expired in September 2022. In April, the council’s planning committee voted against allowing Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd to continue operating until March 2024. On May 23, the council finally issued an enforcement notice on the company, which came into effect on June 27. But the lawyers argue that if the council and Ministers fail to serve a stop notice on the company by 27 June 2023, they are effectively allowing an unlawful operation to continue. They also note the company has the right to appeal against the enforcement notice, a case which could take up to a year. If the company continues mining during an appeal process, government data indicates it could extract about 500,000  tonnes of coal between September 2022 and when the enforcement notice finally takes effect. (Coal Action Network [Pdf], Herald Wales)

South African gov't exempts three new units from pollution standards: South Africa’s Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment has granted Eskom an exemption from sulphur dioxide (SO2) emission limits at the 4800 megawatt (MW) Kusile Power Station until the end of March 2025. In October 2022, a flue gas duct on Unit 1 at the plant collapsed, affecting two other connected units. Eskom argued the exemption is necessary to allow the three units affected by the collapse of the flue gas duct to resume generation in November and December, reducing load-shedding by about 2000 MW. A March 2023 study by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air estimates the exemption could cause between 195 and 492 air-pollution-related deaths over 13 months, depending on the utilisation level. The Life After Coal campaign is considering appealing against the decision because the health impact assessment and proposed mitigation measures are inadequate. (Eskom, News24)

New Indian coal plants have largely ignored coal pollution standards: A report by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has found that only 810 MW of the 32,630 MW of recently commissioned coal plant capacity meets sulphur dioxide pollution standards that were first announced in 2015 and subsequently watered down and delayed due to industry lobbying. Based on Central Electricity Authority data to April 2023, CSE found that only five per cent of the coal capacity or 10,710 MW, has flue gas desulphurisation equipment installed. Plants accounting for 17 per cent of India’s coal capacity are still only at early stages of compliance with the standard. In September 2022, faced with a high level of likely non-compliance with the deadline announced in early 2021, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change announced a further two-year delay. The latest standard requires compliance between December 2024 and December 2026, depending on the plant’s location. (Down to Earth, Centre for Science and Environment [Pdf])

Australia: New South Wales Premier Chris Minns wants Facebook to block livestreams of coal port blockades and other climate protests.

Australia: The federal environment department has cleared Constellation Mining’s proposed Star Coal project to proceed. The company wants to produce up to 1.5 million tonnes of thermal coal.

Bangladesh: After almost three weeks offline due to a lack of coal supplies, the 1320 MW Payra plant restarted.

Bangladesh: After almost three weeks offline due to a lack of coal supplies, the 1320 MW Payra plant restarted.

Czech Republic: Seven Greenpeace activists occupied an excavator at the Bilina lignite mine before the annual general meeting of the CEZ Group.

Pakistan: A federal minister, Sajid Turi, said 62 coal mines in Kurram District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province would reopen with the assistance of the Pakistan Army. The mines were closed 17 years ago due to the terrorism risk.

US: Multnomah County in Oregon is suing Peabody Energy and other fossil fuel companies for US$51 billion to cover the costs of extreme weather events linked to climate change.

US: A little-known company plans to buy the 1300 MW Pleasants Power Station in West Virginia and convert it to run on hydrogen. Analysts doubt the project is viable, let alone by a company with no power sector experience.

Zimbabwe: Protests against pollution from coal trucks and Hwange Colliery’s mine.

Indian Minister talks up coal target of two billion tonnes a year: An official from India’s Ministry of Coal has claimed that by 2035 the country’s coal demand could increase to 2 billion tonnes a year. The Central Electricity Authority’s recently released power generation plan for 2022-2027 estimates coal demand could increase to about 1026 million tonnes by 2032. The Ministry of Coal is also promoting a more significant role for private sector investment in coal mining, with 87 coal auctioned in the last few years. The Minister of Coal, Mines & Parliamentary Affairs, Shri Pralhad Joshi, urged Coal India to become a coal exporter in the next two to three years. A draft Ministry of Coal Integrated Coal Logistics Plan suggested India could export up to 30 million tonnes of coal a year from mines in the eastern part of the country to displace Indonesian exports to Bangladesh and South African shipments to Sri Lanka. The plan also envisages increased coastal shipments to bypass current rail bottlenecks. The plan estimates that India’s coal imports, which were 238 million tonnes in 2022-23, could decline to 191 million tonnes by 2029-30. (Ministry of Coal, S & P Global, Ministry of Coal)

Study says 220 deaths tied to South Korean pension fund's coal investments: A report by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air and South Korean NGO Solutions for Our Climate estimates that the National Pension Service (NPS) is responsible for about 220 of the 1968 deaths attributable to pollution from the country’s coal plants between 2021 and 2022. The study estimates the NPS’s share of the health costs from coal plant pollution amount to about US$1.1 billion. In May 2021, the NPS announced a commitment to go coal-free but continues to invest in coal generation and currently does not have specific coal exclusion policies. The report notes that oversight of NPS sits with the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the agency responsible for the country’s public health policies. (Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air)

