Rod Walton: Finding good news about coal is tough dig these days

Rumors of the death of coal may be greatly exaggerated. 

Taking Mark Twain's famous quote about his own demise way out of context, it does seem that many outside observers could look at current events and determine that the U.S. and other nations are moving beyond the need for coal-fired power. 

They'd be short-sighted, but I can understand why they see it that way. 

Finding good news about coal is tough these days. The Wall Street Journal reported last week about Rio Tinto PLC's struggle to expand one of its mines in Australia, a nation that accounts for one-third of global coal exports. 

Earlier this month, Moody's Investors Service changed its outlook for the U.S. coal industry from stable to negative, despite predictions that the commodity will increase its share of domestic power generation from 37 percent to 40 percent this year. 

And then there's AEP-PSO and Oklahoma Gas & Electric. American Electric Power-Public Service Co. of Oklahoma has opted not to fight the U.S. Environmental Agency on regional haze and other air pollution fronts, so the Tulsa-based utility will close one Oologah coal-fired generation unit by 2016 and the other 10 years later. 

OG&E stuck by its proverbial guns, taking part in a federal lawsuit against the EPA's regional haze reduction timeline and, at first, gaining a stay in Denver federal court. The court, however, since has ruled against OG&E, which likely will appeal, while feds and the Sierra Club have filed their own legal actions. 

Coal foes are optimistic that 99,000 megawatts of power generation may be retired in the next few years, according a 2012 release by the Union of Concerned Scientists. These combined closures, if realized, would represent nearly one-third of U.S. coal generation output. 

So is it time to sing that dirge for dirty old coal, as its foes surely are crowing? Hardly, according to a more detailed look at where the industry is and where it's going. 

Coal has been around for centuries and likely will be part of U.S. power generation for decades and maybe centuries to come. Numbers to consider: 500 billion tons in reserves beneath the soil, and 29 states which generate more than half of their electricity from coal pay about 8.8 cents per kilowatt-hour, 11 percent less than the national average, according to federal statistics. 

Oklahoma's own coal industry is fairly quiet, but one Tulsa company has continued to do quite well, despite regulatory challenges and occasional bad publicity. Alliance Resource Partners, which operates mines in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland and West Virginia, has reported 12 straight years of record earnings and all-time highs in coal sales and volumes in 2012.