Effect of Coal and Competition on Railroading Industry

[John_Perkowski]

Admin Note: Closed for housekeeping

[Jeff Smith]

I deleted the last thread, as it was so far off railroading and debating solar that it had no relation. But then I determined that that I'd probably have to delete half the environmental arguments on here...

This is not solar.net. Nor is it solar.vs.coal.net. I appreciate the passion, but keep it to railroading.

[John Smythe]

Since President Trump took office " The War On Coal Is Over " Old coal fired generating plants are seeing new life after undergoing retrofitting, the increased demand for U.S. made steel via the electric arc furnace requires tremendous amounts of power. A Ton of coal releases 280,000,000 BTU's, coal can be burned clean, yes we do have more coal than all the oil in the middle East. Coal can also be converted into synthetic fuels & oils, the Germans did it on a massive scale in WW2.

Personally I believe the so called " Global Warming " is another farce, invented by people who own stock in companies that make windmills. Other than recorded temperature records that go back a few hundred years, it's not much to go on. The earth alternates between cooling trends & warming trends over tremendous amounts of thousands of years. Fact.... all green plant matter loves Carbon Dioxide, just basic science. Plants turn CO2 into Oxygen, we use Oxygen then emit CO2 from our lungs as we breath. Did it ever occur to anyone that the human body temp is 98.6 F? With so few people long ago inhabiting the planet perhaps it was cooler, increasing populations throw off more body heat.

This can go back & forth over & over. Coal will be utilized for energy in one fashion or another. We don't need Arab oil, we have more than we know what to do with thanks to Trump. Now we export and get back money that used to just flow out all the time.

[eustis22]

>His administration’s efforts to save coal plants with proposals to subsidize them have not been successful. More U.S. coal plants were shut in Trump’s first two years than were retired in the entire first term of former President Barack Obama.

Source - Reuters

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa- ... SKCN1Q32CD" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[QB 52.32]

Despite President Trump"s public policy toward coal, natural gas-fired electric generation and scrap-consuming mini mill steel production (with possible offsets toward plastics?) is the more immediate future and a rail industry net-negative. The credit for our fossil fuel-based energy independence goes to Bush/Cheney, not Trump.