From the Pittsburgh Business Times
Although Environmental Protection Agency regulations have often taken much of the blame for causing a drastic fall in coal production, a recent study said the “shale revolution” is the real culprit.
In a study released Friday by Case Western Reserve University, low natural gas prices have caused coal production to plummet in the past decade, and EPA regulations have not been the driving factor for that decline.
Between 2008 and 2015, coal consumption steadily declined by 23 percent annually. At the same time, natural gas production rose steadily, spurred by low prices that have increased demand.
And the future doesn’t look any more promising for the coal industry, the report said. Its decline in production, as natural gas production reaches an all-time high, is expected to continue for at least another decade.
Reports from the U.S. Energy Information Administration showed record natural gas production for the fifth straight year, and Pennsylvania saw the biggest gain across the U.S.
While EPA regulations may have slowed industry growth, the report said, economic advantages in natural gas will exceed that of coal, causing its continuous decline.
Robert Murray, CEO of Murray Energy Corp., said he places half the blame on the Obama administration and the other half on the impact of natural gas production.
“We should be able to survive as the market shrinks,” he said. “But coal prices are half of what they were prior to the election of Obama.”
Murray Energy is a coal company based in St. Clairsville, Ohio, and it operates coal mines in Ohio and West Virginia.
Tom Schuster, a representative for the environmental organization the Sierra Club, agreed with the study that recent EPA regulations are not what is impacting the fossil fuel industry, but rather the demand just isn’t there. New regulations, he said, will have almost no impact on the Pennsylvania coal industry, and operations will remain the same.
“The writing is on the wall regardless of the Clean Power Plan,” he said. “Coal is becoming less and less economical and is facing extremely steep competition with the natural gas industry.”
