Coal companies risk being kicked off the NYSE because of declining value

[kristopher]

Steep slump in coal stocks, as investors bail, began before CO2 concerns
Benjamin Hulac, E&E reporter
ClimateWire: Thursday, June 11, 2015

Executives and workers at Walter Energy Inc. watched Monday as their company's share price lost 30 percent of its value in a day, closing at 30 cents amid speculation of an impending bankruptcy filing.

It's also one of several companies, including Arch Coal Inc. and Alpha Natural Resources Inc., that are at risk of being booted from the New York Stock Exchange if their stock price doesn't promptly climb above $1. And on Monday, Peabody Energy Corp. said it would let 250 workers go.

Economic struggles like these are not temporary ailments but are ingrained within the U.S. coal sector, said Luke Sussams, a researcher at the Carbon Tracker Initiative (CTI), a nonprofit think tank that studies climate change and its connections to financial risk.

In the last five years, the MSCI World Index, a broad financial barometer for the world's stock markets' performance, has increased 44 percent in value.

During that window, the global coal sector has given away 43 percent of its value. The American coal market value -- viewed through the Dow Jones U.S. Total Market Coal Sector Index -- has been particularly dismal, shrinking by 76 percent since 2010...

More at: http://www.eenews.net/stories/1060020056

[tech3149]

1. Yea, the only "war on coal" is industry blindness

Coal is dead and the sooner that is accepted, the better for everyone.

[CajunBlazer]

2. Coal is the cause of other environmental damage

When we environmentalists think of coal the first thing that comes to many of our minds is large part burning coal plays in climate change. However, the mining of coal often causes lasting damage to to our lands and water ways. To cut costs, many coal mining companies have just about abandoned deep mines in favor of strip mining.

In the Appalachians, the tops of whole mountains are removed and dumped into adjacent valleys leaving ugly gashes in the land and polluting ground water with cancer causing chemicals. Coal companies go to extraordinary lengths to avoid paying benefits to their employees who contract black lung disease from breathing coal dust for years.

Here in Alabama societies formed to protect our fee flowing streams and rivers are in constant legal battles with coal companies wanting to strip mine in areas which would result in pollution of those water ways.

When the last coal mine is shut down, that will be a great day.