Top News
A future for America's 'very, very good coal'
With Donald Trump in the White House and a Republican majority in Congress, the political environment on the surface would appear to be ripe for a new fleet of coal-fired power plants to find support. But if a proposed coal-fired power plant were to beat the odds stacked against it by market conditions and technological hurdles, it still could face a steep climb.
MLP sector 'not as good as it used to be,' but researcher has room for optimism
At a time when energy pipeline master limited partnerships' corporate structure faces more questions than ever, a sector researcher said she remains optimistic that MLPs will continue to provide value for investors even if more partnerships choose to become corporations.
Blackhawk CFO sees M&A potential for metallurgical coal space in 2018
S&P Global Market Intelligence talked to Blackhawk Mining LLC CFO Jesse Parrish about the strategy the company used to survive rough coal markets and what that plan looks like going forward.
Power
* NRG Energy Inc. agreed to sell its interests in NRG Yield Inc. and its renewables platform to Global Infrastructure Partners for cash proceeds of $1.38 billion, subject to certain adjustments.
* State regulators on Feb. 6 approved an agreement between Mississippi Power Co.
* S&P Global Ratings revised its outlook on ALLETE Inc.
* TerraForm Power Inc. launched a voluntary tender offer to acquire 100% of the outstanding shares of Saeta Yield SA, a European owner and operator of wind and solar assets.
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* Maui Electric Co. Ltd. agreed to buy electricity from Molokai New Energy Partners' planned 2.7-MW grid-scale solar and battery energy storage facility. The agreement is still subject to the approval of the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission.
* Spirits and wine producer Brown-Forman Corp. has agreed to purchase 30 MW of electricity annually from Infinity Renewables LLC's planned 474-MW Solomon Forks Wind Facility wind project in Kansas.
* The Ocean City, Md., Town Council voted to reject the construction of offshore wind farms that would be visible along its 10 miles of coastline, The Daily Times of Salisbury, Md., reported.
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Natural gas/Oil
* A federal appeals court rejected motions by environmental groups to stay work on the 301-mile, 2-Bcf/d Mountain Valley Pipeline while the court considers their litigation over the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's certificate order authorizing the natural gas project in West Virginia and Virginia.
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* Production growth, lower operating costs and higher oil prices worked to more than double BP Plc's profit to $6.2 billion in 2017, helping the company to resume share buybacks as the industry rebounds from low oil prices since 2014.
* Halliburton Co. is asking the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to cancel some of Schlumberger Ltd.'s patents on hydraulic fracturing because they are just repacked old ideas, Bloomberg News reported.
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* Halcón Resources Corp. expects gross proceeds of $55.2 million from a public offering of 8,000,000 common shares.
Coal
* Pennsylvania-based CONSOL Coal Resources LP told investors that it is finding opportunities and upside potential in both domestic and export coal markets.
* A coal sector focused on tax cuts and changes to safety and environmental regulations in West Virginia has the ear of key players ready to move the industry's agenda forward in 2018.
* Harvard University aims to be fossil fuel-neutral by 2026 and be fossil fuel-free by 2050 under its new climate action plan.
* The Colorado Supreme Court ruled that cities can be held responsible for cleaning up coal-tar contamination from coal gasification plants, The Denver Post reported.
* Arch Coal Inc. temporarily idled its Sentinel mine in Barbour County, W.Va., after a miner was killed, The Associated Press reported.
* Wyoming Rep. Rep. Dan Zwonitzer has proposed a legislation to increase the tax on Wyoming coal if the Congress allows the abandoned mine land fees to expire in 2021, according to the Casper (Wyo.) Star-Tribune.
Commodities
* Next-day power values could climb Wednesday, Feb. 7, as traders look to generally supportive demand projections for the latter part of the workweek.
* Following a 1.2-cent uptick in the prior session, NYMEX March natural gas futures were near unchanged overnight ahead of the Wednesday, Feb. 7, open, as technical buying collided with fundamental pressure.
* The federal government is bullish on the U.S. natural gas market even as it anticipates domestic natural gas production growth will outpace that of domestic demand.
* The U.S. Energy Information Administration expects coal's share of the nation's power will decline through 2019 to 28.8%, but the latest projections represent an improvement over last month's forecast.

New from RRA
* The Florida Public Service Commission on Feb. 6 approved
Quoted
"At some point you have to look at the world/data instead of your map/model," said Michael Wara, director of the Climate and Energy Policy Program at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, tweeting his response to the release of the Annual Energy Outlook from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
The day ahead
* The following companies will hold their earnings conference calls: Exelon Corp. and Xcel Energy Inc. at 10 a.m. ET, Peabody Energy Corp. at 11 a.m. ET, MDU Resources Group Inc. at 2 p.m. ET, and Tesla Inc. at 5:30 p.m. ET.
* Early morning futures indicators pointed to a lower opening for the U.S. equity markets. To view more SNL equity market indexes, click here. To view more SNL Energy commodities prices, click here.
The Daily Dose is updated as of 7:30 a.m. ET. Some links may require registration or a subscription. S&P Global Ratings and S&P Global Market Intelligence are owned by S&P Global Inc.
