Coal

Nah.

The Trump administration made clear on Friday, with what it described as the largest set of sanctions against North Korea yet, that it will continue to isolate Pyongyang even as the South seeks to engage with the North.

1) As many liberal commentators have eagerly pointed out, coal is a dying industry, and it makes no sense to prop up a dying industry. The issue, however, isn't whether Trump's pulling out of the Paris Agreement is propping it up so much as refusing to kill the industry prematurely. About a third…

Last week's strike on the Syrian airfield from which Bashar al-Assad launched his latest chemical-weapons attack on his own people has somewhat overshadowed President Trump's meeting with Xi Jinping, the president of China. The summit at Mar-a-Lago last Thursday and Friday was the first chance for…

A large swath of the population—mostly on the left—thinks the American coal industry is dead or dying. But another large portion of the population—mostly on the right—thinks the coal industry is primed for a comeback.

A large swath of the population—mostly on the left—thinks the American coal industry is dead or dying. But another large portion of the population—mostly on the right—thinks the coal industry is primed for a comeback.

A federal judge in West Virginia has given the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) less than seven months to review whether its Obama-era policies directly led to job losses in the coal industry, according to an order issued Wednesday.

The Obama administration finalized a long rulemaking process Monday to tighten regulation of coal mining near streams, drawing pushback from Capitol Hill who questioned the move's necessity and had hoped the government would leave the issue alone before the president departs office next month.

The U.S. government is forecasting that the world's coal consumption will increase almost 15 percent in the coming decades, despite new regulations that will slow the industry significantly stateside.

Hillary Clinton was met by dozens of enraged protesters and a middle finger or two during a campaign stop in Williamson, West Virginia, earlier this week.

Hillary Clinton told a CNN town hall in Ohio that "We're going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business."

When people burned coal in their basements for heat, the effects were apparent. Coal dust covered walls. Soot spewed out of chimneys and coated nearby buildings and rooftops. Haze filled city streets.

Conservatives of America, unite. You have nothing to lose but regulations and subsidies. Hark. Listen up. Pay attention. And if there is any other cliché that might get your attention, pencil it in.

EPA chief Gina McCarthy agreed with Bill Maher on Friday that the Obama administration is engaged in a war on coal:

The climate change crusaders, who have been at it for a quarter-century, appear to be going clinically mad. Start with the rhetorical monotony and worship of authority (“97 percent of all scientists agree!”), add the Salem witch trial-style intimidation and persecution of dissenters, and the…

The Obama administration will roll out a plan, today, for fixing the climate, having already fixed foreign policy and the economy. As Wendy Koch of USA Today reports:

On September 20, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed strict new limits on emissions from coal-fired power plants. Energy industry critics, along with a number of influential unions, were quick to decry them. The regulations would limit carbon emissions for new coal plants to 1,100 pounds…

While Daniel P. Schrag, White House climate adviser, tells the New York Times that "a war on coal is exactly what's needed," so far the Obama administration has been a boon for U.S. coal exports.  Last week, the Department of Energy reported that coal exports have more than doubled during President…

Daniel P. Schrag, a White House climate adviser and director of the Harvard University Center for the Environment, tells the New York Times "a war on coal is exactly what's needed." Later today, President Obama will give a major "climate change" address at Georgetown University. 

Mitt Romney's campaign has a new television ad directed at voters in Pennsylvania. The ad juxtaposes Barack Obama's record and rhetoric on the coal industry with Romney's plan.

We are entering an age of energy abundance. Or not. In keeping with the great tradition of economics, dubbed by Thomas Carlyle the dismal science, let me raise a cautionary note. What God has showered upon us, politicians can make unavailable. Not only because they have to balance our need for…

Charleston, W. Va.

Now that President Obama's reelection team wants to include coal on the agenda, it's worth remembering that Obama himself warned in 2008 that his policies would bankrupt anyone who started a coal power plant. Here he is in 2008, speaking with the San Francisco Chronicle:

After a disappointing showing in West Virginia, where President Obama received only 59 percent of the vote against a prison inmate in the Democratic primary, the president's reelection team decided to highlight the importance of coal (or clean coal, to be exact) on its website. (West Virginia is a…

Longview, Washington—When an Australian shipping company named Millennium Bulk Terminals announced plans last November to open a coal export terminal in this port city of 36,000, few predicted any trouble. Millennium quickly bought the site on which the terminal would be located, a property on the…