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Deep in the jungles of Indonesian Borneo one finds Bayan Resources coal complex. In 2025 Indonesia is the world's largest coal producer. Bayan Resources was founded by Low Tuck Kwong a Indonesian businessman who started out with his father's construction business in Singapore and switched to start his own business in mining in Indonesia in 1972. Bayan is now one of the largest coal producers in Indonesia and ships the coal to India, Vietnam and Philippines which depend on coal for electricity and modernization.  Coal demand will actually increase instead of decrease from 8 billion metric tons in 2013 to 9 billion metric tons in 2027. India and Vietnam are taking on the role of manufacturing that once belonged to China in the supply chain. The combined population of India, Indonesia, Vietnam and Philippines is about 2 billion people with a huge need for 100% electrification of rail and transport, and for homes and industry. India is accelerating it's renewable energy production, yet coal will be needed in the interim transition to renewable energy. Coal production is about 1 billion metric tons in 2024. About 20% of coal is imported from Indonesia and Australia. India depends on coal for 75% of electricity needs says Anil Kumar Jha former head of Coal India Limited. He predicts coal to increase to 1.3 million metric tons produced in India by 2031.   ...

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Ivan Penn , Tim Gruber of NYT show how Tim Walz's Minnesota is taking Climate Change Action to be 100% Clean Energy by 2040.  Hovering over Becker, Minnesota, along the Missisisippi river is a coal powered electric plant. Next to corn and potato farms are acres of solar panels intended to pass solar energy to the Sherco solar energy plant in the neighboring area for transmission. It will replace 3 coal powered units at Becker's electric plant. Becker is only one of seven such Municipal areas called Coalition of Utility Cities that will make he shift to solar. What happens to 240 workers at the coal plant owned by Xcel Energy? They will not be layed off says Xcel and the state provides funds to retrain workers. Some will be employed at anuclear plant owned by Xcel. The state provides 4.75 million for retraining, and $20 million for a new industrial park that will generate new jobs. Additional jobs created at Form Energy in Massachusetts that makes the battery storage systems for Sherco/Xcel. It is a culture change for workers and for sceptics. A 1.9 million ton coal pile sits outside Becker to last 100 days- coal related pollution will decline and improve health.      ...

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A old $2 million coal mine in Wyoming is now the biggest find for rare earth elements in the US since 1952. It could be worth as much as $37 billion says this report in WSJ. Randall Watkins the son of Ashland Oil founder the elder Watkins, runs Ramaco, the $600 million metallurgical coal company that bought this coal mine. He says he has learned lessons from his father that will help him build on this rare earth elements discovery for commercialization.

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One negative effect of the trade war with the U.S. is an increased emphasis on energy security and increased use of coal in China. After China committed to goals for climate change coal use declined in 2014, after reaching a high in 2013. The attack on Saudi oil facilities showed risk in its reliance on Saudi oil. China's import dependency for oil reached an all time high of 72% in 2018, according to BP 2019 Statistical Review. Gradually the commitment to climate change and lower use of coal has changed since 2016 with the withdrawal of the U.S. from the Paris Climate Change Agreement. Initially after the U.S. withdrawal under president Trump China made bold commitment to lead the fight against climate change but has since wavered. In an October 2019 speech Premier Li Kequiang called for the development of the coal industry to ensure energy security.  As China's economy slowed in 2019 in the face of U.S. tariffs and a trade war with the U.S. efforts are being made to increase infrastructure investment which has driven coal use higher. China's steel output reached a record of 750 million metric tons in 2019. The amount of coal fired capacity under construction in China now exceeds the rest of the world combined, much of it from plants permitted before 2017, according to Global Energy Monitor. China is also expected to become the world's largest importer of natural gas by 2020. Even the Russian gas fields from Siberia supply only a fifth of China's energy demands in 2020.  China has made large strides in renewable energy helping it meet its Paris Agreement targets. Renewable energy is about 10% of China's energy mix, but its use showed growth of 29% in 2018, making up half of the world's growth. China's use of coal in the energy mix has dropped to 58% in 2018 from 72% in 2008, according to BP 2019 Statistical Review, as a result of renewable energy investments. At the Madrid Climate Conference China renewed its commitment to the Paris Climate Change Agreement. Now it is a balancing act keeping in mind energy security and economic growth along with the need for clear skies and better air quality. ...

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Shortages of urea from China used for fertilizer in India and urea solution used for reducing diesel emissions in South Korea is affecting farmers in India, and cargo truck drivers in South Korea. Prices of urea increased 10 fold in 2021. Urea is extracted from coal and coal shortages in China are worsening. China makes 40% of world urea supply and India takes half of China's exports. This is one more example of how the supply chain is affected by coal shortages in China.

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"All I want is freedom for the people,” DJT says said in a phone interview with the Washington Post at around 4 a.m.“I want a safe nation, and that’s what we’re going to have." The nuclear threat from Iran has been the subject of negotiations for years with no tangible results. This nuclear weapons development has led to sanctions and shortages in the economy of Iran with the situation deteriorating and protests in Iran.

