Clinton offers $30bn plan for hard-hit coal areas

OREANDA-NEWS. November 13, 2015. Leading Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton today proposed a \\$30bn package she hopes would revitalize US coal mining regions facing economic pain and job losses amid weak demand for the fuel.

The package does not attempt to reverse the fall in US coal production, which the Energy Information Administration puts at a total of 11pc in 2013-16. Clinton instead wants to diversify the economy in coal areas, create tax breaks for development in those regions and set up job training programs for those struggling to find work.

The plan represents an early effort by Clinton to appeal to communities in the Appalachia region and the Illinois basin that blame President Barack Obama's policies for the loss of high-paying coal jobs in mining, transportation and power generation. Clinton will need support from states such as Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio with significant coal production to win the general election in November 2016, if she wins her party's nomination.

Clinton did not offer details about the allocation of the \\$30bn in funding, but she includes in the plan a new public works project to electrify existing dams, efforts to redevelop retired coal plants and new investments in infrastructure near coal communities. The plan would also fund research and development on carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technology.

Coal industry groups remain critical of Clinton, who has vowed to support US Environmental Protection Agency regulations that would limit power sector CO2 emissions starting in 2020.

"Under Obama's plan, and seemingly Clinton's too, consumers lose," the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity told Argus.

Coal groups are trying to block environmental rules and want the government to increase its support for technologies such as CCS that could help coal compete in a carbon-limited economy.

The National Coal Council, a federal advisory committee that reports to the US Energy Department, today published a report calling for "policy parity" in the amount of support the federal government and states provide to the CCS technology and renewable energy. The report said the US provides \\$8bn/yr for renewable energy, while it spends less than \\$1bn/yr on CCS.

Efforts to build large-scale CCS have typically been plagued by cost overruns, delays and cancellations. But the advisory group argues that boosting support for commercializing CCS will be critical if the world wants to hit ambitious targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.