Bloomberg is reporting on the increase in coal company bankruptcies in recent years, due to the switch by power companies to natural gas and fracking, which has flooded the market with cheap gas. Driving this conversion is the prospect of new, draconian rules to be issued by the EPA on emissions from coal plants. Exports are failing to save U.S. miners. Slowing Chinese growth and rising competition from overseas, including increased Australian output, have sent the price of metallurgical coal, used in steelmaking, to a six-year low. Central Appalachian thermal coal, used in power plants to produce electricity, fell on the New York Mercantile Exchange by 4.6 percent in 2013 compared with 2012. Coal plants capable of generating 60,000 megawatts, enough to power 48 million average U.S. homes, will shut by 2020 because of tighter pollution regulations, slow growth in power use, and competition from natural gas, according to the Energy Department. That’s about 20 percent...(Read Full Post)