Hungry U.S. Power Plant Turns to Russia for Coal Shipment

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Hungry U.S. Power Plant Turns to Russia for Coal Shipment

By Mario Parker Jul 16, 2014 2:05 PM ET

When New Hampshire’s largest utility needed to rebuild coal supplies after the past frigid winter, it turned to Russia rather than Appalachia in the U.S. Northeast or Wyoming’s Powder River Basin.

The Doric Victory, a bulk carrier the length of two football fields, transported the fuel almost 4,000 miles (6,436 kilometers) from Riga, Latvia, last month to Public Service of New Hampshire’s Schiller power plant in Portsmouth, a 150-megawatt facility that’s produced electricity since 1952.

Utilities in the U.S. are scrambling for coal, on pace to increase imports 26 percent this year, as railroad bottlenecks slow deliveries and electricity demand climbs with an improving economy. Russia, the world’s third-largest exporter of the fuel, will boost shipments 3.9 percent to 106 million metric tons this year, IHS Energy forecasts, part of President Vladimir Putin’s plan to expand Russia’s role in the global coal market.

There was a thread here not long ago about the drop in coal export shipments at Hampton Roads, Virginia:

Port sees coal exports drop in first half of year

[jakeXT]

1. It will be interesting to see how the new sanctions will affect it /nt

[FreakinDJ]

2. Is Latvia still part of Russia ??

thought they broke off back in the 80s

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. And we are exporting all that fracking gas and oil.

Something is very wrong here.