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14th April 2016, 07:32 AM
August 18, 2015
Wow! Obama drives down coal company stocks, and Soros buys them on the cheap
By Thomas Lifson
I have always believed that global warming is a gigantic scam, driven by greed and lust for power. Now comes the shocking news, via Steve Milloy writing on Breitbart, that following President Obama’s use of CO2 emissions as a weapon to drive major coal companies near bankruptcy, the ultimate politically connected speculator George Soros is buying up stock in major coal producers on the cheap.
I predicted in this column last week that the left wasn’t going to kill off the coal industry so much as it was going to steal it. That prediction is already becoming true courtesy of billionaire George Soros.
U.S. Securities and Exchange Act filings indicate that Soros has purchased an initial 1 million shares of Peabody Energy and 553,200 shares of Arch Coal, the two largest publicly traded U.S. coal companies. As pointed out last week, both companies have been driven perilously close to bankruptcy by the combination of President Obama’s “war on coal” and inexpensive natural gas brought on by the hydrofracturing revolution.
Under the hypothesis that not even socialists would leave trillions of dollars worth of a perfectly safe and clean energy source in the ground for the sake of the imaginary “climate crisis,” I posited that once the existing coal industry ownership was wiped out by President Obama’s regulatory onslaught, a new politically correct ownership would rehabilitate the fuel by contributing to Democrats.
Enter George Soros, a hardball investor and philanthropist to myriad left-wing causes, including the activist and “clean energy” rent-seeking movements that have helped take down the coal industry. In 2009, for example, Soros announced he would spend $1 billion in “clean energy” technology and create a San Francisco-based advocacy organization called the Climate Policy Initiative.
Less than a year ago the Soros’ Climate Policy Initiative issued a major report concluding that the world could save $1.8 trillion over the next two decades by transitioning away from coal. The report referred to coal reserves as “stranded assets” that were losing value as they were no longer needed.
For now, Soros’s investments are small scale (by his standards), but the reports end with June, so there is no knowing what subsequent investments have been made. These companies own huge reserves of coal that would be worth far more if the jihad against coal ended. If, for instance, the EPA backs away from its latest rules on CO2 emissions.
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2015/08/wow_obama_drives_down_coal_company_stocks_and_soro s_buys_them_on_the_cheap.html
APR 14, 2016 @ 07:26 AM 778 VIEWS
Peabody Bankruptcy Offers Stark Warning To Oil And Gas Groups Of Risks Of Ignoring Climate Change
Mike Scott , CONTRIBUTOR
Phasing out coal in favour of cleaner forms of energy, like natural gas or renewables, is a process which is accelerating around the world
Peabody’s announcement illustrates that investors in fossil fuel companies concerned about how those companies are responding to climate change are right to be worried. And it should persuade oil and gas companies such as ExxonMobil and Chevron that are facing shareholder resolutions on climate change to take them more seriously.
The announcement that Peabody, the world’s largest private sector coal miner, has filed for bankruptcy has sent shockwaves through the fossil fuel industry and it acts as a warning to oil and gas companies – and their investors – about how quickly things can change.
Investors including Calpers, New York City’s pension funds, BNP Paribas Investment Partners and the Church of England are calling on ExxonMobil XOM +0.57%, Chevron CVX +0.09% and seven other energy companies, to disclose the financial risks posed by climate change and climate change policies.
What’s happened in coal is an example of the dangers. Peabody is the 50th coal company to file for bankruptcy since 2012 and a startling example of the industry’s failure to anticipate how future markets might be limited by tighter environmental regulations.
A coal mine owned by Arch Coal, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January 2016. Its rival Peabody Energy filed for Chapter 11 on April 13, 2016. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown, File)
Just five years ago, the company was worth $20 billion – far short of the market capitalisation of ExxonMobil, to be sure, but a cautionary tale nonetheless at a time when investors are pressuring the company to explain how it will deal with climate change. And it is not an isolated example brought low by mismanagement. Rather, it is part of an industry in structural decline.
As Michael Liebreich, chairman of the advisory board at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, wrote at the end of last year, 2015 was a terrible year for the coal industry. “Coal companies have been going bankrupt and share prices have been in freefall. The second largest American producer, Alpha Natural Resources, filed for bankruptcy in August. Peabody Coal, the most vocal lobbyist for coal as a vector of international development, saw its stock collapse from $116.10 on December 31, 2014 to $9.32 at the time of writing (in December).”
This astonishing and rapid fall has been triggered by a number of events, including the continuing fall in the cost of renewable energy technologies and the rise of the shale gas industry in the US. Not only did this hit the demand for coal in the US, it also contributed to a fall in oil and gas prices globally that reduced coal demand in other markets such as Europe. A warm winter was the cherry on top of the cake.
