From the story here at Bloomberg yesterday detailing the coal bankruptcies:
Obama has backed tougher limits on carbon dioxide blamed for climate change.
New mercury standards that took effect last year led utilities to retire 23 gigawatts of coal-fired electricity, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
On Friday, his administration said it will stop leasing public land to coal developers and will weigh raising royalty fees for exploration while it studies the fuel’s environmental impacts.
Both production and demand for coal this year will fall to the lowest level since 1983, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said this week. ...
Arch [Coal Inc.] has followed Alpha Natural Resources Inc., Patriot Coal Corp., Walter Energy Inc. and James River Coal Co., in bankruptcy.
In other news, mining (129,000) and logging jobs (2,000) declined 131,000 in 2015, the biggest decline since 1986 and the third worst year of declines since 1939.
Since 2007 net generation of electricity from coal has declined by almost 30% through October 2015.
While retail sales of electricity in 2014 are almost exactly identical to such sales in 2007, measured in kilowatthours purchased, the cost of that electricity has gone up over 18% over the same period as coal's role is being deliberately curtailed.
