Four Proposed Coal Export Terminals Have Now Failed This Year Due To ‘Diminished’ MarketAs coal continues to decline in the U.S., plans to export it to overseas markets are going south. On Tuesday, the Port of Corpus Christi announced that it was ditching plans to build a major coal export terminal there after two years of development, citing a “seriously diminished” international interest in coal. Ambre Energy North America Inc., who entered into the $2.5 million lease in 2011, will pay a one-time fee to cancel it, according to a meeting agenda released today by the Port.
From the agenda:
Over the past four years interest in exporting coal at the Bulk Terminal has gone from no interest to a high of 40 million tons per year and then back to seriously diminished interest. Currently the export coal market has shrunk substantially. The domestic market has seen older coal fired power plants closed with some being refitted to burn natural gas. Wind and solar power driven by regulatory incentives have created additional pressure on coal. The enthusiasm for export terminals among coal producers has diminished.
The announcement is a major victory for environmentalists, and marks the fourth time in 2013 that a proposed coal export terminal has been canceled due to a deteriorating market. Of the proposed terminals still on the table, local opposition to the three remaining projects in the Pacific Northwest continues, as well as to a proposed terminal in Louisiana slated for construction next to a wetlands restoration project.
“This is the third coal export project that has been canceled in this region,” Hal Suter, chair of the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club and a lifelong Corpus Christi resident told Public Citizen. “Ambre’s failure is a huge relief for Corpus Christi residents and it’s a clear sign of an accelerating shift away from coal. Texans don’t want coal, Gulf states don’t want coal and international markets don’t want it either.”
Indeed, the decision to scrap the project seems almost like deja-vu for the Corpus Christi port. In August, the port announced that it would stop progress on another coal export terminal proposed by New Elk Coal Company, again citing “a decline in the coal market” and “financial difficulties.”
In the Pacific Northwest, energy company Kinder Morgan announced in May that it was dropping plans to build its Port Westward Project near Port of St. Helens, Oregon. That project would have transported 15-30 million tons of coal from Wyoming and Montana to Asian nations. Another proposed terminal in Coos Bay, Oregon, was also shelved in April after its last financial backer dropped out.
While it seems that the companies have largely attributed their decisions to logistics of the site and the coal market, community opposition to many of the proposed terminals environmental groups has played a large role across the country. Before announcing its ultimate closure, New Elk’s terminal was put on hold after grassroots activists rallied against it and Sierra Club released a report in early 2012 called The Port of Corpus Christi Gambles on Coal Export Development.
thinkprogressMore Than 350 U.S. Coal Plants Are No Longer Cost-EffectiveAging and inefficient plants, competing energy sources, and the looming reality of climate change are all catching up with the coal industry.
According to a new report from the Union of Concerned Scientists, as much as 17 percent of coal-fired power in the United States is already uncompetitive, just compared to natural gas and using mid-range estimates. The report looked at the operating costs for current coal plants, which are older and have largely paid off their capital costs, up against natural gas plants that have also paid off their capital costs. That yielded 353 coal plants that are economically uncompetitive, a total of 59 gigawatts of total electricity-generating capacity. The operating costs in that calculation included all the necessary upgrades to bring the coal plants in line with pollution and carbon dioxide regulations, but even before considering those changes, 23.4 gigawatts worth of coal power is more expensive to operate than natural gas.
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Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe. H. G. Wells.
Fatih Birol's motto: leave oil before it leaves us.