But Richard Black, director of the UK-based Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) said that environmental pressures were the biggest contributor to Peabody’s decline. “In many countries, air pollution is now a major concern, governments are becoming more and more concerned about the climate impacts of coal; and now the biggest private company of all has succumbed.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/mikescott/2016/04/14/peabody-bankruptcy-offers-stark-warning-to-oil-and-gas-groups-of-risks-of-ignoring-climate-change/#2b01a8f86d50
Wow! Obama drives down coal company stocks, and Soros buys them on the cheap
By Thomas Lifson
I have always believed that global warming is a gigantic scam, driven by greed and lust for power. Now comes the shocking news, via Steve Milloy writing on Breitbart, that following President Obama’s use of CO2 emissions as a weapon to drive major coal companies near bankruptcy, the ultimate politically connected speculator George Soros is buying up stock in major coal producers on the cheap.
I predicted in this column last week that the left wasn’t going to kill off the coal industry so much as it was going to steal it. That prediction is already becoming true courtesy of billionaire George Soros.
U.S. Securities and Exchange Act filings indicate that Soros has purchased an initial 1 million shares of Peabody Energy and 553,200 shares of Arch Coal, the two largest publicly traded U.S. coal companies. As pointed out last week, both companies have been driven perilously close to bankruptcy by the combination of President Obama’s “war on coal” and inexpensive natural gas brought on by the hydrofracturing revolution.
Under the hypothesis that not even socialists would leave trillions of dollars worth of a perfectly safe and clean energy source in the ground for the sake of the imaginary “climate crisis,” I posited that once the existing coal industry ownership was wiped out by President Obama’s regulatory onslaught, a new politically correct ownership would rehabilitate the fuel by contributing to Democrats.
Enter George Soros, a hardball investor and philanthropist to myriad left-wing causes, including the activist and “clean energy” rent-seeking movements that have helped take down the coal industry. In 2009, for example, Soros announced he would spend $1 billion in “clean energy” technology and create a San Francisco-based advocacy organization called the Climate Policy Initiative.
Less than a year ago the Soros’ Climate Policy Initiative issued a major report concluding that the world could save $1.8 trillion over the next two decades by transitioning away from coal. The report referred to coal reserves as “stranded assets” that were losing value as they were no longer needed.
For now, Soros’s investments are small scale (by his standards), but the reports end with June, so there is no knowing what subsequent investments have been made. These companies own huge reserves of coal that would be worth far more if the jihad against coal ended. If, for instance, the EPA backs away from its latest rules on CO2 emissions.
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2015/08/wow_obama_drives_down_coal_company_stocks_and_soro s_buys_them_on_the_cheap.html
APR 14, 2016 @ 07:26 AM 778 VIEWS
Peabody Bankruptcy Offers Stark Warning To Oil And Gas Groups Of Risks Of Ignoring Climate Change
Mike Scott , CONTRIBUTOR
Phasing out coal in favour of cleaner forms of energy, like natural gas or renewables, is a process which is accelerating around the world
Peabody’s announcement illustrates that investors in fossil fuel companies concerned about how those companies are responding to climate change are right to be worried. And it should persuade oil and gas companies such as ExxonMobil and Chevron that are facing shareholder resolutions on climate change to take them more seriously.
The announcement that Peabody, the world’s largest private sector coal miner, has filed for bankruptcy has sent shockwaves through the fossil fuel industry and it acts as a warning to oil and gas companies – and their investors – about how quickly things can change.
Investors including Calpers, New York City’s pension funds, BNP Paribas Investment Partners and the Church of England are calling on ExxonMobil XOM +0.57%, Chevron CVX +0.09% and seven other energy companies, to disclose the financial risks posed by climate change and climate change policies.
What’s happened in coal is an example of the dangers. Peabody is the 50th coal company to file for bankruptcy since 2012 and a startling example of the industry’s failure to anticipate how future markets might be limited by tighter environmental regulations.
A coal mine owned by Arch Coal, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January 2016. Its rival Peabody Energy filed for Chapter 11 on April 13, 2016. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown, File)
Just five years ago, the company was worth $20 billion – far short of the market capitalisation of ExxonMobil, to be sure, but a cautionary tale nonetheless at a time when investors are pressuring the company to explain how it will deal with climate change. And it is not an isolated example brought low by mismanagement. Rather, it is part of an industry in structural decline.
As Michael Liebreich, chairman of the advisory board at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, wrote at the end of last year, 2015 was a terrible year for the coal industry. “Coal companies have been going bankrupt and share prices have been in freefall. The second largest American producer, Alpha Natural Resources, filed for bankruptcy in August. Peabody Coal, the most vocal lobbyist for coal as a vector of international development, saw its stock collapse from $116.10 on December 31, 2014 to $9.32 at the time of writing (in December).”
This astonishing and rapid fall has been triggered by a number of events, including the continuing fall in the cost of renewable energy technologies and the rise of the shale gas industry in the US. Not only did this hit the demand for coal in the US, it also contributed to a fall in oil and gas prices globally that reduced coal demand in other markets such as Europe. A warm winter was the cherry on top of the cake.
But Richard Black, director of the UK-based Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) said that environmental pressures were the biggest contributor to Peabody’s decline. “In many countries, air pollution is now a major concern, governments are becoming more and more concerned about the climate impacts of coal; and now the biggest private company of all has succumbed.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/mikescott/2016/04/14/peabody-bankruptcy-offers-stark-warning-to-oil-and-gas-groups-of-risks-of-ignoring-climate-change/#2b01a8f86d50