King Coal

The Obama administration makes no secret they are out to eliminate the use of coal in this country, particularly for electrical generation. The production of electricity consumes nearly 40% of all energy use in this country. Useful information and statistics can be found at

http://205.254.135.7/electricity/monthly/ .

My extended families mainly live in a band from Casper, WY to the Four Corners area. Probably half work in energy, mainly coal, either mining it, finding it, transporting it, or burning it. Many of my female cousins are truly coal miner’s daughters and several are, or retired as, coal miners. Predictably, I’m very interested in the health of the industry. Half of all electricity we use is generated burning coal.

Coal cost one tenth the cost of petroleum and two thirds the cost of natural gas for electrical generation (See Table 9.10 in the stated source). This will all change as the environment crowd have their way.  Your electric bill, especially if you live on the East Coast, will make you look at the jump in gasoline prices with nostalgia. Think I’m wrong? Query your electrical supplier as to what they are paying on the futures market for power this winter. Or

http://peripateticengineer.blogspot.com/

So where will you cut back when your electric bill jumps $100 to $150 a month? You already have cut back to pay the extra $100 or so at the pump. If, in fact, we have a consumer based economy, what will this do to consumer spending?

At a personal level, I’m preparing for a tough winter. How about you?