Alliance Resource Partners’ earnings fell in the first quarter, failing to meet its expectations, as a mild winter and a slow U.S. economy combined to delay coal deliveries and drive up inventories at its operations by more than 575,000 tons. But, Joseph Craft III, longtime president and CEO of the Tulsa, Okla.-based company, still believes Alliance has an opportunity to make 2012 its 12th straight year of record earnings. “We expect to reduce our inventory over the balance of the year,” he told coal analysts during an April 30 conference call. “We hope 2012 will be another record year for ALRP.”

This could be a watershed year for the long-delayed FutureGen near-zero emissions coal-fired power project proposed for Illinois, as developers are expected to find out by year’s end if the plant’s 166-mw output will be included in an upcoming Illinois Power Agency solicitation.