Arizona Daily Sun
(Editor’s note: Opinion pieces are posted for discussion purposes only.)
As investment vehicles go, coal production and coal-fired power are not on anybody’s “Buy” list.
And not just because of the EPA’s Clean Power Plan, which wants a 32 percent cut in carbon dioxide emissions nationwide by 2030, based on 2005 levels. CO2 is the heat-trapping gas blamed for global warming
Worldwide, demand for coal is down, especially in China, where the economy has cooled, reducing the need for steel and the coking coal used to produce it. Natural gas power and even wind power grew faster last year than coal-fired power, and a coal divestment campaign is gaining steam among shareholder activists. Coal prices have fallen by half in the past five years.
