King Coal dying of natural causes, says Bloomberg

Michael Bloomberg, former New York Mayor and billionaire founder of the eponymous investment and business media conglomerate, has a message for opponents of the US President’s new Clean Power Plan: Barack Obama didn’t kill coal, the market did.

The new, farther reaching US Environmental Protection Agency rules, which include the nation’s first-ever limits on carbon emissions, have captured the attention of many, not just in the US but around the world, as a clear signal from the world’s largest developed economy that the energy market is changing for good.

The Plan has its critics, of course, who – reading from the same songbook as Australian fossil fuel supporters – say it will destroy the coal industry, kill jobs and raise costs for consumers.

But in an opinion piece published on Tuesday, Bloomberg says these claims are wrong, and endeavours to explain why.

“The overblown political rhetoric about the plan tends to obscure the market reality that the coal industry has been in steady decline for a decade, partly as a result of the natural gas boom, but mostly because consumers are demanding cleaner air and action on climate change,” he writes.

“The primary reason for the public revolt against coal is simple: It causes death, disease and debilitating respiratory problems. A decade ago, coal pollution was killing 13,000 people a year. Today, the number is down to 7,500, which means that more than 5,000 Americans are living longer, healthier lives each year thanks to cleaner power.

“At the same time, jobs in the energy industry have multiplied, led by natural gas and renewable sources such as solar and wind. Today, there are nearly two people working in the solar industry for each person employed by the coal industry.

“The EPA’s Clean Power Plan merely continues this trend.”

Bloomberg goes on to note that, while in 2005 more than 50 per cent of US electric power came from coal, this number has fallen to below 40 per cent today, on a downhill trajectory the EPA says will lead to a 27 per cent share by 2030.

“In other words,” says Bloomberg, “we are already halfway to the EPA’s goal – seven years before its rules take full effect, and before many of the coal plant closings that are scheduled to happen over the next decade.”

The fact remains, he concludes, “King Coal is dying of natural causes: Market forces, technological advances, and public demands for clean air and climate action have combined to make alternative sources of energy more financially attractive” – and here, he notes that the price of new wind power in most parts of the US is now lower than that of coal.

“Critics continue to argue that we shouldn’t reduce our coal use until China and other countries do so. But that’s like saying, ‘We won’t stop killing our people until you stop killing yours.’ Not only would it be absurd, it would also be economically foolish,” he writes.

And finally, from a billionaire business man who started off Democrat, became Mayor of New York as a Republican, and then switched to Independent, Bloomberg has this message:

“Even those Americans who are skeptical of climate change ought to support the EPA’s new plan. It will save lives and create jobs in red and blue states alike. And it will help ensure that in the so-called war on coal – which is really a battle to protect communities from coal’s harmful effects – the American people emerge victorious.”

You can read the whole opinion piece here.

Meanwhile, in Australia, “green tactics” are being blamed for the almost certain failure of a proposed mega-coal mine development in Queensland’s Galilee Basin.

The beleaguered Carmichael coal project, and associated port and rail extensions, proposed by India’s Adani Group, took another blow this week, when the Federal Court overturned the federal government’s approval of the mega-mine, after ruling that environment minister Greg Hunt essentially failed in his duty to weigh up the environmental impacts – more precisely, the impact on two endangered species native to the area, the Yakka Skink and the Ornamental Snake.

According to The Australian newspaper, this successful legal challenge – mounted by Mackay Conservation Group and fought by the Environmental Defenders Office – has put the project in danger of being abandoned, using a tricky green “strategy to delay major projects through the courts and scare off investors.”

But of course, this take on things ignores the fact that this project – recently dubbed an “economic basket case” and named as one of the world’s riskiest investments – has been on the ropes for some time now (see: declining thermal coal market, cheaper renewables, that thing called climate change, the environment), with most credible financial backers long gone.

The fact that Australia’s Big Four banks are only now joining this investor exodus, led by the Commonwealth Bank this week, is both cause for concern (why so long?), and celebration. Maybe they are getting Bloomberg’s message: The coal industry is terminal, “green tactics” or no.