A Federal Energy Regulatory Commission report shows the total available installed generating capacity of coal stood at 257.5 gigawatts (slightly less than renewable energy sources for the first time US history). According to BloombergNEF another 41GW are slated for retirement and a further 105GW of capacity is deemed at risk of closure.

US president Donald Trump has done his utmost to make good on promises to ease restrictions on coal power since taking office and earlier this month the Environmental Protection Agency gave the industry another boost with a new set of rules that make it easy and cheap to comply with what’s left of Obama-era regulations.

But a new report suggest the rewritten Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rules will do little to stem the decline of the industry.

Moody’s Investors Service says while the rules are credit positive for merchant coal generators because the “investments required to comply are minimal,” coal-fired plants will continue to be less economical than natural gas powered generators:

We project natural gas prices to remain within a band of $2.50 per one
million British Thermal Units (MMBtu) to $3.50/MMBtu and more likely on the lower end because of the abundant US supplies of natural gas from shale, along with rapidly increasing associated gas from shale oil production.

Additionally, coal-fired generation faces substitution risk from renewables such as wind, solar and battery storage as technology improvements have dramatically increased their cost competitiveness.

The ACE rule does not mitigate any of these overarching market trends that are creating strong headwinds for merchant coal generators nor does it address the impact of changing consumer preferences which appears to be supportive of using sustainable, lower carbon-emitting generating resources.

Finally, says Moody’s, just like Clean Power Plan (CPP) passed by the Obama administration, the ACE provisions could be legally challenged and eventually repealed.

Under the new agreement with Japan Australia Rare Earths BV (JARE), a joint venture between state-owned Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp (JOGMEC) and Sojitz Corp, Lynas’ principal payments due and the interest charged on the loan will be reduced.

The extension to 2030 to repay $147 million will help the Aussie miner, the only major producer of rare earths outside China, move forward with its 2025 expansion plans.

It would also aid financing the relocation of Lynas’ controversial processing plant from Malaysia to Western Australia, where its Mt Weld mine is located, over the next five years.

“Once the new cracking and leaching plant is operational, the material shipped to Malaysia for processing will not include naturally-occurring radioactive material,” the company said in the statement.

Moving processing of rare earths from Malaysia to Western Australia, is also expected to help the company ramp up its production to 10.5kt of Neodymium and Praseodymium (NdPr) oxide a year in order to meet and profit from the expected demand growth.

The company’s main products, neodymium and praseodymium, are key ingredients in permanent magnets used in electric vehicles, energy efficient consumer devices, and in the aerospace and defence industries.

“Currently, citizens would have to go to a bank to buy government securities, but if they use the blockchain technology, they will be able to subscribe and trade using their mobile phones,” said the CEO of the company. The government has suspended trading its bond in the domestic market in 2017 before the new regulation. The Ministry of Finance has explained that the downturn in the bonds was to avoid increasing government cuts in the domestic market and to prevent the government from capturing the assets of the banks. Experts highlighted that domestic government bonds can stabilize the interest rate. The termination of government bonds has some negative effects. Therefore, it is advisable to trade a fair amount of bonds on a regular basis rather than stopping it. In recent years, commercial banks have placed 20 percent of their total assets in government and central bank bills. The banks have divided USD 6 trillion in a pair of bonds. This led banks to buy central bank bills. According to the Fiscal Framework Statement of 2020 passed by the Parliament last month, the government will not raise as much debt as last year. However, some bonds may be issued to support securities trading and adjustments to local financial markets.

State Secretary D.Davaasuren highlighted the importance of expanding cooperation between Mongolia and the OECD, covering the SME, taxation and infrastructure sectors. Noting that OECD member states support the development of cooperation with Mongolia, Mr. William Tompson expressed interest in further development of cooperation in the improvement of legal environment of business, sustainable infrastructure and climate sectors, exchanging views in this regard.

Within the framework of the ‘Enhancing Competitiveness in Central Asia’ project implemented by the OECD, the work on improving access to finance for micro and SME (MSME) is ongoing. In this regard, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in cooperation with the OED and BPI France organized the ‘Improving access to finance for MSME’ forum on June 27, discussing the policy reforms and further steps to be taken by the Government.

The OECD also introduced the ‘Enhancing Competitiveness in Central Asia’ survey report on June 26 in cooperation with the Ministry of Road and Transport Development.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said it identified the "potential risk" during simulator tests, but did not reveal specific details.

Boeing's top-selling aircraft was grounded in March after two crashes.

The company is upgrading the aircraft's anti-stall software, which is the focus of crash investigators.

In a tweet, the FAA said: "On the most recent issue, the FAA's process is designed to discover and highlight potential risks. The FAA recently found a potential risk that Boeing must mitigate."

Last month, the FAA indicated that approval of Boeing's changes to the 737 Max could come in late June. That would have allowed test flights in early July.

There were initial hopes among airlines that the 737 Max would be back in the air during the summer, but that timetable was pushed back to late this year even before the latest news.

Reuters, which first reported the new issue, said during an FAA pilot simulation in which the stall-prevention system was activated, it took longer than expected to recover the aircraft.

Other sources said the problem was linked to the aircraft's computing power and whether the processor lacked enough capacity to keep up.

Boeing said "we are working closely with the FAA to safely return the Max to service" and that it believed a software fix would address the problem.

