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IEEFA Energy Finance 2016: Fast-Moving Markets Signal More Change Ahead

March 14, 2016
Sandy Buchanan

Energy markets are changing so fast these days that they bring an inundation of fresh headlines.

Peabody Energy, the world’s largest private sector coal company, is said to be teetering on the precipice of bankruptcy, a development of hugely symbolic importance;

China continues its trend toward less reliance on coal, further weakening global coal markets;

Arch Coal cancels its mammoth Otter Creek mine project in Montana, an indication that the dream of a U.S. West Coast coal export boom is dead;

Institutional investor funds whose managers have chosen unwisely to cling to coal holdings continue to lose money on those investments;

India doubles its tax on coal for the third time in five years, a move that adds some momentum to its electricity-generation transformation;

Coal is the commonality in all these developments, and indeed the coal industry—the decline of the coal industry, that is—is making news as never before. It’s a story we’re exploring broadly and in depth this year at Energy Finance 2016, our sixth annual conference in New York City.

We’ll also be getting in-depth into the rise of renewables, the battle to control distribution of solar energy, the politics of oil, the role of public campaigns in energy-development policy, the overbuilding of natural gas pipelines in the U.S., the movement toward divesture … and much more.

We’ll be posting frequent conference updates in our commentary section here and in our news feed to the right.

Please read along us as our in-house and visiting experts make some energy news of their own this week.

Sandy Buchanan is IEEFA’s executive director.

[Full agenda with bios: IEEFA Energy Finance 2016]

[More here]

Sandy Buchanan

Sandy Buchanan is IEEFA’s Chief Executive Officer, with responsibility for overseeing all aspects of the organization. She has worked over 30 years on a variety of energy issues including coal, nuclear, utilities, renewables, and energy efficiency. Buchanan chairs the board of IEEFA Australia Ltd., the organization's affiliate not-for-profit corporation.

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