Coal Trains thru Spokane ... Update from 2012 (Seattle: credit, lenders, unemployment)

[silverfox]

This is my post from 2012 on the coal trains .....Silverfox



I wonder how many people in the Spokane/Hayden/Rathdrum/Cda area know anything about this proposal that is well underway to ship millions of tons of Toxic Coal to the Washington West coast ports in open rail cars and on to China and India.

It is a Major New Threat to the Rathdrum Prarie Aquifer that supplies the drinking water to these areas ... and could effect approx. 600,000 people.

These shipments will also effect every area from start point to destination at the ports.

It was on the Seattle TV KOMO news tonight regarding the efforts here to stop this insane greedy proposal.



Below is the latest News .... 4/14/2016





Here is the latest news on the Coal Industry.
I am hoping this Kills for good the possibility of these dirty monsters Polluting our cherished Area.


R.I.P. America’s Coal Industry


The last pillar of America’s coal industry has fallen…

Yesterday, Peabody Energy (BTU), the largest U.S. coal miner, filed for bankruptcy. Its stock has stopped trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

Peabody was the last major U.S. coal miner still standing. Arch Coal, Alpha Natural Resources, Patriot Coal, and Walter Energy all filed bankruptcy within the past year.

• The price of coal has plunged 75% since 2011…

The U.S. simply has too much coal. Coal production hit a record high in 2008. That year, America entered its worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Coal demand fell and never recovered.

On top of that, the U.S. government is trying to regulate the coal industry to death. Strict laws have made it almost impossible for coal to compete with natural gas, a cleaner fuel source. Natural gas is set to overtake coal as America’s main source of power this year, according to the Energy Information Association (EIA).

• America’s largest coal miners can’t pay their bills…

Peabody, for example, owes its lenders $10 billion. The company over-expanded when times were good. In 2011, Peabody bought Macarthur Coal, an Australian coal miner, for $4 billion. Its timing couldn’t have been worse, Bloomberg Business reported yesterday:


Peabody Chief Financial Officer Amy Schwetz said in court filings that after the MacArthur purchase and other acquisitions the following year, international coal prices began a downward cycle, making the company’s debt unsustainable.

Peabody has lost money nine quarters in a row. Unable to pay its debt, the company is seeking bankruptcy protection. When a company goes bankrupt, it doesn’t necessarily shut down. Often, bankrupt companies will strike a deal with their creditors to keep their doors open.

According to The Wall Street Journal, bankrupt coal miners now account for half of all U.S. coal production.

• Like all commodities, the coal market is cyclical…

It goes through booms and busts.


GOOD RIDDENS ..... TO BAD CHINA.....

[Yeledaf]

Now the rest of North Dakota csn move to Spokane and collect unemployment. I sense a lutefisk glut.