Coal Age

SEP 2013

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e d i t o r 's n o t e American Politicians Could Learn from the Australians A ustralia's stalled mining sector is poised for a fresh boost with the recent election of a conservative government headed by Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who championed a platform that included scrapping a deeply unpopular carbon cap-and-trade scheme and a mining resources rent tax. If politically correct attitudes, such as those in the U.S., Canada and Europe, prevailed in Australia, Abbott would have never been elected. He is viewed by the mainstream press as a conservative BY STEVE FISCOR politician from a bygone era. He is a climate skeptic. He is also an / EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Anglophile whose gaffes have made him a target for left-leaning comedians. When the liberal party in Australia unseated former conservative Prime Minister John Howard, who led the country from 1996-2007, conservatives began to align their strategies with those of the new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. They revised pro-market labor laws, making it more difficult to fire workers. Apologies were offered to indigenous people for western transgressions. Immigration policies were relaxed. They began to embrace Rudd's global warming agenda. Rudd proposed a cap-and-trade system or a carbon tax. He also was quoted as saying that climate change was the "great moral challenge of the modern era." Abbott held firm and argued that cap-and-trade would penalize Australia with little or no environmental benefit. Shortly after the Copenhagen summit on climate change failed, Rudd imploded and he was replaced by his own party with Julia Gillard. Abbott held steadfast. He opposed the big spending policies and sky-rocketing debt and supported tougher immigration policies. Ultimately, he convinced voters that he would not waste taxpayer dollars. He did the opposite of everything conservatives around the world are considering today — aligning themselves more with the left. Meanwhile, here in the U.S., President Obama plans to block the construction of new coal-fired power plants unless they are built with carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology that has not yet been demonstrated on a commercial basis. As this edition of Coal Age goes to press, he is proposing another rule on emissions from new power plants, a key measure of his climate-change agenda. Speculators say that it will limit CO2 emissions to 1,000 lb CO2 per megawatt-hour. This would effectively eliminate coal because that level is half of what the best available coal technology can do without CCS. President Obama has also nominated Ron Binz as the head of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). In Binz's power generation utopia, he believes that coal and gas generation can be reduced form 51% to 9% and 16% to 3%, respectively, and replaced with renewables. He wants to make this happen and he's not worried about costs or the collateral damage it will cause to the American economy. According to an editorial in the Wall Street Journal, his overriding motivation is to make carbon-based energy so expensive it will have to be phased out of the U.S. energy mix. It's time for politicians from coal states to wake up. They need to take a cue from Abbott and explain the situation to their constituents. Otherwise, Americans will be further penalized by a climate-change policy that will have little or no additional environmental benefit. www.mining-media.com Mining Media International Editorial Office 11555 Central Parkway, Suite 401 Jacksonville, Florida 32224 U.S.A. Phone: +1.904.721.2925 Fax: +1.904.721.2930 Editor-In-Chief—Steve Fiscor, sfiscor@mining-media.com Western Field Editor—Russ Carter, rcarter@mining-media.com European Editor—Simon Walker, simon.iets@btinternet.com Latin American Editor—Oscar Martinez, omartinez@mining-media.com News Editor, Mining—Joseph W. Kirschke, jkirschke@mining-media.com Assistant Editor—Jennifer Jensen, jjensen@mining-media.com Graphic Designer—Austin St. Clair, astclair@mining-media.com Mining Media International Corporate Office 8751 East Hampden, Suite B1 Denver, Colorado 80231 U.S.A. Phone: +1.303.283.0640 Fax: +1.303.283.0641 President/Publisher—Peter Johnson, pjohnson@mining-media.com Vice President of Sales & Marketing—John Bold, jbold@mining-media.com Midwest/Eastern U.S. & Canada, Sales—Victor Matteucci, vmatteucci@mining-media.com Western U.S. & Canada, Sales—Mary Lu Buse, mlbuse@mining-media.com Scandinavia, UK and European Sales—Colm Barry, colm.barry@telia.com Germany, Austria & Switzerland Sales—Gerd Strasmann, info@strasmann-media.de Australia/Asia Sales—Lanita Idrus, lanita@mining-media.com Japan Sales—Masao Ishiguro, ishiguro@irm.jp Indonesia Sales—Dimas Abdillah, dabdillah@mining-media.com Classified Advertising—Norm Rose, nrose@mining-media.com Show Manager—Tanna Holzer, tholzer@mining-media.com Project Manager—Dan Fitts, dfitts@mining-media.com Coal Age, Volume 118, Issue 9, (ISSN 1040-7820) is published monthly by Mining Media Inc., 10 Sedgwick Drive, Englewood, Colorado 80113 (mining-media.com). Periodicals postage paid at Englewood, CO, and additional mailing offices. Canada Post Publications Mail Agreement No. 40845540. Canada return address: Station A, PO Box 54, Windsor ON N9A 6J5, Email: circulation@mining-media.com. Current and back issues and additional resources, including subscription request forms and an editorial calendar, are available online at www.coalage.com. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Free and controlled circulation to qualified subscribers. Non-qualified persons may subscribe at the following rates: USA and Canada, 1 year, $56.00, 2 year, $96.00, 3 year, $162.00, Student, $16.00, Outside the USA and Canada, 1 year, $77.00, 2 year, $137.00, 3 year, $225.00 surface mail (1 year, $145.00, 2 year, $257.00 airmail delivery). For subscriber services or to order single copies, write to Coal Age , 8751 East Hampden, Suite B1, Denver, CO 80231 USA; call +1.303.283.0640 (USA) or visit www.mining-media.com. ARCHIVES AND MICROFORM: This magazine is available for research and retrieval of selected archived articles from leading electronic databases and online search services, including Factiva, LexisNexis, and Proquest. For microform availability, contact ProQuest at 800-5210600 or +1.734.761.4700, or search the Serials in Microform listings at www.proquest.com. Steve Fiscor, Coal Age Editor-In-Chief sfiscor@mining-media.com POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Coal Age, P.O. Box 1337, Skokie, IL 60076 USA. REPRINTS: Mining Media Inc, 8751 East Hampden, Suite B1, Denver, CO 80231 USA phone: +1.303.283.0640, fax: +1.303.283.0641, www.mining-media.com PHOTOCOPIES: Authorization to photocopy articles for internal corporate, personal, or instructional use may be obtained from the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) at +1.978.750.8400. Obtain further information at www.copyright.com. 2 www.coalage.com COPYRIGHT 2013: Coal Age, incorporating Coal and Coal Mining & Processing. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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