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Australia's Traralgon coal plant will close in 2035 instead of 2048. Leadership changes at AGL energy company which owns the plant made this possible. It produced a large part of energy for the state of Victoria which includes Melbourne, and 3% of the country's emissions. This report in BBC shows the stubborn nature of coal emissions in Australia. Mr. Albanese the newly elected Labor party leader has promised to cut emissions- a 43% reduction of 2005 emissions by 2030. Australia is a big exporter of coal with $40 billion in coal exports to China, India and other countries, and cheap abundant coal supplies are part of the reason for its reliance on coal. Only in 2021 with the raging wild fires and floods in parts of Australia has awareness of the cost of its reliance on coal become evident to Australians.

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David Uberti looks back at a time when this part of Massachusetts between Rhode Island and Cape Cod witnessed a coal power boom with the Brayton Point Plant. How this helped build the local economy with coal. It used ten thousand tons of coal and one billion gallons of water from the Taunton river every day. It shows the kind of economic transformation that is happening in China and India with coal even as the switch to renewables is happening. In Massachsetts this was followed by the switch to wind power farms in Somerset started under Biden in 2022. This has stalled under DJT and facilities remain idle all along the New York and Massachusetts coast. What it says is that to switch to renewable one has to have some coal for economic transition to communities hit by deindustrialization. That bringing back America's industrial base, ending culture wars, and getting a bipartisan understanding of the transition from workers, communities all over the country are all part of the effort to put renewable energy on a sound basis. ...

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Stalling coal production creates a crisis in India. The power industry is increasingly relying on imported coal.

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Why for some countries base load coal based energy capacity becomes essential with lack of energy storage options. India has realized that without storage simply adding more renewable capacity will pose problems for grid managers. India will add 60 gigawatts of fresh coal powered base load capacity in addition to 21 gigawatts under construction to tackle the problem of intermittency. India now has 40% of installed energy capacity from non fossil sources, rising from 25% in 2013, with solar and wind making up 30%.

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The renewable energy and coal projects of India's Gautam Adani are shown here in this report Emily Schmall and Hari Kumar in the NYT. The Financial Times looked into Mr. Adani's projects and financing and found that much of it comes from a scale of risk taking and business innovation, timely delivery that few businesses in India have an affinity for. As a result he has taken on a role of lead innovator for projects of scale in both coal and renewable solar energy for India.

 

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The Coal India IPO will bring $151 billion rupees ($3.39 billion). This is India's largest IPO. The IPO drew demand of $52.48 billion. The Indian government's goal is to raise 400 billion rupees for the fiscal year ending April 1, by selling stakes in state-owned companies.

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The rising production of natural gas in the U.S. from shale deposits has hurt the use of thermal coal. Appalachian coal costs $65 per ton to produce and prices have dropped to $52 a ton on the spot market, making it unprofitable to produce. Coal mining companies were relying on the demand for metallurgical coal from China's steel industry, which has boomed since 2004, to continue profitable mining operations. From $40 a ton in 2004 the price of metallurgical coal climbed to $330 in 2011. In 2009 U.S. met coal exports went up to six times the prior year's production and this continued in 2010, leading to rapid expansion. Now with a slowdown in China and the Chinese steel industry operating at a loss with huge overcapacity, the prices of met coal are down to $170 a ton. Patriot Coal of St. Louis filed for bankruptcy protection and many companies are shutting down mines and laying off workers.

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To make a dent in carbon emissions governments in Europe and North America need to support the use of low carbon solar panels in solar facilities installed there. This would enhance solar energy panel production in the US and Europe, India, other countries. Experts say the use of solar panels made using electricity from coal use in China creates more emissions in China while reducing emissions in the West. The result is that global emissions remain the same as if no solar panels were installed.  The global solar panel production is mostly concentrated in China because of the lower cost of electricity from coal used in production of panels- a critical factor in the lower prices of Chinese made solar panels. This allowed China to gain a monopoly in production of  world's polysilicon, an essential component in solar panel production, that consumes large amounts of electricity in the manufacturing process.  This use of coal generates twice the amount of carbon emissions in China than the solar panels made in Europe, say experts. As a result the governments and companies in Europe, US and India are shifting to local manufacturing of solar panels. ...

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As large companies such as BP and Shell sell off oil and coal projects, smaller competitors in the energy field are buying these projects with the idea that the transition from coal and oil will take longer. The smaller energy companies bet that coal and oil will be the main source for energy for developing countries in Asia and Africa and that the underinvestment by the large companies will boost commodity prices. Numbers support their thinking as coal, oil and natural gas are expected to be source of 76% of global energy consumption in 2030. In 2019 this was 81%, according to the International Energy Agency. Because of the rising demand it means using even more carbon intensive energy.  India is making big strides in renewable solar yet the energy demand in the future will also jump further as India modernizes its economy. The trend is all in the direction of renewables yet the time it takes will depend on demand and the cost reduction of renewables with new technologies. ...

