Word is now coming to us from out in Utah that a coal company owned by a pretty vocal critic of Barry "Almighty" has now laid off 102 miners. The layoffs at the West Ridge Mine, a company mentioned in the previous post, are effective immediately, that according to UtahAmerican Energy Inc., which is a subsidiary of Murray Energy Corp. They were announced in a short statement made public Thursday, just two days after Barry won re-election. According to the statement, the layoffs are necessary because of our newly re-elected president's "war on coal" The slogan is one used frequently during the election by Murray Energy CEO Robert Murray, who was an ardent supporter of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. The same Romney who would have had energy price cut in half before the end of his first year!
In its statement, UtahAmerican Energy blames Barry's administration for instituting policies designed with a specific purpose in mind. That being to close down "204 American coal-fired power plants by 2014" and to drastically reduce the market for coal. "There is nowhere to sell our coal, and when we can, the market prices are far lower," the statement said. "Without markets, there can be no coal mines and no coal jobs." Coal demand from U.S. power generation companies is down more than 17 percent this year, according to the federal Energy Information Administration's (EIA) most recent figures. That's due in large part to low market prices for natural gas, and has the EIA forecasting the lowest coal consumption in at least two decades by the nation's electricity industry.
Trends in power generation have also put coal-fired plants at a higher risk for retirement. In its annual Energy Outlook, the EIA reports that 49 gigawatts of coal-fired capacity will be retired in the next eight years. That represents about one-sixth of the existing coal capacity in the nation and less than 5 percent of total electricity generation in the U.S. "Lower natural gas prices, higher coal prices, slower economic growth, and the implementation of environmental rules all play a role in the retirements," the EIA report states. The key part of that statement has to do with those "environmental rules" which is Barry-speak for essentially putting coal producers out of business. Oh, and all of you shitbirds who voted for Barry, don’t come crying to me when your forking over $1000 a month just to heat and cool your homes. Because that's what's coming!
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