Daniel Simmons, Director of State Affairs

Institute for Energy Research

Thursday, May 27th ~ 1:30-2:15 pm Eastern

To register, go to: https://www.etouches.com/12523

The Waxman-Markey energy bill (H.R. 2454) which passed the U.S. House of Representatives in June 2009, establishes a national renewable portfolio standard (RPS) of 20% in 2020 from renewable sources or increased efficiency. The Senate is likely to consider a “clean energy standard” that would include not only renewables but also nuclear energy and clean coal. Colorado recently passed legislation requiring utilities to generate 30% of their electricity from renewables by 2020. About 35 states have renewable or alternative energy standards in place.

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ACC Career Center

Your Source for coal industry jobs and employment information

With its focus on coal industry companies, the ACC Career Center offers its members–and companies throughout the utility, transportation, ports and terminals, energy trading, and support services industries–an easy-to-use and highly targeted resource for online employment connections.

Both members and non-members can use the ACC Career Center to reach qualified candidates.

The ACC Cap & Trade webinar will be held today at 3 pm EST. John Blaney, Senior Vice President, ICF International will discuss the rapid-fire changes going on in the legislative and policy world.

Reuters reports that the EPA will begin an economic impact analysis of a compromise climate change bill that Senator John Kerry hopes to move through the Senate this year. Senator Kerry noted that he and Senator Joseph Lieberman were “sending the bill to be modeled now with Lindsey Graham’s consent” referring to Sen. Graham who announced on April 24th that he was dropping out of the effort with Kerry and Lieberman to draft a climate bill. The EPA is expected to take more than a month to complete. Could the Senate be considering climate legislation as early as June?

Proposed EPA regulations to limit the recycling and beneficial use of CCPs (coal combustion products) could have some frightening implications for our economy and environment.

CCP recycling and use currently provides $6.4 – $11.4 in annual economic benefits, significant environmental benefits, reduced energy consumption, water savings, and reduced greenhouse gas emissions.

All of those economic, social, and environmental benefits — and many more — stem from our growing use of coal combustion products (CCP’s). However, pending EPA regulations that could classify coal ash as a “hazardous waste” could have substantial negative impacts on this growing industry.

The Behind the Plug blog has posted a good review of the ACC’s “Coal Fundamentals” project.

ACC Members can see the Coal Fundamentals project on the ACC website. Information on the ACC’s Tomorrow’s Leadership Council is also available on the ACC website.

Congratulations to Janet Gellici, CEO of the American Coal Council on her recent election as Vice President for 2010 of the Washington Coal Club.

More information on the election and the Washington Coal Club is available on the ACC website. You can also download the news release in pdf format.

The American Coal Council and the Women’s Mining Coalition are pleased to provide a link to author Jill Tietjen’s website www.herstoryatimeline.com. Jill’s site is dedicated to the recently published Harper Collins edition, “Her Story: A Timeline of Women Who Changed America” by Jill Tietjen and Charlotte Waisman.

Please join the ACC and WMC on January 22nd, 2 – 3 pm EST as we present a webinar event featuring guest speaker Jill Tietjen.

For more information about this exciting web event please click here.

Prices are,
$15 for Women’s Mining Coalition Members
$45 for All Others ~ which includes an annual membership in the Women’s Mining Coalition

A new face in Kansas politics is bringing bipartisan solutions to difficult problems. Rather than simply falling back on strict anti-coal ideologies, Kansas’ new governor, Mark Parkinson, has worked with energy producers to end a protracted legal dispute over the state’s energy future.

The dispute began in 2007 when the Secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE), Roderick Bremby, ruled that a planned expansion of the Sunflower Energy Holcomb generation station could not proceed. Despite the fact that the planned expansion “complied with all federal and state environmental laws and regulations”, Bremby arbitrarily refused to grant the project’s state air quality permit citing his personal concerns over potential future impacts of CO₂ emissions from the plant. Project proponents argued that Bremby and the KDHE were playing capricious political games as they attempted to change the rules in the middle of the permitting process.

Janet Gellici, American Coal Council CEO was recently published in Power Engineering magazine. In her article, Janet considers the notion that now is not the time to panic over the recent spate of coal plant cancellations. (If, however, we continue to demand more and more inexpensive electricty without allowing for upgrades and new construction of generation and transmission capacity, that time could come soon enough.)

The full text of the article is included below. You can also access the article through the Power Engineering Magazine website.

Jason Hayes, ACC Communications Director, was recently invited to speak at the PricewaterhouseCoopers 11th Annual North American School of Mines in Scottsdale, AZ (May 10^th), 2007. His presentation, focused on providing the attendees with a “Coal Update: What’s on the Industry’s Mind?”

You can access a pdf version of the presentation on the ACC Presentations page of this site.