After the coal rush

Spiking global prices of coal should make energy experts rethink the wisdom of depending on it for long-term fueling of electricity plants.

When natural gas prices soared in recent years, long-range planners for American utilities increasingly turned to coal-fired plants as the most economic way to address rising consumer demand for electricity. Because the U.S. has extensive deposits of coal, it was also touted as one way to help achieve domestic energy independence from foreign sources.

As a result, dozens of new coal plants are on drawing boards around the country. Unfortunately, the cheap coal they are premised on may be going the way of inexpensive oil and gas.


The same insatiable appetite in the exploding Chinese economy that has driven oil and gas prices upward is also rapidly inflating the cost of the newest black gold. As the Wall Street Journal reported this week, the cost of a metric ton of coal on the Asian market has risen from $40 less than two years ago to more than $120 as former coal exporter China is now buying supplies on the international market. Since 40 percent of worldwide electricity generation comes from coal, the added costs are one more major strain on the global economy.

Coal is by far the dirtiest of the fossil fuels. When it is incinerated the process creates copious amounts of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas blamed for the global warming phenomenon that causes rising temperatures and sea levels.

Houston Chronicle