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Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
KY Senate president praises Trump's pro-coal moves, questions fossil fuels' role in climate change
Republican Senate President Robert Stivers speaks to reporters about President Donald Trump's executive orders aimed at averting the retirements of coal-fired power plants. (Kentucky Lantern photo by McKenna Horsley) FRANKFORT — Saying that fossil fuels' role in causing climate change is 'subject to debate,' Republican Senate President Robert Stivers touted President Donald Trump's recent executive orders aimed at boosting the coal industry as a 'step in the right direction' toward making the United States and Kentucky competitive in coal production again. Stivers, who was among Kentuckians present when Trump signed the executive orders last week, told reporters Tuesday morning Trump is offering a 'two-pronged approach' by first incentivizing coal mining and distribution and then expediting the process to get coal mining permits. Stivers said the policies put 'Kentucky in a good position' to be 'a low-cost energy producer.' Heavy reliance on coal has eroded a KY economic advantage. Can Trump reverse the trend? Stivers said producing more coal is also a national security issue, so the U.S. can control more of its own resources instead of relying on importing energy materials. The U.S. already has significantly decreased its dependence on energy from other countries. The U.S. has been a net exporter of energy since 2019, reports the U.S. Energy Information Agency, and a net coal exporter since at least 1949. In 2023, annual U.S. coal exports increased by about 15% and equaled about 8% of total energy exports, reports the agency. The U.S. is most dependent on other countries for crude oil which accounted for the largest share of U.S. energy imports in 2023. When Stivers was elected to the legislature in 1997, the state generated nearly $300 million annually in coal severance tax, he said. In the last few years, it's been close to $100 million, which is a 'a reflection of production,' which has declined steeply, Stivers added. The Trump administration policies are likely to be an economic booster in Kentucky, Stivers predicted. Coal production in Stivers' home of Clay County in Eastern Kentucky peaked at 2.5 million tons annually in 1980, according to the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet. Clay County now produces no coal. In recent years, Western Kentucky — led by an Alliance Resource Partners mine in Union County — has surpassed Eastern Kentucky in coal production. Alliance Partners CEO Joe Craft, a Republican megadonor, also was at the White House with Stivers last week to watch Trump vow to revive 'beautiful, clean coal,' a promise he also made in his first term. 'It won't just be miners going back to work,' Stivers said. 'It'll be all the peripheral jobs that will come back, that you'll see that used to be there … supply stores, lumber companies, little grocery stores, mom and pop operations. That's the hope.' Kentucky generated about 68% of its electricity from coal in 2023, the third-highest of all states. Over the last 25 years, Kentucky has fallen from producing the country's cheapest power to the 12th cheapest as natural gas, solar and wind have often become cheaper than maintaining aging coal-fired power plants. The last large coal-fired power plant built in the country was in 2013. During the press conference, Stivers pushed back on fossil fuels like coal contributing to climate change. He said 'the assumption that fossil fuels are a contributor to climate change is subject to debate.' Stivers' assertion contradicts scientific studies that consistently identify the heat-trapping emissions from burning fossil fuels — coal, oil and gas — as by far the leading cause of climate change. 'If it is a factor in climate change, do you want us with some of the strongest regulatory processes doing more fossil fuels than shipping it and allowing our products to be produced in Russia, China and India that have limited or no environmental concerns and produce way more than what anybody in the United States does in the realm of fossil fuels contaminants?' Stivers said. 'I would rather do it here. We're more cognizant of potential impacts, or at least aware there is an argument of that.' China in 2023 released more heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions than any other country, followed by the U.S, India, the European Union and Russia, according to an independent tally. Historically, the U.S. is the world's No. 1 emitter of greenhouse gases emissions, which accumulate in the atmosphere, because of the country's earlier and rapid industrialization dating back to the 1800s. During the Tuesday press conference, Stivers also was asked about the response to Kentucky's recent devastating floods, which have renewed conversations about the state's disaster funds. Before the legislature finished the 2025 legislative session, it passed a law to create a new state aid fund for communities affected by February floods. Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear said it would not be 'enough' to cover damage from those storms. Beshear also has warned that a spending cap imposed by the legislature will limit state resources available for flood recovery. When asked about Beshear's concern that the state could run out of funding if it faces another natural disaster this year, Stivers said he finds Beshear's 'lack of knowledge problematic' and that calling the legislature into a special legislative for one day would cost less than the governor traveling to Davos, Switzerland, for an economic forum, or paying the salary of Beshear's Senior Adviser Rocky Adkins, a former House speaker. 'He is creating a crisis without the crisis existing,' Stivers said. 'One day is all it takes.' In 2021, the Legislative Research Commission said a special session costs about $65,000 a day.
