West Virginia Energy Vendors Association

08/03/2026

07/07/2026

Check out my new post! Twenty-six weeks into 2026, the single most important number in this issue is not a production figure — it is $3.33. That is where Henry Hub natural gas closed Week 26, up 47.35% year-on-year, and it is the number that has finally put CAPP coal back on the right side of the dispatch ledger for the first time in this publication's tracking window. Every domestic thermal basin this report follows — CAPP, NAPP, ILB, PRB — now prices below gas on a heat-equivalent basis. That is not a small thing. It is the difference between a fuel-switchable utility choosing gas and choosing coal in a real-time dispatch decision, and it has been the single biggest missing ingredient in this market's recovery story all year.

The honest caveat belongs in the same sentence as the good news: Henry Hub's spike is substantially geopolitical, tied to the same Middle East disruption that pushed Newcastle and ARA to multi-year highs. This week's interim U.S.-Iran agreement, reopening the Strait of Hormuz and lifting Iranian oil sanctions, is already unwinding the international side of that premium — Newcastle fell 10% in a single week. If domestic gas supply normalizes on a similar timeline, CAPP could find itself back above gas within a quarter, exactly where it sat in May. Producers and marketers should treat the current window as an opportunity to move tons and lock in favorable term positions, not as a permanent repricing of the coal-versus-gas relationship.

A Publication of The Hedley Company | Charleston, W.Va.

07/02/2026

From All of Us to All of You, Happy Independence Day 250!

06/28/2026

Coal Plays a Vital Role in Everyone's Life (Whether You Know it or Not..._)

06/22/2026

China’s electrochemical system converts coal into electricity with no direct carbon emission
https://interestingengineering.com/energy/chinas-converts-coal-into-electricity?fbclid=IwY2xjawSlb1hleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEeBAqN1lpGIgcC-F3QktggDhYAzPpmfRinaM1BYfZALDoKBIgvWSy1DQ1AVhc_aem_iLvvCj-f1Uw8dwWRXxlw8Q

Chinese researchers have developed a coal-based fuel cell that generates electricity through an electrochemical process rather than combustion.

06/18/2026

Tell the PSC: Protect West Virginia Coal, Jobs, and Ratepayers
https://mailer.brickswithoutstraw.com/w/LVsVYEe0ssIfwfmJ9bgc1Q

06/04/2026

WV Coal Association Applauds Pres. Trump, U.S. DOE Announcement of Funding for New WV Coal-Fired Power Plant.

A unified, nonprofit voice for West Virginia’s coal industry—advocating safety, sustainability, jobs, and energy reliability while informing policymakers and the public.