But the FAA will be looking into whether it is a hardware issue.

If regulators are unsatisfied with the software fix, the microprocessor unit would have to be replaced and the grounding could stretch on for months longer than previously thought.

The loss of Ethiopian flight ET302 in March was the second fatal accident involving a 737 Max in the space of five months. A near identical aircraft, owned by the Indonesian carrier Lion Air, went down in the sea off Jakarta in October 2018.

Preliminary reports into both accidents have suggested that they were triggered by a flight control system deploying at the wrong time, due to a faulty sensor.

The FAA has been criticised for its lack of oversight and the certification process that cleared the Max to fly.

Earlier this month, Captain Chesley Sullenberger, whose landing of a crippled aircraft on New York's Hudson River was turned into a Hollywood film, told a Congressional hearing into the 737 Max that the "crashes are demonstrable evidence that our current system of design and certification has failed us".

According to the latest report by the Energy Information Administration (EIA), clean energy sources supplied more of the US’s electricity than coal in April this year than ever before.

EIA’s Monthly Energy Review
The breakthrough reflects the declining cost of solar and wind and also heightened environmental concerns about coal.

Some of it is also because of seasonal issues, such as planned shut downs for some coal plants due to maintenance. In spring, demand for electricity is low and the season also tends to be a strong period for hydro and wind power.

Since peaking in 2008, US coal consumption has plunged 39% to the lowest level in 40 years, despite President Donald Trump’s promises to prop up the industry by revoking or lightening up environmental rules.

The country’s renewable energy sector proved to have slightly more installed capacity than coal, which means that US power plants were able produce more energy from clean sources than the fossil fuel in April, for the first time in history.

A Federal Energy Regulatory Commission report shows the total available installed generating capacity of coal stood at 257.48 gigawatts two months ago. Renewable energy — including not just solar and wind but also water, biomass and geothermal steam — narrowly overtook coal by climbing to 257.53 gigawatts of installed capacity that month.

The US coal industry continues to decline despite President Donald Trump’s promises to restore it to its former glory by gutting environmental rules.
Despite the numbers, renewables aren’t expected to overtake coal on an annual basis for several years.

Analysts at Global Risk Insights note that coal continues to be the US’s leading source of carbon emissions that contribute to climate change and the effects coal pollution are estimated to kill about 7,500 Americans every year.

The pace of the change, however, is picking up — it was only three years ago when coal was first surpassed by natural gas as the US’ main power source.

“We are strongly interested in the development of transit volumes via Mongolia”, RZD’s CEO Oleg Belozerov said during recent Russian-Mongolian negotiations. According to him, both parties should develop a common action plan for improving the infrastructure of Ulaanbaatar Railway, a joint venture of Russia and Mongolia that operates the rail network in the Asian country.

Measures
For its part, Russian Railways has already approved the priority measures for modernisation and development of the Mongolian network by 2030. It includes tracks upgrades and the delivery of new freight locomotives. The chairman also mentioned that a new railway crossing is being planned on the Mongolian-Chinese border. This will facilitate container traffic from/to China.

Moreover, Russia is discussing with the neighbouring country the possibility to transport Mongolian coal to the seaports of the Russian Far East. Last year, the parties already signed a cooperation agreement on this matter. RZD has developed attractive rates for rail transportation of coal from Mongolia to Russia.

Transit options Mongolia
Mongolia joined the New Silk Road in 2016 when Russia and China agreed to establish a freight corridor via this country. Now, several container trains from China to Russia and Europe transit through the country. The Russian city of Ekaterinburg has two rail freight links with China via Mongolia. Far East Land Bridge (FELB), a subsidiary of RZD Logistics, also provides a container service from Changsha to Dobra, Slovakia, running through Mongolia.

Moreover, Belarus has a direct freight train to Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia. Last year, Ulaanbaatar Railway carried 25.7 million tonnes of cargo. It was a historical figure that showed a growth of 13 per cent compared to 2017. The transit freight volumes running via Mongolia increased by 9 per cent and reached 3.37 million tonnes.

The service is part of a project called "The Belt and Road (B&R)-Brightness Trip" which was officially launched here on Wednesday.

"Mongolia and China are longstanding close and friendly neighbors. I am happy that many Mongolian citizens have regained their sight thanks to the project co-implemented by red cross societies of the two countries," Nyamaa Enkbold, president of the MRCS and defense minister of Mongolia, said at the launching ceremony of the project.

He expressed his heart-felt thanks to the Chinese side.

The Brightness Trip project with the aim to help Mongolians who are suffering from cataract to regain their sight is part of the celebration of the 70th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and Mongolia.

"For many years, the Red Cross Society of China (RCSC) has maintained friendly exchanges and close cooperation with the MRCS," Liang Huiling, standing vice president of the RCSC, said at the launching ceremony.

"Especially, the Red Cross Society of China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region has conducted fruitful cooperation with MRCS in many areas such as disaster relief and HIV/AIDS prevention thanks to the autonomous region's geographical and cultural advantages," Liang said.

Liang noted that the project would target a total of 1,000 Mongolian patients in the next five years.

Cataract is a common degenerative eye disease, usually affecting people aged over 60. Clouding of eye lens leads to vision impairment or loss.

About 1.5 percent of Mongolia's 3.2 million people have vision loss and cataract is the most common cause of their vision loss, according to the country's Health Ministry.