coal giant cuts jobs, sells 60% of assets

boofagle said:

Anglo American to shed 85,000 jobs as it dumps coal and copper mines - Dec. 8, 2015

never good to hear people losing jobs, but this could be the start of a massive shift to clean energy.

Click to expand...

agree. The unintended consequences but less coal being burnt is good regardless where one stands politically...

boofagle said:

Anglo American to shed 85,000 jobs as it dumps coal and copper mines - Dec. 8, 2015

never good to hear people losing jobs, but this could be the start of a massive shift to clean energy.

Click to expand...

The coal industry is dying and will never come back. Even China has a multi-year drop in coal use and is closing mines.
We now just have to kill the oil industry... which will be much harder.

- - - Updated - - -

boofagle said:

Anglo American to shed 85,000 jobs as it dumps coal and copper mines - Dec. 8, 2015

never good to hear people losing jobs, but this could be the start of a massive shift to clean energy.

Click to expand...

The coal industry is dying and will never come back. Even China has a multi-year drop in coal use and is closing mines.
We now just have to kill the oil industry... which will be much harder.

It's not all good news, however. We still have developments like the Philippines to contend with. They are bringing on line some two dozen new coal-fired plants in the next five years; total output at some 12,200 MW. Nation's current total is 18,500 MW, according to one of the below articles, with one-third of that from coal (I'm not sure of the accuracy of these data, other than the new plant totals). This comes at a time when the gov't Energy Sec'y gives a nod - or at least lip service - to renewable energy, saying his DOE "targets" 30 percent vs current 23 percent. However, companies like Meralco and Ayala Corp are heavy hitters in the Philippines and are unlikely easily to be defeated.

The coal is to come from domestic mines - I've no recollection of that coal's quality (used to know these things); and Indonesia.

Links:

Philippines Star June 15 article featuring Energy Sec'y Petilla: 23 new power plants to go online by 2020 | Business, News, The Philippine Star | philstar.com

and

Reuters Aug. 24 article that has a fair discussion of the Philippine renewable situation as well: http://www.reuters.com/article/philippines-energy-coal-idUSL3N10U22520150824#56xoVMkD2zovVbud.97

boofagle said:

Anglo American to shed 85,000 jobs as it dumps coal and copper mines - Dec. 8, 2015

never good to hear people losing jobs, but this could be the start of a massive shift to clean energy.

Click to expand...

And if only a few of those 85000 jobless started installing solar panels, wind turbines, etc, what a difference!

Any time people lose jobs other people hire. The jobless rate remains fairly constant. Just think how sad we will all be when GM, Ford, etc. start to lay off people because they can't figure out how to make an EV. But someone else will. And they'll need workers.

roblab said:

Any time people lose jobs other people hire.

Click to expand...

......well......

Good. Though I feel for the employees.

CHG-ON said:

Good. Though I feel for the employees.

Click to expand...

the economic consequences are huge, the environmental benefits are not as dramatic as the greenies claim, while coal is dirty it's replacements aren't benign

Just because company A is dumping their coal mines and letting go of the employees involved with it doesn't meant the coal mine shuts down. Company B buys the mine and just hires most if not all of the people working in the mines before. It's just a transfer of ownership.

MichFin said:

Just because company A is dumping their coal mines and letting go of the employees involved with it doesn't meant the coal mine shuts down. Company B buys the mine and just hires most if not all of the people working in the mines before. It's just a transfer of ownership.

Click to expand...

Except that these are "fire sales" and many of the mines will probably close. This is part of a broader trend and is the result of falling commodity prices.
This article explains it well:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/timtreadgold/2015/07/21/widespread-mine-closures-to-follow-the-commodity-price-collapse/

This article (from way back in 2013) points to the closure of coal power plants and mines:
The new normal: US coal-fired power plants close, coal mines go idle

This is a good long term trend. If we are to survive, we need to leave all fossil fuels in the ground.

mspohr said:

This is a good long term trend. If we are to survive, we need to leave all fossil fuels in the ground.

Click to expand...

I hate to be the one who breaks this news to you, but you and everyone else who sees this are going to die, regardless of fossil fuels being found and consumed.

kort677 said:

I hate to be the one who breaks this news to you, but you and everyone else who sees this are going to die, regardless of fossil fuels being found and consumed.

Click to expand...

You are so cute.

kort677 said:

I hate to be the one who breaks this news to you, but you and everyone else who sees this are going to die, regardless of fossil fuels being found and consumed.

Click to expand...

I'm thinking beyond my own selfish needs and thinking about helping my kids' grandkids - and hoping that their kids have a world to be born into
Just sayin'

kort677 said:

the economic consequences are huge, the environmental benefits are not as dramatic as the greenies claim, while coal is dirty it's replacements aren't benign

Click to expand...

.... that's very true, everything has some impact.... but seeing as how solar, wind and storage are ~1% as harmful as fool fuel and now cheaper... I'd call that a pretty good deal...


Correction.... solar, wind and storage are much <1% as harmful... and that doesn't even include the effects of AGW...

Twiglett said:

I'm thinking beyond my own selfish needs and thinking about helping my kids' grandkids - and hoping that their kids have a world to be born into
Just sayin'

Click to expand...

how many advanced civilizations have come and gone over the ages? our fate is already predetermined

"Civilizations" come and go over the centuries, however -- news flash -- humanity continued.
The reason for not extracting and burning up all the coal and oil in the ground is so as not to raise the global mean temperature by such a large amount that humanity and most other species will perish.

kort677 said:

how many advanced civilizations have come and gone over the ages? our fate is already predetermined

Click to expand...

LOL... that's one of my more favorite excuses for procrastination... I wonder if it's ever been used in a murder case...

Judge, 'You stand accused of murder, how do you plead?'

Defendant, 'Hey... come on... it's not like the guy was going to live forever.... right?'