The above picture is 110 aluminum train cars carrying 114 tons of coal each. Where is it going and why is it going there? Well one has to understand the markings on the car, and the track that it is on. This particular load is going to Pennsylvania. Power Generation companies often if large either own or lease their own cars. BNSF simply delivers them. You can tell where the coal is going by what track it is on and the car markings. For example (this is old and I use it on purpose because they do not exist anymore) TXU 5901. That marking on a car means it was either owned by or leased to Texas Utilities car number 5901. Think on that, in its hey day TXU had under lease, 14,000 cars, and another 22,000 under lease. Contemplate that 36,000 cars that hold 114 tons of coal each. That is a lot of black bottom.
A fellow by the name of T. Boone Pickens, some may remember him, along with a gal you all know (Nancy Pelosi) decided that Texas should have wind power. He jumped on the band wagon of wind when almost no one else was even thinking about it. It worked, he made millions. Most of his early wind farms are either dead or in dire straights. Wind is expensive to fix when it reaches age. T. Boone’s epiphany (grifting) made him and Nancey very rich. He did the same thing with Nat Gas too, and killed every coal plant in Texas. FACT. TXU does not exist anymore, Big Brown Steam Electric, an Iconic Texas plant does not exist anymore, where its workers went who knows.
This is not a dig at Texas Gas, you all do a wonderful job making up for the short falls of that really short sighted policy that Texas took. If Big Brown and a couple of her sisters were still on line, chugging Powder River Basin Coal, your ERCOT would not be having the issues it is.
Be careful when two clowns in the political world try to sell you a bag of pixie dust and unicorn farts.
The black stuff, coal, oil and gas is and are what makes your life work. CO2 is not the enemy, in fact it is a source of life.
How much is a barrel of oil worth, well I have an old graphic.
The only difference between oil and coal are how we package it, and how we use it. Oil has the great ability to be chemically stripped and used for more things then coal. That is changing however.
All fossil hate is the hate of energy that gives us the lives we have. Period.
Thanks for reading. Spud.
Thank you Richard. More of us need to expose the self interests of politicians being put above the Best interests of the country. Your story is helpful
Thank you for these common sense quick reviews!