Report says coal use, production trending downward
A report released recently casts a dark outlook on coal.
The Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, using data from the Energy Information Administration, says that coal production and use have been sliding in the United States and predicts that both figures are expected to decline even more in 2024.
The IEEFA report says coal use at U.S. power plants has been down in 2023 and fallen below 20% market share for the year, with low levels of usage expected into the new year. Until 2020, coal’s market share for power plants had never been less than 20% in any month. Results of the study were reported last month in the weekly newsletter compiled by the Center for Energy Policy & Management at Washington & Jefferson College.
The IEEFA report said a “temporary reprieve” in declining production had ended, as natural gas prices that were high in 2022 have fallen, causing operators to use that fuel, resulting in lower domestic demand for gas.
U.S. coal use, according to IEEFA, plummeted from about 2.8 million tons a day in 2008 to about 1.1 million tons a day this year – a 62% decrease.
Gaming revenue
Total revenue generated from all forms of gaming, along with fantasy contests, in November fell 1.74% from November 2022, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board reported Dec. 9.
The combined total revenue in November was $444,473,505, a decrease of 1.74% from a year earlier.
Sources of gaming revenue regulated by the PGCB include slot machines, table games, internet gaming, sports wagering, fantasy contests and video gaming terminals.
Revenue at Hollywood Casino at the Meadows, in North Strabane Township, was $21,612,474 in November, a 16.9% drop from $26,980,169 a year earlier. Total revenue at the Casino at Nemacolin, on the contrary, rose 31.97% over the year from 1,457,519 in November 2022 to 1,923,502.
For more information, visit gamingcontrolboard.pa.gov.
Climate funding
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Department of Energy and the National Energy Technology Laboratory recently announced a conditional commitment of $350 million in formula grant funding, to go to 14 state agencies to help measure and cut methane emissions from the oil and gas sector.
The funding, created through President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, will help states support industry efforts to cut methane emissions from wells on non-federal lands and support environmental restoration of well sites.
Those 14 agencies received conditional funding commitments based on a participating state’s proportion of the total number of low-producing conventional wells in participating states on non-federal lands.
The agencies include: Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, $44,457,220; West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, $37,791,464; and Ohio Department of Natural Resources, $19,941,597.
AHN I
Ewurama Sackey, MD, has joined Allegheny Health Network as medical director for the Maternal-Infant Mental Health program, which operates within the Women’s Behavioral Health program.
The goal of the program is to help parents with children who are newborn to age 5 work on parent-specific challenges, such as attachment and bonding, or child-specific challenges like managing behavioral issues, developmental delays and concerns and early exposure to trauma.
Sackey is a psychiatrist with clinical expertise in child and adolescent psychiatry and parent-child mental health. She joins AHN following a child and adolescent fellowship program at the University of California Los Angeles. She had previously completed a residency in General Adult Psychiatry at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, where she also was chief resident.
AHN II
The Division of Geriatrics, part of Allegheny Health Network’s Primary Care Institute, and the AHN Nursing Institute announced that the system’s Hospital Elder Life Program has been awarded “Center of Excellence” status by the American Geriatrics Society.
Only seven sites nationwide achieved the COE designation, out of about 200 programs implemented across in the U.S. and abroad.
AHN has expanded the program across the network, launching it at West Penn Hospital before expanding to Allegheny General Hospital.
84 Lumber
Nick Nickells and Kathy Silver are the end-of-the-year Team Headquarters Award winners at 84 Lumber.
Nickells, pricing manager/manufacturing, was presented the Business Excellence Award, which goes to an associate who has demonstrated leadership skills, achievement, growth and success. He is a 22-year employee who was promoted to his current position in 2014.
Silver, phone receptionist/mailroom, received the Rising Star Award, which honors an associate to watch. She joined the North Strabane-based company in February 2021 and, according to a news release, “has become a great asset, bringing stability and quality to her department.”
84 Lumber, the largest privately held building materials supplier in the United States, started this awards program in 2022 to recognize associates twice a year in these two categories.