Coal price slides in the Asian market due to low European demand: Indonesian and Australian thermal coal export prices have slumped to their lowest level in two years due to weak European demand, lower LNG prices and significant stockpiles in Europe and China. Indonesian 4200 kilocalories per kg (kcal/kg) coal has slumped to US$52.40 a tonne, the lowest level since April 2021, and Australian 5500 kcal/kg coal has fallen to US$84.17 a tonne. Chinese and Indian coal buyers seek both grades. The decline in European demand, partly due to lower summer demand and increasing renewables generation, has resulted in coal terminals in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp network holding significant stockpiles, with some diverted to India. High-grade Australian thermal coal, mainly sold to South Korea, Japan and Taiwan, has slumped to US$118 a tonne from the peak price of US$431 per tonne in September 2022. (Reuters, The Coal Hub, S & P Global)

Tigers Realm Coal launches legal challenge over Russian sanctions: Tigers Realm Coal, an Australian-headquartered company developing a metallurgical coal project in Russia’s Far East, has launched a legal challenge against the Australian government’s assessment that the company needed to apply for an exemption from regulations enacting sanctions against businesses operating in Russia. Tigers Realm Coal has filed a challenge in the Federal Court of Australia, arguing that the regulation designating its operations as a sanctioned import does not apply, and therefore it doesn’t need to apply for an exemption. A coalition of the Australian Centre for International Justice and other Australian and Ukrainian NGOs recently called on the Australian Government to refuse to grant the company a permit exempting it from the sanctions. The groups noted that the company’s North Pacific Coal subsidiary paid a coal royalty of A$945,000 (US$627,000) to the Russian Government in 2021 and has a further A$25 million (US$16.6 million) royalty liability. (Tigers Realm Coal [Pdf])

Adani under investigation by US corporate regulator: Two separate US corporate regulators – the Securities and Exchange Commission and the US Attorneys Office – are investigating Adani Group’s representations to investors. In January, a US-based short-seller Hindenburg Research report accused Adani Group of not disclosing related party transactions and engaging in fraud. Bloomberg reports that both regulators are seeking information on Adani Group’s representations to US investors with significant holdings in the company. The Adani Group said it did not know of any subpoenas issued to investors and said the issuers “remain confident that the disclosures are full and complete as disclosed in the relevant issuer offering circulars.” (Bloomberg)

Shareholders register protest at Japanese utility’s annual meeting: Two shareholder resolutions against the Electric Power Development Company’s (J-POWER) climate transition plan attracted strong support at the company’s annual general meeting. Amundi, HSBC and the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility (ACCR) filed a resolution requiring a business plan aligned with the Paris Agreement goal and another resolution requiring a remuneration policy aligned with achieving the company’s short- and medium-term greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets. The resolutions attracted 21 per cent and 15 per cent of votes cast on the resolutions. In 2022 similar resolutions drew 26 per cent and 19 per cent of the votes cast. J-Power has no timetable for phasing out its nine coal plants in Japan with a combined capacity of 8100 MW. ACCR said J-Power, the second largest power utility in the country, has not set a schedule for the retirement of its coal plants and instead is promoting its Blue Mission 2050, which promotes technologies such as ammonia co-firing to prolong the operation of the plants. (Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility, Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility)

Report urges end to investment in coal-based steel plants in OECD: A report by SteelWatch, Sunsetting Coal in Steel Production, argues meeting the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global heating to a 1.5°C increase requires an immediate end of investment in any new coal-based blast furnaces or the relining of existing plants in OECD countries or OECD-based companies. SteelWatch is a new group urging a rapid transition for the steel sector away from reliance on fossil fuels. The group estimates about 71 per cent of the 397 largest steel facilities globally face a decision within the next seven years on whether to reline an existing furnace or switch away from reliance on coal. There are also at least 125 new coal-based blast furnace projects under development. Blast furnaces consume about 770 kilograms of metallurgical coal for each tonne of steel produced and emit more than 3 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions when methane from coal production is included. SteelWatch argues that carbon capture and storage of 90 per cent or more of greenhouse gas emissions is not a commercially viable pathway, given the urgent need to cut emissions. Instead, the group wants the steel industry to switch to production processes using hydrogen produced from renewable energy. (Steelwatch [Pdf])

Protest over pollution from Tata Steel’s Dutch steel plant: Hundreds of people occupied part of Tata Steel’s steel plant in Ijmuiden in the Netherlands and called for the immediate closure of the ovens that process metallurgical coal into coke. Greenpeace and local groups said residents in the surrounding area have a 50 per cent higher chance of developing lung cancer than other residents of the Netherlands, while children are exposed to high levels of lead emissions. (DutchNews, Reuters)

Cleaning up the last pile of India’s power sector non-performing assets, Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, June 2023. (Pdf) (Press release here.)

This 20-page report proposes six financially stressed Indian coal plants with a combined capacity of 6100 MW that could be bought by NTPC, the government-owned power generator, and would be a better option for the utility than building new power stations.

Comply or close: Five years of deadly legal breaches by Western Balkan coal plants, CEE Banwatch Network, June 2023. (Pdf)

This 38-page report provides a detailed update on the failure of coal plants in the Western Balkans to comply with air pollution standards that came into effect in 2018 to regulate sulphur dioxide, dust and nitrogen oxide emissions.