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Coal is expected to take up 36% of global net electricity generation by 2040, only slightly down from 36% in 2015, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. This is the prospect for the future as India increases use of coal and China continues its use of coal. This make clean coal power plants an important part of the solution combined with increasing use of solar, wind, and where safe nuclear energy.

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Coal India, is a state run monopoly which is a huge stumbling block for India's economic development. India lags behind Brazil, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia in the percentage of the population having electricity. Production methods do not use modern technology similiar to mines in other countries, and the average age of the 333,000 employees is 45-50 years. An eight hour shift at some mines produces as much coal as a mine in the U.S. does in 5 minutes, because of the lack of modern technology. About 300 million Indians lack electricity. The Modi administration's focus is on improving efficiency, introducing competition, and bringing major technological changes to the coal industry. Piyush Goyal, India's Coal minister faces one of the biggest challenges in the Modi administration. His focus is on efficiency, and the Modi administration has set a target of 1 billion tons for 2020, a 15% increase in production each year for the next 5 years.

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The demand for electricity in US electricity power markets shows the demand growth for electricity doubled in 2024 forecasts compared to 2023 forecasts. Increased electricity demand was shown for Texas and the western US. The outlook for carbon emissions in 2024 is for higher energy demand and meeting of the extra demand by keeping coal plants running for longer and not retiring as many coal plants as predicted in 2023 outlook for carbon emissions. This is a major concern from the point of view of climate change action. According to the Department of energy since beginning of 2022 547 fossil fuel powered generators were predicted to be retiring. 36% of these had their retirement dates pushed back to keep the grid's reliability. 

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How China's coal gasification projects can contribute to global warming by the co2 emissions that they create. China is fast tracking a lot of coal gasification plants but not much effort or attention is being given to the carbon dixide that it will generate . And technologies to capture and store the carbon dioxide emissions are nowhere near being a reality. China will soon pass the U.S. as the largest source of greenhouse gases in the world.

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Marcellus Shale natural gas prices are monthly average of $2.80 per million BTU compared to benchmark U.S. prices for natural gas of $3.61 in Nov. 2013. The low prices of natural gas are leading to closing of more coal powered plants in the Pennsylvania, and W. Virgina, where a glut of natural gas is developing with few pipelines in the region. For the U.S. coal lost market share down to 37% in 2012 from about 50% of the electricity generated in the U.S. Over 100 coal burning generators were closed in the U.S. since 2011 because of lower natural gas prices and the federal government's stricter pollution limits for power plants.

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Italy who did not make it to 2 World Cups in Moscow and Qatar win 5-4  over Israel in September 2025. This win happened in a surprising fashion with 2 own goals and the winning goal by Tonali in injury time in the 91st minute. Italy lost to Norway earlier.

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Indian Finance Minister Sitharaman gives the following remarks in parliament on the White Paper presented to the 18th Lok Sabha in January 2024, describing the dire condition of the Indian economy by 2013 with mismanagement and "big ticket" corruption. India's Finance Minister Sitharaman describes the situation in three key areas by 2013 that left the economy of India in a fragile state, with projects stalled, development delayed, and capital investment not taking place. She gives as 3 main points of focus- the state of affairs at Defense Ministry, at the Environment Ministry, and for Energy supplies. At the outset she says PM Modi had suggested the need for such White Paper by 2015 so that future generations would know what had happened in India that failed the country at a time when China had already joined the community of developed nations. The issues go back to the coal scandal when coal auctions had to be cancelled by the Supreme Court for irregularities, the misuse of state owned banks leading to a large increase in non performing loans, and the mismanaged Commonwealth Games under government before 2014.  Sitharaman told parliament this had the effect of national security being compromised, Environment as a Ministry becoming a bottleneck, and the leadership failing the country. In the military there was a critical shortage of ammunition and equipment. She cites the Defense Minister at the time having the attitude that independent India has had a policy for many years not to develop the border areas, as an undeveloped border was better than a developed border. She also says Ministry stated that 92% of the Defense Budget was used up and major acquisitions have to wait for the military. Following this Sitharaman cited the scandals of that period and leakages of funds that weakend the country and failed its people. She compared capital expenditures today of 6.22 lakh crores in 2024 thre times the number in 2013 of 2.53 crores. HAL now makes Tejas jets and helicopters in Made in India production. At the Environment Ministry the delays that were 86 days reached a high of 316 days by 2013 for approval of development projects, with 355 projects pending, the nation brought to a standstill with the effects of the coal supplies to thermal power plants being wholly inadequate and Coal India in poor shape. The root of this was said Sitharaman- what everyone in Indian business knew, the term "genteel facts," as the cost of business going up. She cites the changes since then of aiming for Balance and Development- Transparency, Online Green Clearance, Standardized Environment Impact Studies, A new Department of Climate change, International Solar Alliance 2015, Mission Life 2022, Green Hydrogen, Namami Gange, Rooftop Solar. India set ambitious goals at the last Climate change Conference.    ...