CBC
07-04-2025
- Business
- CBC
More Alberta propane flowing to Asian markets as trade relationship with U.S. falters
Canada's propane exports reached record highs last year, with more Alberta-produced propane than ever before arriving in Asia. Last year, more than 40 per cent of Canadian propane exports flowed across the Pacific Ocean, with Japan and South Korea emerging as key markets, according to a recent analysis from the U.S. Energy Information Agency (EIA). All of it travels via two new marine export terminals at the Port of Prince Rupert on the B.C. north coast — one on Ridley Island operated by Calgary-based AltaGas and another on Watson Island operated by Calgary-based Pembina. "With the discussion and dynamic playing out between the U.S. and Canada, and the risk of tariffs, it's highlighted the importance of Canada's ports," said Shaun Stevenson, president and CEO of the Prince Rupert Port Authority. "Certainly, we've played a big role in Alberta's trade agenda over the past decades, and that role is increasing." Overseas propane exports from Canada have increased every year since 2019, per the EIA analysis, and grew by 10 per cent from 2023 to 2024. The price of propane is also typically much higher in Asian markets compared to the U.S., meaning Canadian producers make more by sending it overseas. New market growth welcome as Trump spurs uncertainty Until 2018, Canada sent all of its propane exports to the United States, said the EIA. But last year, only about 58 per cent of Canada's propane exports went south of the border. As the flow of Alberta-produced propane swells across the Pacific, the province's energy industry faces historic uncertainty in dealing with American partners. U.S. President Donald Trump briefly imposed a 10 per cent tariff on Canadian energy exports in March but then scrapped the policy. Energy exports to the U.S. are not currently subject to tariffs, so long as they qualify under the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) for preferential treatment. Still, the uncertainty created by Trump's global trade war is affecting decision-making in the sector, according to Richard Masson with the University of Calgary School of Public Policy. "Right now, there's so much uncertainty that pretty much everybody is going to be saying. 'I'm not going to proceed with any new investment that I don't have to make,'" he said. "Anybody who has shareholders, bondholders, government investors needs to be able to say to them, 'the reason we're moving forward is because I think I'm going to make money doing this.' And that is not something anybody really has any comfort in right now." But at a Calgary Chamber of Commerce event last Thursday, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said Canada's premiers are more open to talking about new oil and gas infrastructure, compared to six months ago, because of the trade uncertainty. "I think that we've rather undersold the opportunity that we have with Prince Rupert," said Smith. "I don't know where we'll be in 20 years, but it will be very, very healthy for our country to have multiple trade partners that we can rely on." Asian market access set to grow with new project More than 20 per cent of Japan's total propane imports flow through the Port of Prince Rupert, according to Stevenson, compared to nearly 15 per cent of total propane imports for South Korea. Access to non-U.S. markets through the Port of Prince Rupert will grow, he said, as current projects go online. "There's a growing recognition that we need alternatives, we need options if we're going to get the highest value from the natural resources that Canada is blessed with having," said Stevenson. "You can't look at production of those resources without looking at the supply chains and the market access." A $3 billion expansion of the port is underway, he said, including the Ridley Island Energy Export Facility, or REEF, built adjacent to the existing export terminal on the island. It will increase capacity for propane and butane exports by 55,000 barrels per day. According to REEF proponents AltaGas and Royal Vopak, propane shipped from Prince Rupert can reach Asian markets in 10 or 11 days — much faster than propane sent from the U.S. Gulf Coast or the Arabian Gulf. The project is expected to be complete in 2027, said Stevenson.
