Coal’s death exaggerated

According to website Townhall.com, coal is restructuring, not fading away.

The Right wing site – it has a section called Bearing Arms – points out that coal stocks may not be in high demand, but people still want it for energy generation.

It cites a Slate article that points out that while coal production has declined, it has not declined by as much as expected. Slate writes that coal will continue to be mined at the rate the global market demands – just under a different capital structure.

Tourism time

With mining a shadow of its former self, there are some hopes that tourism may step up to fill the breach.

Greg Jericho, writing in The Guardian, says that the fall in commodity prices would hurt the Australian economy and there is not an immediate fix in sight.

Tourism, he points out, while not an immediate fix, does have the benefit of having very little lag time on its impact.

A falling dollar can make travelling to Australia very attractive and can therefore lead to the money coming into the country.

Unfortunately, though, mining is 8% of the Australian GDP, while the accommodation and food services industry accounts for about 2.5% of Australia’s GDP, Jericho writes.

He points out though that those sectors employ 7% of Australians.

Vattenfall drops coal

Swedish utility Vattenfall is selling off its German coal plants and its mining assets as it seek to adjust its energy plans, US News reports.

The company said potential bidders could bid for four power plants and the corresponding mining activities.

Vattenfall has made large write-downs related to its German operations, the website reports, and was also receiving Swedish government pressure to get out of coal.